Today is the National Day of Prayer. I think that pretty much says all you need to know. But not according to our local media. Take The Herald-Sun for example. Here’s how their story began:
Prayer. It’s a pillar of faith.
There are as many ways to pray as there are prayers.
It can be done facing Mecca. Or kneeling at an altar. Or sitting in a pew. Or at the dinner table. Or walking in the woods. Prayers can be loud or silent. Said in groups or alone.
Well, no kidding. It can also be done in a bathtub or in a foxhole. Don’t we already know this? How else, though, without this Dick-and-Jane primer, are we going to get the manatory Islamic reference early in the story? The Herald-Sun also felt the need to point out that one minister they referenced was part of the “religious right.”
The News & Observer‘s list of Day of Prayer events began with this warning:
The prayer services generally are open to anyone who wishes to attend. Many have a Christian focus.
They then scratched their diversity itch by incongruously pointing out what atheists could do on the National Day of Prayer. This was in the print edition and did not make its way onto The N&O‘s Web site, possibly because someone realized how absurd it looked, sort of like writing a story on events surrounding Yom Kippur and, at the end of the story, telling Christians about things they can do while observant Jews are fasting and praying.
