Hindu Prayer interupted in US Senate

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loona wynd
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Hindu Prayer interupted in US Senate

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XiizB9Lkqk&feature=youtu.be

The video above is one that shows a Hindu priest opening the US senate meeting for the day with a prayer. The prayer was actually written and said in a way that would be appropriate to many faiths including Christianity:

The prayer goes (since its hard to hear in the video over the protests):

Zed, the first Hindu to offer the Senate prayer, 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 the heaven. May He stimulate and illuminate our minds."

As the Senate prepared for another day of debate over the Iraq war, Zed closed with, "Peace, peace, peace be unto all."

NBC new source

The new article goes on to give a few points of view on the prayer and situation from a Christian (Mormon) to the executive director for the seperation of Church and state.

Zed, who was born in India, was invited by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Speaking in the chamber shortly after the prayer, Reid defended the choice and linked it to the war debate.
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"If people have any misunderstanding about Indians and Hindus," Reid said, "all they have to do is think of Gandhi," a man "who gave his life for peace."

"I think it speaks well of our country that someone representing the faith of about a billion people comes here and can speak in communication with our heavenly Father regarding peace," said Reid, a Mormon and sharp critic of President Bush's Iraq policies.

Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the protest "shows 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."Source continued

I was thrilled that a non christian was invited to deliver the prayer, not so thrilled that members of the US Senate would interrupt the prayer to start their own prayer over it and to interrupt the prayer in general. Its very disrespectful.

Edit: Apparently this was the second time that a Hindu priest has offered a prayer over Congress. The first time was in 2000. And the responses were along the same lines.

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Re: Hindu Prayer interupted in US Senate

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Yep ... Just goes to show that anything less than the complete separation of Church and State is really code for Christian dominance ... What strikes me is also that the Hindu priest's prayer is also really, really innocuous (that's a non-sectarian prayer for you!). If I hadn't known it was a Hindu delivering the prayer, it could easily have been a Christian prayer as well. It is amazing (though not surprising) how rude and disrespectful the Senators could be at even the merest mention of a non-Christian practice. They were yelling even before Zed had opened his mouth.
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loona wynd
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Re: Hindu Prayer interupted in US Senate

Post by loona wynd »

Xiao Rong wrote:Yep ... Just goes to show that anything less than the complete separation of Church and State is really code for Christian dominance ...
Part of that may have to do with the fact that the early settlers and colonists were practicing various forms of Christianity and fled to the "New World" as a place to freely practice their sect of Christianity. There was a time when in Europe many denominations of Christianity were persecuted (The Church of England and Catholics is an example). So the new world or the US was basically founded with the ideals that any form of worship would be accepted. Because they were all Christians at the time it seems that people assume even today that its freedom of the Christian religions. Which I can sort of understand given the culture when the country was founded (everyone even if you didn't follow that Church and religion went to Church on Sunday). Its easy to assume where the concepts of the US as a Christian Nation comes from.
Xiao Rong wrote:What strikes me is also that the Hindu priest's prayer is also really, really innocuous (that's a non-sectarian prayer for you!).
Its even the second Hindu prayer offered to the US Senate. The first prayer was just as innocuous:
September 14 2000 opening prayer to the Senate wrote: "O God, You are Omnipresent, Omnipotent, and Omniscient. You are in everything and nothing is beyond You. You are our Mother and Father and we are all Your children. Whatever You do is for our good. You are the ocean of mercy and You forgive our errors. You are our teacher and You guide us into righteousness.
"Today, in this great Hall, are assembled the elected Representatives of the people of the Nation. They are ready to perform their duties. God, please guide them in their thoughts and actions so they can achieve the greatest good of all.
"We end this invocation with a prayer from the ancient scriptures of India:
May all be happy
May all be free from disease
May all realize what is good
May none be subject to misery
Peace, peace, peace be unto all"
Source

That prayer fits any number of Gods really, but more specifically this prayer you can see could clearly have been spoken by a Christian member of the Clergy. Yet there were still many people upset about the use of Non-Christian prayer. Its as if they don't even want to listen to the content of the prayer.

The second prayer (here in full)
Zed's second Hindu prayer wrote:
"Let us pray.
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 the Heaven. May He stimulate and illuminate our minds.
Lead us from the unreal to the 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. :May no obstacle arise between us.
May the Senators strive constantly to serve the welfare of the world, performing their duties with the welfare of others always in mind, because by devotion to selfless work one attains the supreme goal of life. May they work carefully and wisely, guided by compassion and without thought for themselves.
United your resolve, united your hearts, may your spirits be as one, that you may long dwell in unity and concord.
Peace, peace, peace be unto all.
Lord, we ask You to comfort the family of former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson.
Amen."
source

The second prayer is even more open not even being an omnipotent and omnipresent God but the supreme deity. I actually think that the second prayer is open to more divine beings (Zeus, Odin, Allah, Yaweh, Jehova, Brahman) than the first prayer. Yet because the prayer was said by a non-Christian they had such a fit about this prayer.

Xiao Rong wrote:If I hadn't known it was a Hindu delivering the prayer, it could easily have been a Christian prayer as well.
I agree.
Xiao Rong wrote: It is amazing (though not surprising) how rude and disrespectful the Senators could be at even the merest mention of a non-Christian practice. They were yelling even before Zed had opened his mouth.
Its rude to interupt any prayer. But this was more than direspectful. This was majorly discrimination and in some cases could be considered a hatecrime.

The protests were (since you can't hear them exactly)
Senator Protests wrote:As Zed moved to start the prayer he was loudly interrupted by Ante Pavkovic who stood up in the gallery holding a Bible aloft and shouting "Lord Jesus, forgive us father for allowing a prayer of the wicked, which is an abomination in your sight. This is an abomination. We shall have no other gods before You. Lord Jesus, have mercy on our nation for allowing this abomination, this idolatry, for violating the First Commandment 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' God forgive our nation, in Jesus name, Amen."[3][8][9][10] The presiding officer for the Senate that morning was Senator Bob Casey, he immediately ordered the Sergeant-at-Arms to restore order in the Senate Chamber and the Capitol police restrained Ante who continued to shout first quoting Psalm 33:12"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord" and then one of the Christian Scripture's Ten Commandments "Thou shalt have no other gods before me", closing with "You are the One true living God."[10]

With Ante in custody, Zed began his prayer but was interrupted by Kathy Pavkovic who shouted a quote from John 14:6 "Jesus is the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Again Casey ordered the Sergeant-at-Arms to restore order and the Capitol Police moved to arrest Kathy Pavkovic.As she was restrained by the Sergeant-at-Arms, the Pavkovic's daughter Christan Renee Sugar yelled "Father, forgive us for betraying your Son Jesus!" and was also restrained.As they were escorted out they continued to direct their shouts at Zed, saying "No Lord but Jesus Christ!" and "There's only one true God!"

The three protesters belonged to Operation Save America/Operation Rescue and had traveled to D.C. from North Carolina "to lobby against a hate-crimes bill that would extend certain protections to gay people".[8][11] They were arrested by the Capitol police and charged with a misdemeanor for disrupting Congress.[7] While being handcuffed Mr. Pavkovic told reporters that they were motivated to act because they were "Christians and patriots".
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