April 30, 2008

National Day of Prayer Update

This Crosstalk is a follow up to Monday's program concerning the prayer that has been written for the National Day of Prayer.

To summarize: Recently a listener notified VCY America concerning the official 2008 prayer for the National Day of Prayer, a prayer that was set to be read by Ravi Zacharias at two government sponsored events. This prayer was written by Ravi Zacharias with permission of the National Day of Prayer Task Force in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The difficulty stems from the fact that the prayer that the listener saw had no reference to Jesus.

The response from the National Day of Prayer Task Force indicated that the reason the name of Christ was missing was for fear of offending Jews who were participating in this event.

Upon contacting Ravi Zacharias Ministries, Vic Eliason was told that the prayer was constructed under the guidelines that had been mandated by the National Day of Prayer and its director, Shirley Dobson.

As the National Day of Prayer Task Force has sought to do damage control, various emails are being sent out by staffers which seem to contradict each other. Vic noted that some people are receiving misleading emails that imply that the prayer will be given in the name of Jesus. Vic read one such e-mail from the coordinator of network administration for the National Day of Prayer. Yet the official Prayer remains Jesus-free on their website.

As of yesterday, Ravi Zacharias Ministries continued to stand by their original statement that this is a government event, and as such, they have to comply with the requirements from the National Day of Prayer Task Force, omitting Jesus' name at both the White House and Cannon House office building events tomorrow, May 1st. Only tomorrow's prayer at approximately 1:40 pm Eastern time by Dr. Zacharias, which is being carried by live webcast at the National Day of Prayer Website, will reveal the truth about Ravi's final decision.

More Information

National Day of Prayer Task Force:
Phone: (719) 531-3379 or (800) 444-8828
Email: correspondence@nationaldayofprayer.org