Hindu Prayer in Senate Disrupted

[Ethos]

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Hindu clergyman made history Thursday by offering the Senate's morning prayer, but only after police officers removed three shouting protesters from the visitors' gallery.

Rajan Zed, director of interfaith relations at a Hindu temple in Reno, Nev., gave the brief prayer that opens each day's Senate session. As he stood at the chamber's podium in a bright orange and burgundy robe, two women and a man began shouting "this is an abomination" and other complaints from the gallery.

Police officers quickly arrested them and charged them disrupting Congress, a misdemeanor. The male protester told an AP reporter, "we are Christians and patriots" before police handcuffed them and led them away.

For several days, the Mississippi-based American Family Association has urged its members to object to the prayer because Zed would be "seeking the invocation of a non-monotheistic god."


http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070712/D8QB4UJ01.html

[Atticus]

Every time someone protests ecumenicism like this, they hasten the day when there will be no prayer at all in the Senate or House.

[AgentM]

Every time someone protests ecumenicism like this, they hasten the day when there will be no prayer at all in the Senate or House.

Good.

Anyways, it's obviously the ignorants that are against interfaith prayers (if you're going to have prayers in the state bodies at all, they'd better be prayers from every single religion on Earth at least in multi-cultural, multi-faith countries such as the US).

[steveksux]

Didn't we just have a thread where AFA accused Snopes of having an agenda? :lol:

QED

Hopefully the nutbags that were dragged out represent nobody but their own sense of nutbaggery.

After seeing the flap about Keith Ellison and his oath of office though, I deeply regret that I am most likely wrong about that.

Randy

[Ethos]

Every time someone protests ecumenicism like this, they hasten the day when there will be no prayer at all in the Senate or House.

I find this prospect highly doubtful. As unlikely in fact as removing reference to god from our currency.

Further, while it might surprise some to hear it, I would not support such a measure. The U.S. is undeniably a religiously-oriented nation. As a matter of national identity, I believe prayer should be allowed in this context, though I of course want to see equality in regard to what faiths are represented in the process.

Ethos

[FilmFestGuy]

Well, even though I don't know that the protesters were from the AFA, it only proves that the AFA are a dominionist organization bent on creating a theocracy in this nation.

If they're about "protecting families", they why should they worry about a Hindu prayer? What harm does that do to families? Is it a sin to even hear a prayer from another religion? Will it kill unborn babies? Will it turn kids gay?

Hard to tell.

[Soren]

That was just plain rude. Would it kill us to have a Hindu prayer once in a blue moon in Congress? It's not as though this is happening every week. I must confess that I very likely would be uncomfortable with some of the prayers those of other faiths may sometimes utter, but I imagine they think they look somewhat askance at my prayers also. Live and let live on this issue, I'd say.

[heel31ok]

Every time someone protests ecumenicism like this, they hasten the day when there will be no prayer at all in the Senate or House.
That could be the point.Trot out a bunch different religious holy men until the extreme reaction forces total removal of the opening prayer.

[burntgorilla]

And who would you blame if that occurred?

[towski]

I wonder if the prayer that Minister Joe Wright offered to open the 1996 session of the Kansas state House of Representatives would have drawn similar ire?


http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/wright.asp

Heavenly Father, we come before you to ask your forgiveness. We seek your direction and your guidance. We know your word says, "Woe to those who call evil good." But that's what we've done.

We've lost our spiritual equilibrium. We have inverted our values. We have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word in the name of moral pluralism. We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism.

We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.

We've exploited the poor and called it a lottery. We've neglected the needy and called it self-preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. In the name of choice, we have killed our unborn. In the name of right to life, we have killed abortionists.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it political savvy. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it taxes. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, oh, God, and know our hearts today. Try us. Show us any wickedness within us. Cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of the State of Kansas, and that they have been ordained by you to govern this great state.

Grant them your wisdom to rule. May their decisions direct us to the center of your will. And, as we continue our prayer and as we come in out of the fog, give us clear minds to accomplish our goals as we begin this Legislature. For we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

[The Big Bog]

I wonder if the prayer that Minister Joe Wright offered to open the 1996 session of the Kansas state House of Representatives would have drawn similar ire?


http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/wright.asp

Now that's a REAL prayer! :clap:

[Atticus]

Hindus make up a significant minority of Americans. It's only right that a Hindu prayer should take place every so often.