“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.”
These words were not the utterances of a priest at a pagan temple, nor were they the invoking of some New Age group. These were the opening words at the US Senate on Thursday. For the first time since the Senate was formed in 1789, a Hindu chaplain led the openings prayers in the upper chamber.
Guest Chaplain Rajan Zed, who directs interfaith relations at a Hindu temple in Reno, Nevada, prayed for peace and unity of spirit. He asked the “Deity Supreme” to, “Lead us from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, and from death to immortality.” He continued to emphasize unity, enlightenment, and being in one accord.
Sorry Mr. Zed, but unity is one thing the Senate is not good at. And praying to the ambiguous god of the earth, or the sky, or the soul of Heaven probably won’t do much good.
It wasn’t Krisha, Ganesh, Shiva, Maya, or any of the other hundreds of Hindu gods that the Founding Fathers prayed to.
In a handwritten manuscript book, George Washington recorded this prayer.
“O Most Glorious God, in Jesus Christ, my merciful and loving Father; I acknowledge and confess my guilt in the weak and imperfect performance of the duties of this day. I have called on Thee for pardon and forgiveness of my sins, but so coldly and carelessly that my prayers are become my sin, and they stand in need of pardon.”
You’ll notice the lack of Hindu gods in George Washington’s prayer. Hiduism plays no role in America’s heritage. However, hundreds of books document the strong Christian foundation of this country. And it is this heritage that gives the Senate the tradition of opening up its proceedings with a Christian prayer.
John Quincy Adams, during a 4th of July celebration address, specifically tied the founding of this nation to the Christian faith.
“Why is it that, next to the birth day of the Saviour of the World, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day? Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birth-day of the Saviour? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the corner stone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity.”
The House Judiciary Committee took up the constitutionality of chaplains in Congress in 1854. In its findings, the committee specifically cited Christianity as vital to America.
“[W]hereas the great vital and conservative element in our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and divine truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it eminently becomes the representatives of a people so highly favored to acknowledge in the most public manner their reverence for God: therefore, Resolved, That the daily sessions of this body be opened with prayer and that the ministers of the Gospel in this city are hereby requested to attend and alternately perform this solemn duty.”
After guest chaplain Zed finished his prayer, Senator Harry Reid saw it fit to comment on the blessing. “I think it speaks well of our country that someone representing a faith of about a billion people comes here and can speak in communication with our Heavenly Father regarding peace,” he said.
It sounds like Senator Reid wasn’t listening to Mr. Zed’s prayer. If Senator Reid is referring to the God of the Bible when he says “Heavenly Father,” then he and the guest chaplain are talking about two different things. The Bible does not support the idea of a god who dwells in the earth, but also in the sky and heaven. (In fact, traditionally it is someone else who is in the “heart” of the earth.)
This idea of compatibility among all faiths is a myth. The world contains more Muslims than Hindus, but that doesn’t mean the Senate should invite Osama Bin Laden or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to give an opening prayer to Allah.
Our country has a specifically Christian heritage. And we should protect and preserve this heritage by continuing the tradition of Christian chaplains asking God’s blessing on the proceedings in Congress.
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While many of the founders were not "traditional" Christians in any sense, or even traditionally religious (deism is not a religion), they had the confidence they did to embark on the bold experiment of America because they accepted the principles and teachings of Christianity in practice! And they also had the confidence that the entirety of the American people believed in those principles. Faith and reason, individual responsibility, progress in building the kingdom of God on earth, while eyes focused on the ultimate kingdom of God beyond this mortal life, and not least of which, law, founded on reason and upon God's will for mankind, the natural law as man's responsible participation in the divine law. We lose that, and the constitution will not be worth the paper upon which it is written.
Great post!
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