An annual address by President Bush marking the National Day of Prayer was broadcast Thursday night over several Christian television and radio networks as part of an evangelical concert, transmitting his message to a pivotal political constituency around the country.
The president's participation in the broadcast drew criticism from Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a liberal group, which suggested that the nonprofit evangelical organization that sponsors the concert and related events was improperly advertising for Mr. Bush's re-election.
Some religious figures, including a Roman Catholic bishop and the president of a major evangelical Christian seminary, also accused the organizers of the broadcast and the White House of using prayer for political purposes.
The president made his remarks Thursday afternoon before a small gathering in the East Room of the White House. He spoke immediately after making a public apology for the reported mistreatment of Iraqi captives by American soldiers.
President Bush has often proclaimed that the United States is doing God's work by spreading freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq. But on Thursday he appeared to adopt a more humble tone.
''God is not on the side of any nation, yet we know he is on the side of justice,'' Mr. Bush said. ''And it is the deepest strength of America that from the hour of our founding, we have chosen justice as our goal.'' He added: ''Our greatest failures as a nation have come when we lost sight of that goal: in slavery, in segregation, and in every wrong that has denied the value and dignity of life. Our finest moments have come when we have faithfully served the cause of justice for our own citizens, and for the people of other lands.''
President Bush made his remarks in the East Room during an event that included the Rev. Barry Black, a Seventh-day Adventist minister who is chaplain of the Senate; the Rev. Daniel Coughlin, a Catholic priest who is chaplain of the House; and Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive director of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.
President Bush also invited and saluted the leaders of the separate nonprofit evangelical National Prayer Committee, which organizes the concert broadcast and other events across the country. The president commended Oliver L. North, the former Iran-contra figure and Fox News newscaster who is honorary chairman of the evangelical Christian National Day of Prayer task force, as well as Shirley Dobson, its chairwoman. The president especially thanked Mrs. Dobson for bringing her husband, James C. Dobson, a conservative Christian psychologist and radio host who is among the most influential evangelical Christian figures in the country. ''We're also glad you brought Jim with you,'' Mr. Bush said.
Congress created a National Day of Prayer under President Harry S. Truman in 1952, inviting people of all faiths to pray for the country. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan affixed it to the first Thursday in May, inviting Jerry Falwell and other leaders of the conservative Christian political movement to the White House for the occasion.
The independent National Day of Prayer Task Force was began in 1973 to promote less ecumenical, specifically evangelical Protestant spirituality, eventually growing to include events around the country and a three-hour concert broadcast Thursday night along with a replay of the president's remarks.
On the Web site of the evangelical National Day of Prayer, the group closely echoes President Bush's assertions that the United States is doing God's work in Iraq and Afghanistan, inviting visitors to ''adopt our troops'' in prayer. The site, nationaldayofprayer.org, encourages special prayers for certain ''centers of power'' in America, including praying that educational institutions to return teaching ''Judeo-Christian values,'' warning that kindergarten classes are teaching ''homosexual propaganda.'' The site also suggests special prayers for Christians in the news media, which it says it often hostile to Christianity.
Cheryl Jacques, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, said the idea that schools were teaching gay propaganda was false and divisive, calling its inclusion in the context of prayer ''a shame.''
Trent Duffy, a spokesman for the White House, said those prayers did not reflect the president's views, and noting that the audience assembled for the event in the White House included people of many faiths, including Muslims and Hindus.
Richard Mouw, president of the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, a major evangelical school, argued that such prayers ''call people together in a position of self-righteousness, to talk about people who they think are more sinful than they are, and that is a dangerous thing.''
Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton of the Archdiocese of Detroit, said he disputed the whole premise of the National Day of Prayer, which he said seems to petition God with certain goals in mind. ''The whole point of prayer should be about asking God's will,'' Bishop Gumbleton said, and he noted that the Catholic Church opposed the war in Iraq.
But Jim Weidmann, vice chairman of the evangelical National Day of Prayer organization, said the group was merely adhering to its reading of the Bible. Mr. Weidmann said the organization had no political goal, ''We pray that God will raise up men and women he can use.''