Activists Disrupt Hindu Prayer
I was absolutely shocked to read this article about Christian activists who heckled the first Hindu to be invited to the Senate to lead a Hindu prayer.
In a historical moment, Rajan Zed, a Hindu chaplain, was invited to perform the invocation for the Senate, a prayer that is typically Christian. Just before he was able to begin, though, three individuals from the Christian Right anti-abortion group Operation Save America began 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."
The presiding officer for the morning, Senator Bob Casey, immediate asked the sergeant-at-arms to restore order. As they were led out, they continued shouting their protests: "No Lord but Jesus Christ" and There's only one true God."
Rajan Zed, unnerved by the incident, then continued with his invocation. He said:
"Let us pray. We meditate on the transcendental glory of the deity supreme, who is insie the heart of the earth, inside the life of the sky an inside the soul of heaven. May he stimulate an illuminate our minds. Lead us from the unreal to real, from darkness to light, and from death to immortality. May we be protecte together, may we be nourished together. May we work together with great vigour. May our study be enlightening."A video of the incident can be viewed here.
A copy of this video is also found on the website of Operation Save America, proud of the hate they have spread. They issued the following press release, condemning the members of the Senate for not joining in their protests:
WASHINGTON, July 12 /Christian Newswire/ -- 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. This would never have been allowed by our Founding Fathers.I am ashamed that when our government finally becomes progressive enough to invite a Hindu to lead the prayer, he faces such treatment.
"Not one Senator had the backbone to stand as our Founding Fathers stood. They stood on the Gospel of Jesus Christ! There were three in the audience with the courage to stand and proclaim, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' They were immediately removed from the chambers, arrested, and are in jail now. God bless those who stand for Jesus as we know that He stands for them." Rev. Flip Benham, Director, Operation Save America/Operation Rescue.
Labels: hinduism, operation save america, rajan zed, senate
posted by Rori @ 11:11 PM
4 Comments:
At 8:17 PM,
Will Brideau said…
That is thoroughly horrible and disgusting. I think Rori's last sentence hits the nail on the head. When I see this kind of nonsense, I want to become really irate and just go off.
Should one be tolerant of hate and intolerance?
At 8:46 AM,
Satoshi said…
I won't criticize religious people, UNLESS they attack people believing in other religions.
I mean, why do they impose their own ideas on others? Obviously, they have to respect others' rights to believe in other religions. Do they think the world is imcomplete unless their values spread all over the world or conquer the world? Why do we have to have the same thoughts?
I know what they do is what they believe in. I, of course, would like to respect their rights to believe in the religion. But they are imposing.
What I don't understand mostly is the term "one true God." OK, I know there are some religions saying there is only one God. But, what is one "true" God? True? This is not a true/false question. When they become judgemental based on true/false, they create the process of de-humanizing people believing in other religions.
When people start to say true/false about religions, it causes a lot of troubles. There is no true or false God.
I don't think imposing their skewed value on others is what their God wants them to do. But only if so, I would violate my logic I mentioned before, and would say their God is false.
At 11:07 AM,
Rori Picker said…
Satoshi, you make some very powerful points here.
First, I want to comment that while I agree with you that the ideal would be for each religion to respect other religions and not impose their own ideas upon another, some religions firmly believe that their mission is to spread their message. I do not say this to condone embarrassing another human being in front of the entire country, or acts as extreme as killing another person for not being a "believer," but just as we do not want them to impose their values upon us, we must remember that NOT spreading the message of their religion is a value that WE are imposing upon THEM. That leaves your head spinning now, doesn't it?
Secondly, I want to tell you how much I appreciate your line: "OK, I know there are some religions saying there is only one God. But, what is one "true" God? True? This is not a true/false question." I don't know when God became a true/false question, but I have to say that if this world is all one big test, I don't think we are scoring too high...
At 11:57 AM,
Satoshi said…
Thank you, Rori, for leaving your comments.
One thing I want to clarify is that I don't think it is bad to spread religious thoughts and values to others. People doing this think it is an act of good will, helping people know good things. I won't say it is bad.
But, I do want to say how they spread their messages matters. Introducing their religion, and giving others a chance to accept it or not are the right procedure, I think.
But if they say "This is TRUE religion and TRUE God. This is only choice you can take," it is obviously an imposing action, right? Respecting how others think about the religion is important, I think. Even though the person don't believe in the religion people introduce, it is not bad at all. It's their right to choose.
As a multi-culturalist, I really hate acts of imposing values. You cannot over-simplify this world with only one religion. There are a number of religions in this world. And I believe that different religions can co-exist peacefully side by side if they respect others. Many of their values are overlapping, and some of them go against each other. But so what? If this world is tinted with only one color, it's so boring. I don't want to live in that kind of monotone world.
I think, respecting others, and being tolerate others' different ideas are always a key to be successful in this complicated, diversifed world.
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