In 1775, the first national day of prayer was called by the Continental Congress which recommended “a day of public humiliation, fasting, and prayer” be observed on Thursday, July 20. The text was written by John Witherspoon and John Hancock.

In his role as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, George Washington acknowledged a day of “fasting, humiliation and prayer” to held on Thursday, May 6, 1779. As president, Washington called for a national day of prayer and thanksgiving to be observed on Thursday, Nov. 26, 1789.

President John Adams continued the practice of proclaiming national days of prayer in the spring and fall of each year.

Thomas Jefferson refused to follow the custom. He considered prayer to be a matter of personal rather than state involvement: “Fasting and prayer are religious exercises … Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the time of these exercises.”

President James Madison proclaimed a day of prayer in 1813 but later said such proclamations were inappropriate for a nation founded on the separation of church and state.

Andrew Jackson followed Jefferson’s example, refusing to issue a proclamation.

During the most lethal war in American history, Abraham Lincoln signed a Congressional resolution calling for a day of fasting and prayer on March 30, 1863.

At the height of the McCarthy hearings, the Red Scare, and the Cold War, and toward the end of the Korean War, North Carolina’s Billy Graham suggested to his friends in the White House and Congress that a National Day of Prayer be observed throughout the nation. Its purpose, according to Graham, was to help bring “the Lord Jesus Christ” to the nation.

In 1952, the father of the Rev. Pat Robertson, U.S. Senator Absalom Robertson, introduced a bill in the Senate to establish such an event by federal statue, saying that such a day was needed to defend the nation against “the corrosive forces of communism which seek simultaneously to destroy our democratic way of life and the faith in an Almighty God on which it is based.”

A joint resolution to that effect was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Harry Truman on April 17, 1952.

During Ronald Reagan’s first term, a conservative evangelical Christian organization called the “National Prayer Committee” was formed to coordinate and implement a fixed annual day of prayer for the purpose of organizing evangelical Christian prayer events. Its co-chair was Pat Boone.

The 1952 law was amended in 1988 to provide that the National Day of Prayer would be held each year on the first Thursday of May. In the Senate, the amendment was introduced by Strom Thurman (S.C.) and endorsed by North Carolina’s Jesse Helms, among others.

That year also witnessed the formation of a non-governmental privately funded entity which calls itself the National Prayer Day Task Force and has taken upon itself the task of coordinating local, state and federal Prayer Day events throughout the nation.

Since its inception, the National Prayer Day Task Force has been closely connected to and housed in the headquarters of Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Six of its eight current staff members are or were at one time associated with Focus on the Family. For example, the Chair of the Task Force since its inception has been Shirley Dobson, the wife of James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family. For those unfamiliar with its work, FoF is an American Christian conservative organization founded by Dobson in 1977. It promotes abstinence-only sexual education, creationism, adoption by married, opposite-sex parents, school prayer and traditional gender roles. It opposes abortion, divorce, gambling, and LGBT rights, particularly LGBT adoption and same-sex marriage.

According to the Mission Statement of the Task Force, it exists to communicate with every individual the need for personal repentance and prayer, to create appropriate materials, and to mobilize the Christian community to intercede for America’s leaders and its families.

The Prayer Day events scheduled for today in Washington are designed for and by persons of the Christian faith. According to its coordinator, “The idea is we, as Christians, want what’s best for our community. We want God’s blessings on all of us and a reminder for us, as Christians, to come together in prayer for a common purpose.”

The local NPD coordinator also confirmed in a telephone conversation that Thursday’s events are based on the 2016 theme chosen by the aforementioned conservative Christian NPD Task Force of Colorado and that its materials have been used in the past.

All National Prayer Day presidential proclamations and laws passed by Congress since Washington have been religiously inclusive. No particular faith has been singled out or exclusively designated to coordinate NPD events. Nevertheless, the NPD Task Force has appointed itself to just such a task. By doing so, the NDP Task Force is trying to impose a narrow definition of American religious orthodoxy, something that our Founding Fathers worked hard to insure would not happen in this country.

I won’t be participating in Thursday’s events, because the original inclusive nature of the Day has been hijacked by a particular sect of a single faith, the Religious Right. Until that changes, I will pray for the nation and the world from the confines of my church and home.

Polk Culpepper is a Washington resident.