[PresbyRev]

Why should he command or request any religious activity in his role as President?

I don't want a Buddhist or Muslim president telling me to pray or meditate or go on jihad. Do you need the most visible official of the state giving you religious instructions? I don't.

[pkp1184]

Bush is not trying to be some Grand Ayatollah. He just said pray. You have the right to close your ears and hum just as much as he has a right to say what he said.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

It is a longstanding tradition in this country for presidents to call for prayer that dates back to the beginning of this country. It's never been done as a requirement, but as a request for those so inclined.

One of the things causing grief in this country is the demand that the feelings of large segments of society be ignored. One can only do this so often before the keg catches sparks...

[LaineyDee]

Why should he command or request any religious activity in his role as President?

He was offering an expression of comfort and unity for a horrible situation. And you're offering strife and nit-picking? This is not an unusual situation for our leaders ....in a time of crisis....ANY crisis. What country are you from?

[Delphinium]

FROM http://www.nationaldayofprayer.org/prayer05.php:

As our nation looked for a president to guide this new land, they unanimously chose GEORGE WASHINGTON. As President, he spent time on his knees in prayer twice a day. At 4:00 each morning and again at 9:00 each evening, he would go to his library, fall to his knees before a chair as he prayed before an open Bible.

In his First Inaugural Address, Washington "went further than he had ever gone before in stressing the role of God in the birth of our nation. Speaking with deep gravity, these were his words:

It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being, who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States…No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States…"

It was Washington who in 1789 issued the first presidential proclamation for prayer as he proclaimed a National Day of Thanksgiving stating:

"It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and to humbly implore His protection and favor...