US President Barack Obama has declared May 7 as National Day of Prayer for his country so I guess he's not perfect after all.

A little background, if I may.

It was Thomas Jefferson who came up with the magnificent concept of "separation of church and state."

The First Amendment to the US Constitution took it further: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Very liberal and reasonably clear. There must be no state religion and religion itself must be free from state interference.

However, it stops half-way. Surely we've learned from the past eight years presided over by an American right-wing, born-again religious zealot (and a whole bunch of foreign, right-wing, born-again religious zealots) that freedom FROM religion is even more important that freedom OF religion.

All of which is why it saddens me that the otherwise splendid new president should have to (apparently, by law) sign a proclamation declaring a National Day of Prayer.

What horrifies me however, is that Obama felt it necessary to authorize his PR flack to announce that he, the president, prays every day. The flack said it twice. Twice!

Shades of those war criminals Nixon and Kissinger down on their bloody knees praying together on the eve of the disgraced president's resignation!


(Samantha Jones is a Canadian journalist publishing her erotic memoir at www.lulu.com)