All together now: The National Day of Prayer Task Force and the National Day of Prayer are not the same thing

Yesterday, California Rep. Janice Hahn got mad at a James Dobson speech and walked out. Depending what media report you consult, this was “the National Day of Prayer event” or “the National Day of Prayer observance” or “the National Day of Prayer gathering” or even “the annual non-partisan National Day of Prayer gathering.”

Such language isn’t exactly counterfactual, but it is misleading. The event in question isn’t a direct function of the National Day of Prayer itself, which is simply a congressionally designated day of nonsectarian observance, not a specific event. What Hahn walked out of was the annual “national observance” coordinated by the National Day of Prayer Task Force, a conservative evangelical organization.

People conflate the two all the time. Here’s a helpful introduction to the difference, the tone of which betrays some frustration with this confusion. Even Rep. Hahn fails to make the distinction, accusing Dobson of “hijacking the National Day of Prayer—this nonpartisan, nonpolitical National Day of Prayer.”