Let's keep our prayers private

We have been informed that National Day of Prayer activities were held across the U.S. on May 7, but Evangelical leaders criticized President Obama for not holding a White House prayer event on that day. The president did issue a Day of Prayer proclamation, but a spokesman said that "privately he'll pray as he does every day." I am completely supportive of the president's actions.

The National Day of Prayer is essentially a Christian day, and the prayers spoken throughout the country on that day generally refer to "God" and also to Jesus Christ as our savior. I have attended many National Day of Prayer events, and I have not once heard any references to Allah, the god of Islam, or to any of the Hindu gods or those of the Buddhists, and I also know that Jews do not recognize Jesus as our savior. We are a very diverse community comprised of multiple religions, and also apparently 15 percent of our population are nonbelievers. I agree with President Obama that we should each privately pray, but we do not need to have the president of all of us pray at a public event staged at the White House, and he has refused to do that. Let us pray and honor our gods, whoever they may be, in our homes and in our churches, but let us keep the practice of our faith out of the public square.

Theodore M. Utchen

Wheaton