Washington, DC - June 6, 2007 - The Secular Coalition for America believes that Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-SC) proposal to declare today a National Day of Prayer for U.S. military personnel will further perpetuate the myth that the people who risk their lives in service to our nation uniformly share his religion.
DeMint has proposed that a prayer with references to God and Lord be read aloud in Congress every June 6. By proposing this, DeMint falsely assumes that all military personnel and their families believe in a god. DeMint did not take into consideration that almost one fifth of the military are nontheists.*
"The Secular Coalition for America is appalled that Congress would only consider thanking those military personnel who believe in a god. If Senator DeMint really wanted Congress to set aside a day to thank our troops, he would have just suggested that, not a religious exercise," said Secular Coalition for America Director Lori Lipman Brown.
"Approximately 280,000 troops declare themselves military atheists. Therefore, this resolution ignores approximately 20 percent of the patriotic military personnel who defend our country every day."
Every person who serves our nation deserves our thanks.
Link HERE
*Statistics obtained from The Population Reference Bureau, an independent, private data analysis agency. View study here
