Americans United does not support taxpayer-funded chaplains reciting prayers before meetings of government bodies – and that includes the U.S. Congress. Washington, D.C., is full of houses of worship where members can go for spiritual guidance. Silent prayer is also an option.
But a poorly reasoned Supreme Court decision from 1983 (Marsh v. Chambers) means we’re stuck with legislative prayers and even taxpayer-supported legislative chaplains. If we must have them, a little diversity would do the nation good.
The United States is home to hundreds of Christian denominations as well as many non-Christian faiths and various secular philosophies. When considering its daily devotional, Congress should acknowledge that range of religious and philosophical thought.
On July 12, a milestone will be reached when the Senate hears a prayer offered by a Hindu religious leader. Rajan Zed, a Hindu chaplain, will read the prayer. It has been reported that this will be a first for the Senate.
As a Hindu news site reported, “Zed is still to finalize the exact prayer he will deliver, but he is thinking something from Rig Veda, the oldest scripture of the world still in common use, dated from around 1,500 BCE; besides lines from Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita (Song of the Lord), both ancient Hindu scriptures. He plans to start and end the prayer with ‘OM,’ the mystical syllable containing the universe, which in Hinduism is used to introduce and conclude religious work. Full text of the prayer will be included in the Congressional Record.”
Expect the Religious Right to go insane. When a Hindu priest opened the session of the House of Representatives on Sept. 14, 2000, the Family Research Council sprung into action and showed its true bigoted colors.
“[W]hile it is true that the United States of America was founded on the sacred principle of religious freedom for all, that liberty was never intended to exalt other religions to the level that Christianity holds in our country’s heritage,” read an article in an FRC newsletter.
Asserted the FRC, “As for our Hindu priest friend, the United States is a nation that has historically honored the One True God. Woe be to us on that day when we relegate Him to being merely one among countless other deities in the pantheon of theologies.”
The FRC went on to equate Hinduism with Paganism. Religious pluralism, the FRC asserted, leads to “moral relativism and ethical chaos.”
Somehow, the country survived Venkatachalapathi Samuldrala’s prayer that day. And when Americans United exposed the group’s bigotry, the FRC found itself being hounded by reporters and quickly began to back-pedal. The material was removed from the group’s Web site, and an FRC spokeswoman went so far as to assert that the passage had been published accidentally.
Now the FRC gets a chance to really make amends. We challenge the group to issue a public statement affirming religious diversity in America and welcoming Hindus to our rich tapestry of faiths. If we must have such prayers before Congress, they should respect religious diversity. Surely the FRC has no problem with that?
Congress has a role to play too. Recent polls show that an increasing number of Americans hold no faith at all. It’s time to welcome them into the American experiment as well by inviting a non-theistic leader to offer a secular invocation before Congress.
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