Posted on 06/26/2007 8:18:26 AM PDT by RDTF
For what is believed to be the first time in its history, the U.S. Senate will on July 12 be opened with a Hindu prayer, the Senate Chaplain's Office confirmed Monday.
For more than 200 years, the Senate has opened each workday with a prayer usually delivered by the Senate Chaplain, currently Barry Black, a Seventh Day Adventist. It is common, however, for senators to recommend religious leaders from their home states to serve as guest chaplains.
Rajan Zed, a Hindu chaplain from Nevada, on will become the first Hindu to deliver the morning prayer. In a statement announcing his scheduled appearance, Zed called the occasion "an illustrious day for all Americans and a memorable day for us."
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Zed, a U.S. citizen originally from India, said he has not finalized the prayer but that it will likely quote Hindu scriptures including the Rig Veda, the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad-Gita.
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Senate Historical Office (SHO) historian Betty Koed said the office doesn't have a complete list of past guest chaplains but that she knew of "no evidence of a Hindu prayer" being spoken on the Senate floor in the past.
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While the majority of official and guest chaplains represent Protestant, Catholic or Jewish faiths, Zed is not the first religious figure outside the Judeo-Christian tradition to offer the daily prayer. In 1992, Wallace Mohammed became the first Muslim leader to deliver the invocation.
Spokesmen for both Nevada senators - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican John Ensign, the most likely candidates to have recommended Zed for the guest chaplain position - did not respond to requests for comment Monday. Zed did not say which senator requested that he be invited as a guest chaplain.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Neither are we a Christian nation. Read the Constitution and see if you can find anything saying what kind of prayers are acceptable in the Senate.
The ACLU doesn't go after this prayer because it is not by the Senate, it is for the Senate. It is a private citizen expressing his or her private religious beliefs with no obligation for anyone else to share them.
Welcome to America.
John Jay:
“ Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” Source: October 12, 1816. The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, Henry P. Johnston, ed., (New York: Burt Franklin, 1970), Vol. IV, p. 393.
No problem. Just don’t do a muzzie prayer.
Yaaaaa, you just go ahead a believe that....its ok.
OK, I'll believe that the Constitution is the document that defines how our government works because I'm crazy that way.
I guess so.
as an American born Republican with a Hindu mother and Sikh father, I’m pretty disgusted by a lot of the responses here to the article. I guess I should “go back to my country.”.... oh, wait...
interestingly, when the BJP was in power India had a Muslim president (still does), a Hindu PM, and a Christian defense minister. And now they have the Sikh PM. that is a true Democratic government.
Sorry guys, but the US and Republican party are not reserved only for Christians.
No one said the Republican Party is a Christian Party. I never even mentioned that I was a Christian.
I was implying I was sicken but the use of muti-religions to open the senate.
Like it or not I have a right to be sicken by this move by the senate. I am sicken by the anti-Chriatian move in the democrat party yet they embrace all other beliefs.
Who said you have to go back to the country of your ancestors...not me.
“I am a libertarian and I have to tell you that Hinduism is better than Chrstianity because Christianity was invented by some retarded Arab terrorists and it is just a political construct just like Islam. Why would I believe some ancient Arab poppycock about heaven and hell? Being a Christian merely makes me an UNTHINKING supporter of one faction in some ancient Arab political battle.”
well, well. well Mr. John Wayne,
Either this email to me is a complete sarcasm or you are a total idiot.
And please to use John Wayne’s when he was a Christian is a disgrace.
We’re not a Christian nation, either. We’re a republic based on religious freedom, FOR ALL RELIGIONS. If anything, dump the idea of an ‘opening prayer’, it’s the Senate, not a church.
No.
It wasn't enough for the corrupt, Godless, baby-killing Democrat leadership that a cleric of the Satanic cult of Islam was invited to the Senate floor to pray to his demonic deity a few years ago, now they have to invite another pagan cultist to repeat the insult to all American Christians.
Yeah I know the standard outraged PC replies that I will get from non-believing FReepers, "America isn't a Christian nation", blah, blah, blah, which is sadly but very obviously true in 21st century America. But that's what the American Christian patriots who fought and died to create the USA and keep it free intended it to be.
Read THIS for more about the Capitol building's 6 decade history as a place of Christian worship.
I wonder what the Hindus who donated big $$$ to the Bush campaign would think about some of the comments here.
I do agree that the idea of “opening prayer” is silly. But it is even sillier to suggest that Christian prayer is somehow more superior to Hindu prayer, or that only Christianity should be expressed in the Senate.
A lot of you are basically implying that to be a true American, one must be Christian.
Are you guys aware that the first Asian-American Senator was a Sikh? Are you aware that there are Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, and even Muslims (GASP!) in the US Armed Forces? If they are doing their job, these people do contribute to American democracy and freedom. Or how abou Hindu doctors who are responsible for making sure that Christian babies are born safely?
some of you are as bad as the leftists. and don’t belittle Hinduism as “pagan” or “devil worshipping.” it is a beautiful and ancient religion, one which has generally coexisted well with Christianity and actually shares some values with it. Hinduism offers a lot of insights into the nature of the universe... we will never know whether Hinduism or Christianity is more “correct”..... there are Christian physicists who actually think that some Hindu beliefs actually offer great insights into the world of science, and there are Hindus who feel the same about Christianity.
those of you who are expressing religious intolerance are being UNAMERICAN and shouldn’t live here if you don’t like the way our founding fathers designed the constitution. Unless you want to “amend” the First Amendment.
I don’t care if you are a white American Christian who fought in wars and defended America IF YOU ARE INTOLERANT OF OTHER RELIGIONS, especially those who have similar values and may be integral to mutually beneficial future friendships.
How do you feel about the Hindus and Sikhs who fought for Britain in the Allied forces? Didn’t they fight for the free world?
sorry buddy but you are living in the wrong world at the wrong time. by the way your rhetoric sounds similar to that used by a lot of Muslim fundamentalists. in the modern world, it is not a wise idea to say that one’s country = a certain religion.
Are THESE acts of extreme violence by Hindus against Indian Christians typical examples of that beautiful and ancient religion that has coexisted so well with Christianity and shares values with it?
I realize that India is a vast country with a billion or more citizens, so the incidence of Hindu persecution of Indian Christians is relatively small. But do you know of ANY violent persecution of Hindus by practicing Protestant, Orthodox, or Catholic Christians here in America? I'm not saying absolutely, positively no such persecution has ever occurred at any time in any part of the US, but if it has it has been a well kept secret.
those of you who are expressing religious intolerance are being UNAMERICAN and shouldn’t live here if you don’t like the way our founding fathers designed the constitution.
The founding fathers didn't put a clause in our Constitution forbidding conversion of Christian Americans to other religions or sects under pain of imprisonment or fines, and their successors didn't enact laws to that effect later on. Apparently Hindus aren't quite that tolerant of Indians who convert to Christianity according to this report from India:
Uttarakhand Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri on 15 April said that his government would introduce a law to ban "conversions with allurement or fraudulent means" in the upcoming session of the Assembly. Khanduri made the announcement at a meeting with local Hindu priests in Uttarakhand's Haridwar city.
A representative of the Christian Legal Association told Compass that the "sole motive" behind proposing anti-conversion bills is to make it easier for Hindu extremists to thwart Christian work, adding that it was "worrisome" that the number of states with an anti-conversion law was increasing.
Seven India states have anti-conversion laws, known as Freedom of Religion Acts: Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.
[“The strange people who run the US Senate do not realize, evidently, that you can only get to heaven through Christ.”
I think the Jews in Congress would disagree. And the Muslim.]
But, Satan agrees and he trembles.
Wise words.
The politicians will do anything to eliminate Christians and Jews.
Patrick Hentry had it right.
"So, who's up for lunch at the Holy Cow Steakhouse?" ;-)
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