Ten Days of Prayer: Countdown to End Torture
January 11 to January 20, 2009
Countdown Clock: 10 days – 0 hours
(countdown to begin on January 11)
- Download a two-sided bulletin insert here (Word) or here (PDF). This insert includes the interfaith prayer and information about an executive order.
- Click here to tell NRCAT how you will participate in this initiative.
President Obama can halt U.S.-sponsored torture on his first day in office by issuing an executive order based on the Declaration of Principles. Every hour that passes without his signing an executive order on torture is an hour that his administration continues the torture policies implemented by the Bush administration.
Starting January 11, the seventh anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture will feature a "countdown clock." It will count down the hours until President Obama's first workday in office, when we hope and expect he will sign an executive order ending torture. If President Obama does not issue an executive order by 9 a.m. (EST) on January 21, the clock will begin "counting up," marking the hours that have passed without an executive order ending torture.
While the clock is counting down, NRCAT calls on everyone to join in a multi-faith prayer to end U.S.-sponsored torture by including the prayer in a worship service between January 11 and the inauguration. NRCAT has developed a two-sided bulletin insert with the prayer printed on one side and information about the Declaration of Principles for a Presidential Executive Order on Prisoner Treatment, Torture and Cruelty on the other. This brief prayer could be included in regularly scheduled services or as part of special services marking the January 11 anniversary or celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s commitment to justice and human rights. (For those wishing it, a non-theistic, Buddhist prayer is available here.)
NRCAT will focus much of its media outreach in January on the participation of religious congregations in this interfaith prayer, so please let NRCAT know that you plan to participate by clicking here.