As Utahns and other Americans mark the 59th National Day of Prayer today, the yearly occasion meant to foster unity and faith once again is mired in conflict and controversy.

A federal judge in Wisconsin declared the day unconstitutional, saying it violated the separation of church and state. The Washington, D.C.-based Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty called the government-sponsored day "misguided and unnecessary."

Meanwhile, the Pentagon rescinded its invitation to evangelical preacher Franklin Graham, according to USA Today , after mainline Protestants, Muslims and Jews complained that his exclusive views on prayer were offensive.

Even Utah's own celebration of the day has been contentious.

Evangelicals, the Prayer Day's main organizers, insist that all those who publicly pray and speak at their services adhere to so-called "Judeo-Christian" theological tenets. They are required to sign a faith statement that they believe "the Holy Bible is the inerrant Word of the Living God" and that salvation comes solely through Jesus Christ.

That carefully worded declaration excludes Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims as well as other Christians and members of Utah's dominant faith, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

It also has prompted non-evangelicals to host their own Prayer Day services, opening participation to every person of faith. These past events have featured an LDS apostle, Jeffrey R. Holland, as well as a Muslim imam, a Jewish rabbi, Catholics, Protestants and Hindus.

This year's celebration is scheduled to include prayers and scripture readings by representatives of the Hari Krishna faith, American Indian tradition, the Center Point Church, the LDS Church, the Provo United Church of Christ and the Utah Valley Ministerial Association.

"I had a run-in with the [evangelical] organizers a few years ago," says Seventh-day Adventist Chaplain Linda Walton, who has led an interfaith effort in Utah County for more than a decade. "They have a right to do what they are doing, but that's not the National Day of Prayer that I want to participate in."

Walton doesn't care whether a prayer is traditional or simply meditative and whether participants seek the divine while standing, kneeling or lying on their bellies, with their palms up or arms folded.

"In this time of conflict and difficulty, we want to focus on what we have in common," she says, "not our differences."

For the Rev. Gregory Johnson, though, correct theology is crucial to his prayer life.

"The guy who is praying to Muhammad's God is not praying to my God," says Johnson, Utah Prayer Day coordinator and president of Standing Together, a group of 90 evangelical churches in the state. "By participating in such a service, I would be offering approval to Muhammad's God as equal to my God. I feel I would be violating my spiritual convictions."

Johnson's group is sponsoring 14 events: one each in Logan, American Fork, Payson, Park City, Vernal and Tooele, four in Ogden and four in Salt Lake City, including one at the Capitol that Gov. Gary Herbert will attend. At each of these events, prayers and speeches will focus their divine pleas on "Seven Centers of Power" -- government, military, media, business, education, church and family.

Last year, about 400,000 Americans joined in one of the evangelical-led observances, according to the organization's website.

In a way, Johnson says, National Prayer Day could be a victim of its own success.

Although a time to celebrate faith each year had been recognized in the United States since 1952, the nation didn't have a specific day dedicated to prayer until 1988, when Ronald Reagan established it on the first Thursday in May.

Since evangelicals such as James Dobson, of Colorado's Focus on the Family, and Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, were the day's most vocal proponents, Johnson said, they became its chief organizers. They formed a National Prayer Day Task Force to oversee events in all 50 states. Bright's wife, Vonette, was the panel's first chairwoman, then, in 1991, Dobson's wife, Shirley, took charge.

The evangelical-based task force requires all organizers to assert their belief in Jesus' divinity, virgin birth, sinless life, miracles, atoning sacrifice, resurrection and coming return to power and glory, though other believers are free to organize their own prayer services,

"It is tricky at times," Johnson acknowledges. "It was all nice and simple when 90 percent of people had a Judeo-Christian heritage. But now we have people of many different faiths, and we have to grow with that understanding."

It remains to be seen whether the Wisconsin judge's order will stand -- something most legal experts say is unlikely -- or whether the government can continue to promote a Day of Prayer orchestrated by a very specific group of believers.

Given the country's daunting challenges and their faith in the power of prayer, both Johnson and Walton hope the National Day of Prayer continues. For Walton, though, the observance is valuable only if it includes everyone.

"If is was just for a particular religious group, that would be inappropriate," she says. "But this is not a Christian service; it's an American event."

If people choose not to pray or agnostics want to picket their interfaith service, that's OK, she says. "As long as they're not violent, we would welcome that. [Freedom of speech] is part of the celebration."

pstack@sltrib.com