Despite a judge’s ruling that declared the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional, special observations were held across the nation and in several places in the capital city including the Pentagon, the Cannon House Office Building and the steps of the US Capitol, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Rev. Franklin Graham, who had been disinvited to the Pentagon because of comments he had made regarding the Islamic faith after 911 nonetheless prayed on a sidewalk outside the building.  Graham is honorary chairman of the private National Day of Prayer Task Force.

However, President Brack Obama, whose administration on April 22 appealed the judge’s ruling and issued a National Day of Prayer proclamation, did not hold an interfaith observance at the White House, according to the SunGazette.

On April 15, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment.  However in her decision, Crabb said ceremonies could still be held pending appeals.

In observances at Williamsport-Lycoming County, Pennsylvania keynote speaker state Superior Court Judge Cheryl Allen challenged Crabb’s argument centered on the separation of church and state, and alleged violation of the First Amendment, the SunGazette said.

Allen said, “I couldn’t find separation of church and state in the Constitution.” Regarding the First Amendment she cited the first part which says, “Congress shall make no laws establishing a religion” and said the founding fathers came to America to escape England, which had established a church and persecuted those who would not attend.  Allen then noted the second portion of the First Amendment clause which states: “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

James Dobson, who founded Focus on the Family and whose wife chairs the National Day of Prayer said the event puts a prayer covering over the nation and noted that since 1775 the first Continental Congress called for a national day of prayer.

Dobson noted that 34 out of 44 Presidents have called for a national day of prayer including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, George Herbert Walker Bush and George W. Bush, the New York News Today reported.

Dobson said, “How can something be unconstitutional when it was passed by both houses of Congress unanimously and signed by Ronald Reagan and Harry Truman and implemented by all those Presidents back through the years?”

Charles Haynes, a First Amendment scholar who specializes in religious liberty expects President Obama to succeed with his appeal.  He said a  judge could possibly cite a 1983 Supreme Court decision that upheld the right to legislative prayer on grounds that “the offering of prayer is a tolerable acknowledgment of beliefs widely held among the people of this country,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

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President Barack Obama made a pilgrimage to pray with Billy Graham, the American preacher who harnessed the media and made Christian evangelism a global phenomenon, recently.

Evangelist Billy Graham in 1966. Graham has met with every U.S. president since Harry Truman.

Obama rode in his motorcade to Graham’s mountainside log cabin in Montreat, which is near Asheville, N.C., upon the conclusion of his North Carolina vacation with his wife, Michele, and friends.

It was Obama’s first meeting with the ailing evangelist who has counseled commanders in chief since Dwight Eisenhower.

This makes Obama, 48, the 12th president of the United States to meet with the 91-year-old Graham.

He is also the first head of state to call on the famed evangelist, who is ailing, at the latter’s mountaintop home.

The visit lasted about 30 minutes and included aides and advisers to both men.  Obama had a private prayer and conversation with Billy Graham.

Graham gave Obama two Bibles, one for him and one for the first lady, according to the Associated Press.

The AP report said the older Graham and Obama did most of the talking. They reminisced about their roots in Chicago, where Graham attended college  and began some of his ministry in the region.

Obama moved to Chicago after college and began his political career there.  They also talked about golf.

When the president got ready to leave, the two ended in prayer, according to the AP. The elder Graham prayed for the nation and asked God to give Obama wisdom in his decisions.

The president prayerfully thanked God for Billy Graham’s life, Franklin Graham told the AP.

Obama confided, like other presidents before him, how lonely, demanding and humbling the presidency can be, according to Larry Ross, presidential spokesman.

“That is a discussion that Mr. Graham has had with previous presidents who realize not only the demands but the loneliness of the job. And they’re humbled by that,” Ross said.

“The only way one can do [the job] properly is to draw on spiritual resources,” the AP reported.

The president also spoke to Graham’s son Franklin, also an evangelist.  The Army cancelled an appearance of the younger Graham to pray at the Pentagon for National Prayer Day a few days before.

Billy Graham has met with every president since Harry Truman.  Eisenhower once mused about recruiting Graham as a speechwriter, and the two often read the Bible together.  John F. Kennedy played golf with Graham in Palm Beach.

Graham ministered many times to Lyndon Johnson.  With Nixon, Graham conducted regular worship in the White House.

Gerald Ford played golf with him, Graham visited the Carters in the White House, and with Reagan they had a relationship that spanned 50 years.

George H. Bush vacationed with Graham half a dozen times, and Graham counseled Bill and Hillary in the White House. George W. Bush credits Graham for his spiritual rebirth.

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In March, President Obama signed Executive Order No. 13535 to prevent federal funding of abortions in the new health care bill (properly titled The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act).

U.S. President Barack Obama signs an executive order as Vice President Joe Biden looks on.

The executive order replaces acceptance of the Stupak Amendment, which was keeping some members of Congress from signing the health care legislation.

According to the text of this executive order, the newly passed health care legislation is supposed to protect the previously existing conscience clause against abortion and prohibits discrimination against health care facilities or providers who are unwilling to participate in funding or providing abortions.

Exceptions allowing federal abortion funding will be rape, incest and “health of the mother.”

Though questioning executive orders is nothing new (Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and many presidents before them had their executive orders challenged), for some, the “health of the mother” clause of this executive order is problematic.

“Health of the mother,” according to Doe v. Bolton, the companion case to Roe v. Wade signing legal abortion into law, defines “health of the mother” as any factors decided by the woman and her doctor “that affect physical, emotional, psychological, familial and the woman’s age.”

This definition is still used today and means that some physicians may recommend abortions for some women because the “health of the mother” is at stake.

Since 1996, at least 500 physicians and surgeons, including former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, have been writing to newspapers and even testifying before Congress that abortion, especially late term, should never be used as a preferred method to terminate a pregnancy if a mother’s life is in danger.

A Wall Street Journal letter by the physician group called PHACT (Physicians’ Ad Hoc Coalition for Truth) stated that instead of protecting the mother, certain methods of abortion “pose a significant and immediate threat to both the pregnant woman’s health and fertility.”

The fact that this executive order was over the controversial issue of federal abortion funding has called attention to the entitlement of presidents to sign executive orders as an executive order is a legally binding document giving a certain direction to administration agencies within the government.

An executive order can: (1) Direct an agency in carrying out their legislative mission, or (2) interpret a declaration of policy for the public.

Each U.S. President has the “executive privilege” to initiate new executive orders, or sign executive orders overturning or amending those of a previous president.

Since the early 1900’s, records of Executive Orders have been kept. Today, the National Archives has online records, listing the executive orders by each President since the recording began.

The term “executive order” traces its origin back to President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, although presidents have been signing them as “directives” since 1789.

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