No Prayer Zone

I've gotten some feedback from my National Day of Prayer story of April 28 ("Day to Pray"), and most of it has been surprisingly positive. One of the story's main premises was how difficult it can be to delineate between the Day of Prayer -- an interfaith day sanctioned by the government -- and the uber-visible Day of Prayer Task Force, which is uncompromisingly Christian and, frankly, leans to the right. Most readers, it seems, got it.

But even the interfaith Day of Prayer isn't completely inclusionary. A pretty significant swath of America -- maybe five percent of the population -- doesn't believe there's anyone or anything to pray to.

Freethinkers (think atheists, agnostics et al) instead observe the "National Day of Reason" on May 3. National organizers say that the Day of Reason is held, in part, to draw attention to what they believe is the increasingly flimsy wall between church and state. But it's also intended to encourage freethinkers to be "visible and active" in a community-building sort of way. For instance, Colorado Springs freethinkers are sponsoring a blood drive May 3. Memorial Hospital is the primary local site, according to local freethinker Rebecca Hale. The blood drive runs from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and the hospital would like for folks to call and make appointments before going in.