Hindu Prayers in Congress

The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion and insists that there are no religious tests to qualify to serve in Congress. In today's Congress we have a couple of Buddhists, a Muslim, and at least one non-theist. There are no Hindus, that I know of, but probably a few Yoga practitioners.

Well apparently America's religious freedom only goes so far, because when Hindu chaplain Rajan Zed of Reno offered a prayer to open the Senate yesterday he was heckled by a few Christian protesters.

"Alleged" or should I say "self-proclaimed" historian and constitutional scholar David Barton of Wall Builders (I make these comments because he's not a trained historian but parades himself as if he were) complains that this just not right -- having a polytheist opening Congress:

WallBuilders president David Barton is questioning why the U.S. government is seeking the invocation of a non-monotheistic god. Barton points out 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."

"In Hindu, you have not one God, but many, many, many, many, many gods," the Christian historian explains. "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 there is another alternative, perhaps a better one, and that's to give up this old tradition of Senate Chaplains. But if we're going to have prayers in the Senate then it's appropriate that all religious groups have their shot!