Across the ocean, in the USA, a judge ruled that The National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional. Judge Barbara Crabb motivated her decision by saying that “In fact, it is because the nature of prayer is so personal and can have such a powerful effect on a community that the government may not use its authority to try to influence an individual's decision whether and when to pray”.
The same day, across the other side of the world (literarily) two Romanian MPs have proposed a National Day of Prayer based on other reasons than religious. Senator Gheorghe David and Mircea Lubanovici have asked for the amendment of the Labor Code, in order to fit the new proposal. Obviously, having a day off in order to pray for more money from I.M.F., decrease of the national debt, unemployment skyrocketing rate seems like a reasonable thing to do. Only a super natural power might save this country from disaster and generalized corruption.
We are not here to discuss the benefits of the prayer itself, as regardless of religion many think that some sort of organized incantation or invocation of a supreme power can be uplifting and increase morale (subject expectancy effect). Yet, this should not be done nationally and supported legally and each individual should be theoretically free to choose the time and place to do it.
Although a day off is nice and the procrastinator in me would normally welcome it, I am, however, too outraged to let this one go. The folk wisdom says, if you are not outraged you are not paying enough attention. So here is the deal. The new legal proposal basically relies on the same anti-constitutionality framework that made the American judge declare it as unconstitutional (please see Article 9, Law 489/2006 which states that “There is no state religion in Romania; the State is therefore neutral of any religious belief or atheistic ideology; 2) The Cults are equal before the law and the public authorities. The State and its authorities will not promote or favor or create discriminations towards any particular cult.
So, what is particularly wrong with this proposal let aside it is anti-legal? Well, for starters the prayer itself is the expression of a religious belief, and the religious belief is a personal choice. To offer a national day off would show clear favor to a religious majority. If that is the case, then it should equally be offered the opportunities for days off like: the Coca Cola Abstinence Day, The Non Spitting on the Sidewalk Day, The Picking the Feces after your Dog Day, Mourning Day when the soccer team loses, Grape Picking Day, and Non-Thinking Day. Similarly, there should be a day off to celebrate a Free-Thinking Day, in which people should not pray based on the same egalitarian principles of state neutrality.
Let us be clear about it. The believers in Romania should be and are free to go to any church of choice as long as they do that in their spare time, not interfering with other people’s beliefs or non-beliefs for a fact.
This is not an anti-religious plea or even a secular versus religious debate as their dispute stopped being a dialog about primum casus, fallacies, and fissures in both theories and became a generalized ad hominem venomous stoning in the agora.
This is not a debate about god or church. This is a debate about freedom.
If you disagree with the project, you can personally email Gheorghe David and Mircea Lubanovici:
gheorghe.david@senat.ro si mircea.lubanovici@cdep.ro
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