Last week the U.S. Senate had a Hindu priest give their opening invocation. As Rajan Zed, director of interfaith relations at a Hindu temple in Parma, Ohio attempted to speak, three unruly "Christian patriots" seated in the public gallery shouted him down.
One of them chanted, "Lord Jesus, forgive us Father for allowing a prayer which is an abomination in your sight. You are the one, true living God."
Ante Nedlko Pavkovic, Katherine Lynn Pavkovic and Christan Renee Sugar were arrested and charged with unlawful disruption of Congress.
The conservative American Family Association had been asking its members to protest via email and letters to senators because Zed, the first Hindu to offer the senate prayer, would be "seeking the invocation of a non-monotheistic god."
Debi Hartley, a Christian from Mobile, Alabama, wrote her senator to express her outrage that a Hindu would be allowed to say a prayer in Congress. "This is where the problems lie in our country... compromise!"
"Our founders expected that Christianity — and no other religion — would receive support from the government as long as that support did not violate peoples' consciences and their right to worship," the conservative fundamentalist-evangelical Family Research Council said on its website.
What utter bullshit, Widow's Son said on his blog.
"They would have found utterly incredible the idea that all religions, including paganism, be treated with equal deference," the group's statement continued, according to an article on Belief.net. "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."
Woe indeed.
Watch it on YouTube or below.
Image: Shiva
Senate | Hindu | Religious Intolerance | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com
You know - all religions are created equal. But some are more equal than others.
ReplyDeleteGood to have you back, WS!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this -- I hadn't heard about it. All I can say is that I am cringing with embarassment, and trying not to fall into despair over the fact that our basic tenet of religious freedom cannot even be asserted on the floor of the Senate itself.
The GL of Alabama passed a new edict in November that states the KJV of the Bible is the ONLY book to be displayed on all altars in every lodge, while lodge is opened period.
ReplyDeleteOne step forward, two steps back... :(
ReplyDeleteAhh, Christian Love and tolerance....
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess I'll just have to object to ANY brother from the Grand Jurisdiction of Alabama from ever sitting in MY Lodge while this remains in force.
Sis Kelly: My feelings are hurt, I posted about this a little bit ago.
DAMN! Widow's Son, good to have you posting again.
TM
Re: the GL of Alabama's KJ Bible fetish: they are excluding good men of faith from their lodges--or making liars of them. Brotherly.
ReplyDeleteTM: LOL! I do believe I have been neglecting your lovely blog. I will consider myself invited and sashay over there sometime.
I want to thank to those protesters. They gave greater visibility to Hinduism.
ReplyDeleteHindu prayer in the senate is all over the news and all over the blogs.
Most people in the west are still ignorant of Hinduism. Media never ever talk about Hinduism. So incidents like this will open up serious discussions about Hinduism all over the media and in academic circles………
To the Protesters, I want to offer my gratitude for making a very big issue about this prayer……
Knowingly or unknowingly they are making more people interested in Hinduism …
Nobody can monopolize God or truth. God and Truth are universal.
Hindu scriptures state: "There is One and Only God which expresses itself in trillions of forms."
Ever heard the one about The Almighty having 99 names???
ReplyDeleteI believe The Almighty Yahweh revealed himself to man in several forms.
I also believe the current religious mindstate will be our downfall.
Oh, the horror! The horror!
ReplyDelete(Referring to the Christians, not the Hindu priest.)
The Christians involved in the incident may not be popular, but by God, I'll fight to the death to uphold THEIR freedom of speech. I'd wager that if the perps were Muslim, they would likely have gotten a pass. Liberty for all means just that.
ReplyDeleteActually if they were Muslims they would have been added to the terrorist watch list, been illegally held without trial, and eventually deported.
ReplyDeleteI'd fight, and have in Iraq and Africa, for their right to free speech within the confines of the laws justly enacted by our congress. If they were outside, no problem. but to disrupt congress while in session is a crime. These are just common criminals, not heroes of free speech.
Br. Arthur Peterson
Masonry said...
ReplyDeleteThe GL of Alabama passed a new edict in November that states the KJV of the Bible is the ONLY book to be displayed on all altars in every lodge, while lodge is opened period.
This is absolutely untrue. I have researched the edicts of the Grand Lodge of Alabama and no such edict exists. I have, this very day, face to face, conversed with MW Bro Jamie Smith, the Grand Master of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Alabama, and he said there was no such edict (although a similar idea had been discussed at last November's GL and subsequently thrown out). He further told me that such an edict would be unmasonic and that, "to have a non christian brother take his solemn obligation on a book not of his own faith would be as binding as for a christian brother to be obligated on a comic book." He instructed me to tell you that should you ever desire to publish in the future, you should back up such claims with the number of the edict.
Please be so good as to check your facts before posting.
— Lamar Roy
It was passed and will be added to the edicts of the work in November 2007. Any Alabama Mason knows that what is voted upon in one year is added to the work at the next session. I was told by a WM and the Jewish Brother who objected to it.
ReplyDeleteNow I guess you will now say Blacks are members of the GL of Alabama and Prince Hall Masons are recognized also? and Black and White Masons sit together in open lodges?
<<<<< Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteThe Christians involved in the incident may not be popular, but by God, I'll fight to the death to uphold THEIR freedom of speech. I'd wager that if the perps were Muslim, they would likely have gotten a pass. Liberty for all means just that. >>>>>>
some forms of speech are not protected, such as disrupting the floor in such a manner as this. It's not because they're Christians, because it wouldn't matter who was doing the disrupting.... it's a time, place, manner restriction, not a content-based one.
Big Difference.
Furthermore, I have a problem with people who want us to be tolerant of those who can't be tolerant of others. What a hypocrisy!
See "Dangerous Radicals of the Religious Right" on Yahoo to see how far America has fallen! Norm
ReplyDeletei love Jesus, Mohamed and Yahwey eventhough i`m hindu nuff said
ReplyDelete