Fox News: American Atheists File Lawsuit Over Prayer Day

Prayer is comming under fire after potential presidential Texas governor Rick Perry released a video inviting people to a prayer event As an elected leader I'am all too aware of government's limitations When it comes to fixing things That are spiritual in nature That's where prayer comes in And we need more than never And even though thousands are planning, various atheist groups joined forces with the freedom from religion foundation to sue governor perry, lets hear from both sides of this controversial issue, David Silverman, the president of american atheists group is leading a protest at the day of prayer And Hiram Sasser Sasser is the legal councel for the american family association group That is organizing the event in Texas Thank you guys for joining me this morning Thanks for having me Hiram I want to start with you This event is not really that unusual in american grand scheme of things American political leaders have held prayer events in the past they've publicly prayed right? Yeah and people pray all the time every president... All the way through except for one is always issued prayer proclamations including such notables as president Truman when he said it was only because of god That we won WWII and he actually said that in the surrender document That he signed from germany in addition you have president Carter quoting scripture And every other president issuing this types of proclamations So this is something that is historically common And probably one of the most american things that we do Well the August 6 prayer rally has been organized to be held at Reliant Stadium in Houston is expected to bring thousands of people there David what is the problem here with governor Perry doing this? Actually it is going to bring tens of thousands of people and ten or hundreds of millions of dollars into the church and it is all because governor perry is publicizing this event from his office via his website and the reason that he is doing this because he's got no plan, no real plan to rescue the state So he is using his cristianity as a smoke screen to distract everybody away from the fact that he has no idea of how to fix the texas' problem So you can't conceive the possibly that this is genuine attempt to reach out to god to help solve america's problems? No this is a political attempt to cover his incopetent butt and while we are telling people why we are protesting is that We are urging cristians to come out and pick it on our side for this event... --But what is the problem with inviting people to this event, people are being invited they are not being forced to come, there is freedom of religion, there is freedom of speech in america Right, and governor Perry has all the rights to pray that he wants but he doesn't have the right to use his office to push a multi million dollar prayer event for a specific church --Hiram what is your reaction to this? Well lets look at the national day of prayer, you have congress passes a specific statued US law that declares a national day of prayer back in 1952 you have every president using all their white house resources to have national day of prayer events to promote the national day of prayer including president Obama continuing that tradition by using his government website there is nothing that governor Perry is doing that is any different than what president Obama is doing and furthermore, one of the things that I don't understand is why when an event is popular somehow that is such a bad thing I think it is great to folks could come together and exercise their first amendment rights of freedom of religion and freedom of speech But this is not freedom of religion or freedom of speech this is a politician using cristianity to cover his own incopetence and we are asking the texas cristians to see through this smoke screen governor Perry has no clue, he's got no idea, he's got no plan so he is saying "oh don't fire me, don't hate me, I'm christian" He is using the church--- "Perry doesn't need this event" Yes he does! Texas is last in education in SATs course, it is in a budget crisis "It is one of the most highest performed..." Guys It's a very strong feelings on this but how wrap up the discussion once again The event, this prayer event, august 6 on Reliant Stadium in Houston There will be a protest outside, as we mention we will be talking about the law sue that governor Perry is facing, thank you gentlemen for joining us this mortning Thank you very much for having us on atheists.org