You're a Good Man, Mr. President

The lede pretty much says it all:

For the past eight years, the White House recognized the National Day of Prayer with a service in the East Room, but this year, President Obama decided against holding a public ceremony.

Obama will sign a proclamation recognizing the day, and that's about it. No formal service, no prayer breakfast. Hurrah!

The rest of the article quotes White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, talking about Obama's view that prayer is a more private thing, blah blah, and then there are the expected hysterical reactions from "both" sides: the fundies have their undies in a twist because Obama is not acknowledging what a Christian nation we supposedly are; the über-atheists, because Obama will be signing the proclamation instead of, I dunno, dressing up as Richard Dawkins and setting a picture of the Pope on fire or something.

To the latter group, I say, chill. This is a big step for us. During the last Administration, this was a prominent public event every year.*

To the former, well, anything that pisses off your Shirley Dobson is just fine with me. May she have an acute case of constipation all day long. More than what she has every other day, I mean.

(h/t: Betty Cracker, via John Cole)

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[Added] I see that I'm a bit late to the dance on this one -- yesterday was the National Day of Prayer. Sorry that I was too busy consorting with Satan to keep up with my blog feeds.

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* [Added 2] Originally, I had said that the annual NDOP event at the White House was also part of the Bush I and Reagan Administrations. Not true, according to Steve Benen, Think Progress, and even Fox News. Both of these presidents held NDOP events at the White House, but not every year.