That Good Ole Idolatrous Civil Religion....

Don Byrd of the Baptist Joint Committee's Blog From The Capital reported on Thursday that Christian protesters had disrupted the Senate's morning prayer -- being delivered for the first time in United States history by a Hindu chaplain.

See for yourself....

TPMCafe has details about the protesters with a play-by-play below....

The three protesters, who all belong to the Christian Right anti-abortion group Operation Save America, and who apparently traveled to Washington all the way from North Carolina, interrupted by loudly asking for God's forgiveness for allowing the false prayer of a Hindu in the Senate chamber.

"Lord Jesus, forgive us father for allowing a prayer of the wicked, which is an abomination in your sight," the first protester began.

"This is an abomination," he continued. "We shall have no other gods before You."

Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), serving as the presiding officer for the morning, immediately ordered them taken away — though they continued to yell at the Hindu cleric as they were headed out the door, shouting out phrases such as, "No Lord but Jesus Christ!" and "There's only one true God!"

The cleric, Rajan Zed of Reno, Nevada, was visibly nervous and uncomfortable as he then delivered the morning prayer. But to his credit, he soon regained his footing and was able to make it through in a dignified fashion.

Wiley Drake, an anti-abortion activist and former 2nd VP of the Southern Baptist Convention, released this statement:

"When not one of the 100 members of the U.S. Senate would object on the record, and in proper order, the opening of the U.S. Senate July 12, 2007, Christian observers had no choice but to speak from the gallery of the Senate. Had I been present I too would have stood and objected since none of the Senators would. I believe this was led of The Holy Spirit of God, and I also believe He is pleased with the action of His children and Ambassadors from The Kingdom of Heaven."

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council added:

“No one can legitimately challenge the fact that the God America refers to in the pledge, our national motto, and other places is the monotheistic God of the Jewish and Christian faith. I seriously doubt that Americans want to change the motto, ‘In God We Trust’… to ‘In gods We Trust.’ That is essentially what the United States Senate did today.”

Ironically, Tony left out that the prayer in question addressed the Deity Supreme and "seemed both monotheistic and largely non-sectarian."

Pastor Dan of Street Prophets has an excellent response to Tony Perkins....

Actually, in addition to being rather frightening, this is absolutely incorrect. The rationale behind allowing the phrase "In God We Trust" on US currency is exactly that it does not refer to a specific deity, but is in fact a general statement of morality. Yes, our nation's religious motto is allowed because it's a meaningless platitude. Were it not, it would be an unconstitutional endorsement of a specific religion.

But let's go back to the scary part: I don't ever want to hear again that Tony Perkins is not a theocrat. Oh, he might not want a nation run by religious leaders, but he's made abundantly clear that he wants the government to be of the Christians, by the Christians, and for the Christians - and I'm pretty sure he doesn't have my stripe of Christianity in mind, either. He has said he wants supremacy for his kind of faith pretty directly here, and I don't see how it's possible to spin his way out of it.

A classic example of how divisive that idolatrous civil religion can be....

Bruce Prescott conveys my thoughts best. He writes....

Genuine prayer is an act of worship. That is why it is not appropriate for it to be sponsored by civil government. The generic ceremonial prayers of civil religion and interfaith prayers are offensive to people of many faiths who take the scriptures of their diverse faiths seriously.