Theo Bromine, an occasional commenter on this blog, is apparently more active in humanist circles than I’d realized. She serves presently as President of the Humanist Association of Ottawa, and is apparently making some tangible inroads with the government’s nonsensical National Prayer Breakfast — Canada’s answer to the American National Day of Prayer. She sent along the following information, which I am more than happy to post for the benefit of those who are interested:
As you may know, the Canadian Religious Right Wannabees are holding the Canadian version of the Prayer Breakfast this week. It is sponsored by the “Canadian Fellowship Foundation” (which is not directly or officially linked to the US-based Fellowship Foundation, aka “The Family”, but it’s hard to believe that the similarity of names is a co-incidence). Members of the Canadian Secular Alliance, and the Humanist Association of Ottawa will be attending this event.
The National Prayer Breakfast, as described by its sponsors is:
an annual ecumenical event, where men and women from differing backgrounds gather together with our elected public officials to pray in the spirit of Jesus Christ for Canada. The Prayer Breakfast has been faithfully attended since 1964. In fact, except for 1968 when an federal election caused the Breakfast to be canceled, the National Prayer Breakfast is the single longest continuous event held annually on Parliament Hill. The first National Prayer Breakfast was held in Ottawa in June of 1964.
(See http://www.canadaprayerbreakfast.ca/ for more information)
CSA and HAO think that someone’s definition of “men and women from differing backgrounds” needs expanding, and we requested (and received, somewhat to our surprise) invitations to pay $40 for breakfast and/or $50 for dinner the night before. Everyone is invited to follow our live coverage of the dinner (starting at 6:30 pm EDT, Monday 10 May) and breakfast (starting at 7:30 am EDT, Tuesday, 11 May), here: http://humanistottawa.com/nationalprayer.php
Emphasis mine, because I couldn’t agree more. People who believe that praying to Jesus Christ will actually change anything about your country’s course are, in my estimation, far less than a majority. Consider not only that there are a great many non-Christians, there are also Christians that believe prayer is for showing fealty rather than imploring that change be enacted. And with the broad sampling they purport to have of the Canadian populace in attendance, it’s only right that non-theists — skeptics, humanists and atheists alike — see some representation in these proceedings where our elected officials are taking active part.
I won’t mince words, folks. Prayer does nothing but waste time and give you the false sense of absolution of any responsibility for the situations you are in. It gives only false hope where going out and doing something with your hands aside from clasping them in prayer might actually achieve something great instead. Be the change you want to see. Don’t pray for it.
I had to check to see if this was in fact some belated April fools joke. Am I seriously paying my MPs mortgage so that he can go to a breakfast sponsored by some WWJD, Rapture-ready, influence peddling Jesus freaks? I hope every one of the MPs who attend this breakfast are also attending all the other “imaginary friend” luncheons, as not to show any bias. Better yet, how about not attending a “Prayer Breakfast” at all? Is there any way we can get a list of those MPs attending the breakfast? I am sure our current PM will be there with bells on, but if mine is there, he can guarantee that he will lose my vote.
What a God-damned waste of time. If you want to talk to your imaginary friend at the breakfast table before inhaling your pancakes down at the IHOP on your own time- and only in your capacity as a logically-retarded Christ-zombie- then be my guest. Attending an event like this acting in your capacity as a representative of Canada’s government is insulting and contrary to the very fabric of our national identity.
How could any MP support this. Dumb-founding……….plain dumb-founding.
Theo is pretty awesome, I have to say.
This event is pretty scary, but what freaks me out more is the lack of knowledge about it’s existence. The more attention that is drawn to it, the more likely that more people will start to have a problem with religious infiltration of the government.
If any of you want to stay engaged, also check out the HAO Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/humanistottawa
Tony (also an HAO board member)
I think what bothers me the most about the whole thing is the explicit mention of Jesus. It’s like the Colbert line… how did that go? “I believe there are infinite paths to accepting Jesus Christ as your personal saviour”? Very obviously NOT pluralistic. Despite their pretenses.
I agree Jason, that is what bothers me most too. I may be a little more understanding of an inter-faith breakfast. I still do not fully agree with anyone going to a function like this in their capacity as a parliamentarian. There are too many conflicts of interest at play.
Are the MPs going to get policy advice at this function?
Even if they are not, are they giving the appearance of influence to an organization whose primary motive is to part a fool and his money?
Secular religious functions would be nice, but not having any religious lobbying on parliament hill would be better.
God is not a lobby group.