No God But God

This morning, the Senate opened the session with a prayer. This is not unusual; a prayer usually opens every session. What makes this different was that it was a Hindu prayer. Say, Doctor Andy, were there Christian protesters, interrupting the prayer? Of course there were!

Here is a portion of the prayer: "We meditate on the transcendental glory of the Deity Supreme, who is inside the heart of the Earth, inside the life of the sky and inside the soul of the heaven. May He stimulate and illuminate our minds."

I like it. It's very poetic. It may not be a Christian prayer, but I think it could apply to a Christian God. But what do I know about such things? The Hindu clergyman closed with saying "Peace, peace, peace be unto all." If only people would listen.

But they don't. Even before the Hindu started speaking, voices interrupted from the visitor's gallery. Two men and a women kept interrupting the prayer, shouting "this is an abomination" and "there is no God but Jesus Christ". They were eventually arrested, and as they were led away, one of the men said, "We are Christians and patriots."

Just religious fervor of the moment, right? Three people overcome by being surprised with a differing religion's prayer in place of a normal Christian one, surely. Actually, this particular prayer has been the target of a campaign of opposition. Here's the page from the American Family Organization (SOURCE). This organization, formed in Mississippi, issued an "Action Alert" to start a letter-writing campaign to senators to oppose the Hindu prayer.

Why are they opposed? It's probably because of all the radical Hindu terrorists attacking our freedoms and liberties abroad, right? Oh, no wait... that's someone else. The AFA petition questions why the Senate would deliberately allow a non-monotheistic prayer. The president of some organization called WallBuilders says, "since Hindus worship multiple gods, the prayer will be completely outside the American paradigm, flying in the face of the American motto 'One Nation Under God'."

This "Christian historian" goes on to give a brief description of Hinduism. It's so hilarious and childish that I almost can't understand what point he thinks he's trying to make.

"In Hindu, you have not one God, but many, many, many, many, many gods," the Christian historian explains. "And certainly that was never in the minds of those who did the Constitution, did the Declaration [of Independence] when they talked about Creator -- that's not one that fits here because we don't know which creator we're talking about within the Hindu religion."

The historian points out that Hinduism is not a religion that has "produced great things in the world," referring to the general socio-economical status of India and Nepal, two primarily Hindu countries. I'm not really clear what he's describing as a "great thing". It seems to be primarily about countries that can't take care of their own people, in which case, well.... we'd better not throw any stones while we debate health insurance. I'm reminded of a line from the first Harry Potter book, where a character describes the villain as doing "great things. Terrible, but great."

Aren't you glad that we live in a society that prevents the establishment of a religion by the government? Aren't you happy we have religious freedom? Aren't you happy that no one gets taxed more or receives less Social Security based on whether or not people pick the "right" religion? These protesters aren't.

The United States is a Christian nation, they say. We want to reclaim America for Christ, they say. There is no god but our god, they say. Another minister denounced the Senate as "caving to multiculturalism and diversity".

Please compare for yourselves two perspectives on this issue, then think about whether the media is liberal, or the alternative press is conservative. Maybe both are true?

HERE is the news story as reported by the Associated Press.

And HERE is a news story from the American Family News Network on this prayer. Please read a few of the comments on the news story for further public opinions.