Jewish lawmakers threaten walk-out over reference to Jesus

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | April 3, 2003 | Diana Lynne

[honway]

A Maryland minister was barred from giving the opening prayer in the state Senate after he refused to drop a reference to Jesus.

The Rev. David N. Hughes of the Trinity and Evangelical Church of Adamstown, Md., intended to round out his invocation yesterday with the line, "In Jesus' name, Amen." But the sergeant at arms – on the orders of Senate President Thomas Mike Miller Jr. – shut the reverend out of the body's chambers.

Miller issued the orders after two Jewish lawmakers threatened to stage a boycott of the legislative session if the phrase was not removed.

"I'm shocked by the response. I've never had this happen in 26 years," Hughes told the Frederick News-Post. "It just makes me feel that they've taken away my right as an American to pray, and this is the seat of government, and that's scary."

The pastor – a Vietnam veteran – was invited to give the prayer by Republican Sen. Alex Mooney. Hughes was Mooney's fourth guest. The other three were Jewish rabbis.

Opening up legislative sessions with prayer is a longstanding tradition in Maryland, as it is in states across the country. Mooney told WorldNetDaily no one had been barred from giving an invocation before. He sees irony in yesterday's "censorship."

Maryland state Republican Rep. Alex Mooney

"We were the first state to address religious tolerance in our state charter," he told WorldNetDaily. "This just shows a lack of tolerance for peoples' religious views."

Mooney recalled numerous instances of invocations referencing Jesus throughout the four years that he has been in office.

But at the beginning of the session this year, a string of invocations by Baptist preachers invoking the name Jesus Christ sparked debate on the issue. Miller appealed to lawmakers for tolerance and urged they stick to guidelines that call for invocations to be of an ecumenical nature and respectful of all faiths.

Webster's New World Dictionary defines ecumenical as "promoting cooperation or better understanding among differing religious faiths."

Since the debate, the Senate clerk screens prayers ahead of time and flagged the written text submitted by Hughes.

When Sens. Ida Ruben and Gloria Hollinger – both of whom are Jewish – heard of the reference, they asked Mooney to strike it.

"I said, 'Hey, I'll let him pray however he wants to pray. I'm not going to censor him and tell him how he needs to pray,'" Mooney told WND.

Ruben told the Frederick News-Post she then urged Hughes to substitute "messiah" for Jesus, telling him the reference could offend non-Christians and goes against the guidelines.

Neither Ruben nor Miller returned calls seeking comment.

"This is part of my faith," Hughes responded, according to Mooney. "The Gospel says when you pray, pray in Jesus' name."

The senators next asked to be excused from the floor during the prayer.

Paradoxically, a walk-out over a Muslim cleric's prayer opening a Washington state legislative session last month backfired on one Christian lawmaker.

Washington state Republican Rep. Lois McMahan

As WorldNetDaily reported, Rep. Lois McMahan, a Republican from Gig Harbor, Wash., refused to participate in the prayer and declared, "My god is not Muhammed."

"The Islamic religion is so ... part and parcel with the attack on America. I just didn't want to be there, be a part of that," she said in an interview with the Seattle Post Intelligencer. "Even though the mainstream Islamic religion doesn't profess to hate America, nonetheless it spawns the groups that hate America."

But a day later, McMahan apologized on the floor of the state House of Representatives amid mounting furor over her stance.

Debate over invocations is raging elsewhere in the country. As WorldNetDaily reported, several Southern California cities are grappling with threats from both sides of the issue.

Under pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union to quit using the name Jesus Christ in invocations, the city of Lake Elsinore, in Riverside County, decided to eliminate mention of "religious figures." The decree subsequently had the apparent effect of eliminating the prayer altogether, as no local pastors would accept invitations to deliver the prayer, and city councilors adopted moments of silence instead.

The ACLU contends that praying at the request of a government entity is a violation of the First Amendment's prohibition against the establishment of religion.

But the nonprofit United States Justice Foundation, which threatened to sue the city if it failed to reverse its decision, maintains telling a pastor what to pray is a violation of his First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and religion.

The notion of "separation of church and state" is derived from the dissenting opinion of the 1946 Supreme Court case Everson vs. Board of Education, which upheld a program allowing parents to be repaid from state funds for the costs of transportation to private religious schools. The court required only that the state maintain neutrality in its relations with various groups of religious believers.

"The decision in Everson does not rise to the level of being a battle cry for those who would wish to remove every vestige of religion from the public forum," USJF litigation counsel Richard Ackerman asserts.

"There's a push in this country to remove religion from society," Mooney echoed, "from the Supreme Court's decision on the Pledge to the ACLU going after all the Ten Commandments posted across the country. ... Nothing in the church-state relationship allows censorship and the removal of religious values from society."

[sauropod]

Sorry Lara. I'm not buying. I refuse to be tagged with the "hateful" label.

If something you knew to be true was labeled "hateful" by all of the "tolerant" and "broad-minded" folk around you, would you disbelive your eyes?

Don't make your fantasy my reality.

[DoughtyOne]

Illbay, tollerance means that you do not get to set the standard. Neither do I. Neither do the Jewish men in question. Neither does the state if they have invited the man to pray. If what he wanted to say was offensive to society as a whole, I think a correction should have been reasonable. In this instance that clearly wasn't the case.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

..if Jews went to watch a Christian prayer in a Church, the leaders of the Church would have no problem mentioning Jesus...

Pure sophistry, my dear Yonif.

The correct comparison would be if a Christian was offended at a rabbi making an opening prayer in the Knesset. Cheers, By

[Deb]

I'll support the leftist agenda of these two anti-Christian bigots when less than 3% of the Israeli population is allowed to dictate the speech and religious actions of Hasidic Jews in Israel.

[honway]

the Catholic church held the Jews as a people responsible for the death of Christ.

Do you have a source for such a serious claim, or is this just more bigotry?

[TopQuark]

Thank you also.

I cannot tell you how much I regret seeing any cases of divisiveness. I personally would like to see this nation returning to Its Christian roots and Judeo-Christian values. I believe this nation was better and better off when it adhered to those values. I would like to see the prayer at school, and I am appalled seeing atheist attacks on Christians that are now curtailed even in celebrating Christmas. When my daughter was younger, she always voluntered to babysit during Christmas so that more Christians would be able to celebrate. I am at peace with my Christian friends and respect their beliefs.

It is not pleasant however, when someone excluds me by saying, so easily, in passing, "This is a Christian nation." Excuse me, this is my country, and I will not accept such exclusion.

[sauropod]

If you knew anything at all about Maryland politics you would not ask so silly a question. You would have understood the reference.

Crayola time: Michael Steele (the newly elected Lt. Governor of the "Land of Peasant Living") is black. Mike Miller, sleazeball of Maryland Government, called him an Uncle Tom.

Clear enough?

[Jhoffa_]

Yeah, but look around..

We have common enemies doing everything from writing newspaper columns to destroy us to just flat exploding.

I am not calling for a melding or a dilution of the three faith's, as that would be dishonest. Merely a common respect.

An "axis of good"

[ApesForEvolution]

Well said. In due time, the world will realize, whether they like it or not, that the center of the universe and all life is Christ. Christ is the one and only true centrist. No two ways about it, take it or leave it.

[NormsRevenge]

The objective here, of course, is not really inclusion or equality, but a veto over the expressions of the majority.

Well said.

Thanks needs to go to atomic conspiracy for posting it originally in post#216. I just re-posted it. :-)

[sauropod]

I'm saying they should. "

See: New Testament.

[TopQuark]

Open a book on teh history of the Church, on history of Byzantium, or Jewish history.

[sauropod]

You soil yourself. Since when does Light have any company with Darkness?

[lizma]

It should have been about the minister's service to the legislators, and to the state of Maryland.

No. This is where I disagree.

I don't think religion should serve the government, I think government should respect religion.

I think it serves our country and our civilization best to respect the qualities we admire in each other and tolerate the differences.

[Revelation 911]

In other words: "I don't care if I offend you as long as I'm offending you for what I think is a good cause."

Reminds me of when my dead relatives were baptized without my families consent or permission....It really broke moms heart when she found out

Nothing chaps my hide more than someone trying to PUSH their beliefs on someone else when it isn't invited or appropriate.

also reminds me when that teenager came to my door claiming he knew the one true religion and told me my own was a heresy - Imagine that - Roman Catholicism has been around for a long long time. That one really pi**ed ma off.

Yeah - go figure

aside, whats new in Texas? - its been real cold here (30 degrees) all week - even snowed today

[sauropod]

You speak truth. This is a Pubbie/DemocRAT thing.

[plano29]

Some Jews write "G-d" to avoid the possible desecration of his name -- which could happen if someone prints out the thread and later decides to toss it in the garbage.

Now, not everyone agrees with this or believes it is necessary -- i.e. some avoid just writing the Hebrew name. That being said, however, I don't see why it is necessary to ridicule a practice whose intended purpose is to show some respect to the name of our creator.

[Jhoffa_]

Yeah.. I don't think 24/7 prayers with a loudspeaker would make much difference to most of these clods.

They rush right in and vote for immorality regardless.

I think many of them just "feel" better about it after a prayer.

[ApesForEvolution]

Is it ok to point out silly superstitions that have no basis in the Word?

[sauropod]

Thank you. I aim to serve.