Home Schoolers: Here is an Opportunity to Amend S.B. 810

IMG_6796Yesterday Governor Asa Hutchinson announced a special session of the Arkansas Legislature will convene in two weeks.

The scope of the special session will be very narrow; however, this session is an opportunity for the legislature to address some of the concerns home schoolers have raised about the recently-passed S.B. 810, which deals with educational neglect reports made to the Child Maltreatment Hotline.

While we believe this law poses relatively little threat to home schoolers, many families have expressed concerns about S.B. 810, and we are committed to seeing those concerns addressed.

Governor Hutchinson has promised to work with DHS and the Child Maltreatment Hotline to ensure S.B. 810 does not adversely affect home schoolers. However, the Arkansas Legislature has an opportunity to address those concerns more permanently at the special session later this month, if Governor Hutchinson includes S.B. 810 on the agenda for the session.

If you would like to ask Governor Hutchinson to include S.B. 810 on the agenda for the special session, you can call his office in Little Rock at (501) 682-2345.

If you have any questions, feel free to call our office at (501) 375-7000.

Prayer Proclamation of President George Washington

washington_prayer_procToday is the National Day of Prayer. In honor of this day set aside to pray for our nation, we want to share a call to prayer issued by President George Washington more than two centuries ago on October 3, 1789.

By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor– and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be– That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks–for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation–for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war–for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed–for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted–for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions– to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually–to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed–to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord–To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us–and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

George Washington

Congressional Prayer Resolution from 1856

The_U.S._Capitol_under_construction,_1860_-_NARA_-_530494It’s hard to imagine Congress these days voting to recognize the significant role “the Gospel of Jesus Christ” has played in American society, but in 1856 and 1857 that’s just what Congress did.

On January 23, 1856, Rep. James Dowdell (D-Alabama) successfully sponsored a Congressional resolution that read,

Whereas the people of these United States, from their earliest history to the present time, have been led by the hand of a kind Providence, and are indebted for the countless blessings of the past and present, and dependent for continued prosperity in the future upon Almighty God; and whereas the great vital and conservative element in our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and divine truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it eminently becomes the representatives of a people so highly favored, to acknowledge, in the most public manner, their reverence for God: Therefore,

Resolved, first, That the daily sessions of this body be opened with prayer.

Resolved, second, That the ministers of the gospel in this city are hereby requested to attend and alternately perform this solemn duty.

Nearly two years later on December 10, 1857, Congress approved a virtually identical resolution.

In browsing the journals of the Congress from 1857, it appears much of the debate and controversy over these resolutions did not surround their strong, religious language, but whether or not the ministers who opened the Congressional meetings with prayer would receive any compensation for their services.

We have written many times about Congressional and Presidential resolutions recognizing the providence of God and calling for prayer. They were a staple of American government from the days before the American Revolution to the first half of the Twentieth Century. While Congress still opens its meetings with prayer, pausing to recognize prayer’s power and importance the way past lawmakers did might be a good idea–especially given the troubles our nation is facing these days.