Recently, a number of media, politicians, and their supporters have been making much...in the broad, rhetorical, and emotional senses...of the term "hope". In and of itself, it is never a bad idea to abandon hope in life.
 
I know that many secularists, including psychiatrists and even former NIH Chairs, have opined directly and through their published works that the world's clergy are right insofar as prayer: it is borne of hope, it seems to have positive benefits even to those not aware they were being prayed for, prayer works better the more involved in the same intentions and prayers thereon, and religion appears to empower prayer even more so; such secular parties and authorities admit they do not quite understand by their own sciences WHY prayer is generally peacefully positive to its practitioners, but say their science does support everyday clergy remarks re prayer...especially where God is included as the praying party knows same.
 
There are those politicians and officials today who state, tacitly demur, or otherwise infer that they must defer to media, celebrities, and PACs as the manifest voice of the public, even if Hollywood lluminaries have no special knowledge or training with anything, media can be self-censored/manipulated under martial powers/directed by advertisers, and all independent polls indicate most people are not part of a or group of PACs or are not at all simpatico with PAC-speak; the rationale seems to be: "sigh! They're going to just run nothing but RealSex, Maher calling Catholics Nazis, PFAW's Kathleen Turner griping the country might go Christian again, GossipGirl, Dexter, f-bombs, teach our kids to explore homosexuality right now and forever, an endless list...again, sigh! What can we do but accept this? If forces beyond even political control demand an end to public prayer or religious expressions of any nature, or demand God is some fairy tale ogre who must be crushed, who are we to argue? Come on, eventually, if that's all our special interests want to do they'll do it anyway, what can we do but accept it, and become the society they want? After all, so many of kids will be brainwashed that way by the end of eight more years, we have to BE the society specialists want and start doing it now...anyway, it fits with that gap between money supply and consumer debt that never shrinks no matter what anyone does, who comes, who goes...face it, God stuff only gets in the way of what kind of 'look out for me alone' seductions and maneuvers little folks will be doing forever after to scrape for what cash we toss them...you know, like moms deciding to abort after a nine month regular delivery, and why stop at THAT age if it's easier to liquidate than think, private party or otherwise?".
 
Odd especially where such a nature of speaking official or candidate is also very pro-healthcare; again, even the secular medical world has upheld that peaceful and community prayer does work benefits and likely cuts incidences of epidemics.
 
Not to forget, again, the very peaceful hope the Absolute and prayer manifest within the large majority of earth's people.
 
At any rate, the Constitution says I can practice my religion, and so does the recently renewed 1948 U.N. human rights declaration in regard to religious freedom; moreover, the USA Supreme Court has been a supporter of such freedom. Wherefore, even if it becomes non-Court administrative and media policy across the land to smack down any public expressions or tacit indications of faith in God, despite their vaunted cries of "hope", I will continue to simply peacefully follow faith until such time, if ever, God's permissive Will allows some scoundrel to "get lucky" and smack me down for good...I know I shall never be embarrassed nor in need of feeble obfuscations before God when my time comes, unless of course I'd have to explain why I would bend knee and deny Him in favor of far inferior beings.