Christian activists disrupt Hindu prayer in US Senate
Posted in Activism & PoliticsJuly 26, 2007 at 9:59 am (UTC)
Christian activists briefly disrupted a Hindu invocation in the U.S Senate on Thursday, marring a historic first for the chamber and showing that fundamentalism is present and shouting in the U.S too.
Invited by the Senate to offer Hindu prayers in place of the usual Christian invocation, Rajan Zed, a Hindu priest from Reno, Nevada, had just stepped up to the podium for the landmark occasion when three protesters, said to belong to the Christian Right anti-abortion group Operation Save America, interrupted him by loudly asking for God’s forgiveness for allowing the ‘’false prayer'’ of a Hindu in the Senate chamber.
“Lord Jesus, forgive us father for allowing a prayer of the wicked, which is an abomination in your sight,” the first protester shouted. “This is an abomination. We shall have no other gods before You.”
Democratic Senator Bob Casey, who was serving as the presiding officer for the morning, immediately asked the sergeant-at-arms to restore order. But they continued to protest as they were headed out the door by the marshals, shouting, “No Lord but Jesus Christ!” and “There’s only one true God!”
Zed, sporting a saffron robe, a rudraksh mala round his neck, and a prominent tilak on his forehead, then nervously went through the invocation chosen from the Rig Veda and Bhagavad Gita.
“Let us pray,” he began, “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 heaven. May he stimulate and illuminate our minds.
“Lead us from the unreal to real, from darkness to light, and from death to immortality. May we be protected together. May we be nourished together. May we work together with great vigor. May our study be enlightening.”
The sentiments were evidently lost on the fundamentalists.
The organization Operation Save America later issued a statement confirming that Ante Pavkovic, Kathy Pavkovic, and Kristen Sugar were all arrested in the chambers of the United States Senate “as that chamber was violated by a false Hindu god.”
“The Senate was opened with a Hindu prayer placing the false god of Hinduism on a level playing field with the One True God, Jesus Christ,” the statement said, adding, “This would never have been allowed by our Founding Fathers.”
The Hindu prayer was also questioned by a Christian historian who maintained that 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.”
According to a Senate Chaplain Office communiqué, the purpose of the opening prayer is to seek God on behalf of, and for the Senators and the prayer should affirm our rich heritage as a Nation “under God.”
“In Hindu (sic), you have not one God, but many, many, many, many, many gods,” the Christian historian David Barton maintained. “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.”
But the disruption was deplored by the organization Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which said the incident showed the intolerance of many Religious Right activists.
“They say they want more religion in the public square, but it’s clear they mean only their religion.” Americans United Executive Director Rev. Barry W. Lynn, said.
“America is a land of extraordinary religious diversity, and the Religious Right just can’t seem to accept that fact,” Lynn said. “I don’t think the Senate should open with prayers, but if it’s going to happen, the invocations ought to reflect the diversity of the American people.”
According to US Senate website, “…Throughout the years, the United States Senate has honored the historic separation of Church and State, but not the separation of God and State…all sessions of the Senate have been opened with prayer, strongly affirming the Senate’s faith in God as Sovereign Lord of our Nation…”
Typically, the Senate Chaplain delivers the opening invocation, but sometimes guest chaplains are invited from all over the country to read the prayer.
Although priests from other faiths such as Islam and Judaism have delivered prayers in the Congress, this is the first time Hindu invocations were delivered on the Senate floor since its formation in 1789.
Zed said he wanted to recite the mantras in Sanskrit, but the Senate Chaplain’s Office communiqué clearly stated, “It must be given exclusively and entirely in the English language.”
Source: http://timesofi…/2199387.cms
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July 26th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
To deny the Senate the privilege of hearing enlightening words, and to deny the American people–including those within Senatorial chambers–the full intent and meaning of the First Amendment, regardless of the faiths of the Founders, is to fly in the face of the entire reason this country was started: freedom.
Who is to say that God is a white Anglo-Saxon Jesus-centered human-anthropomorphic being with two arms and two legs? Why could not God have an aspect–note the word *aspect*–that has several appendages representing the far reach of the Divine, not to mention, say, the elephant head of Ganesha, the blue face of Krishna, or the many-armed, many-legged Goddess Sarasvati, among many others?
You can say “One God,” but ‘God’ means many things to many people.
August 3rd, 2007 at 8:21 pm
More wars have been started over the Christian’s god than for any other reason. The activists today are just fueling the fire for one more war where ever they can fight it. It just so happens that this time it is on American soil not else where in the world. They still think that they have “won” all of the others by “converting” the people of other cultures to their own. I wish that they would all take the log out of thier own eyes than to pick the speck out of someone else’s. There bible even says (summarized) to go out and if they are not welcomed to dust the dirt of the place off of their feet and to turn, walk away, and never look back.
November 11th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
This is outrageous! In a country where Religion and Government are supposedly different…I am ashamed to live in a country that not only oppresses different religions, races, and cultures-but also preaches to others to accept uniqueness….such a hypocritical place….it saddens me so… :’-(
I apologise on behalf of the people I am clustered with - Americans. America was founded on the idea of tolerance of all kinds….but now, I see it was built by prejudice.
December 2nd, 2007 at 2:32 pm
has america gone mad to let these people who pray the false gods to come in and do their prayer do they let the christians do the same in their country..
This is a worse case of how america is loosings its soul
December 9th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
wow
first
separation or church and state, remember??
there should not be any praying at all in the senate, not as a part of the normal everyday function anyway.
second
arent christians sooooooo loving like their god teaches??? when did jesus become a god anyway???
“The Senate was opened with a Hindu prayer placing the false god of Hinduism on a level playing field with the One True God, Jesus Christ,”
i thought he was the son of god???
ok, im done.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:02 am
That Is some bull. Why Can’t people get along? The Hindu’s have a right to pray as they please. This was to be a historical event, We have freedom of religon In the USA. To some it must only mean Freedom of Christananity. If they are going to pray in congress everyone should be able to pray diffrent. The Hindu paryer sounded very nice and shouldn’t have offended anyone, and the part about Hindus worship meny gods is a little off. Hindus worship meny forms of the One. The same as most Pagans.
December 17th, 2007 at 2:57 am
I cant believe this happened. Even though not religious I still believe all religions should be resprected. And our government should resprect all religious leaders. This was someone who had been asked to pray. And it is my belief prayer should be private and therefore not opening a meeting of any kind.