Posted on 04/03/2003 6:25:58 PM PST by honway
A Maryland minister was barred from giving the opening prayer in the state Senate after he refused to drop a reference to Jesus.
The Rev. David N. Hughes of the Trinity and Evangelical Church of Adamstown, Md., intended to round out his invocation yesterday with the line, "In Jesus' name, Amen." But the sergeant at arms – on the orders of Senate President Thomas Mike Miller Jr. – shut the reverend out of the body's chambers.
Miller issued the orders after two Jewish lawmakers threatened to stage a boycott of the legislative session if the phrase was not removed.
"I'm shocked by the response. I've never had this happen in 26 years," Hughes told the Frederick News-Post. "It just makes me feel that they've taken away my right as an American to pray, and this is the seat of government, and that's scary."
The pastor – a Vietnam veteran – was invited to give the prayer by Republican Sen. Alex Mooney. Hughes was Mooney's fourth guest. The other three were Jewish rabbis.
Opening up legislative sessions with prayer is a longstanding tradition in Maryland, as it is in states across the country. Mooney told WorldNetDaily no one had been barred from giving an invocation before. He sees irony in yesterday's "censorship."
Maryland state Republican Rep. Alex Mooney
"We were the first state to address religious tolerance in our state charter," he told WorldNetDaily. "This just shows a lack of tolerance for peoples' religious views."
Mooney recalled numerous instances of invocations referencing Jesus throughout the four years that he has been in office.
But at the beginning of the session this year, a string of invocations by Baptist preachers invoking the name Jesus Christ sparked debate on the issue. Miller appealed to lawmakers for tolerance and urged they stick to guidelines that call for invocations to be of an ecumenical nature and respectful of all faiths.
Webster's New World Dictionary defines ecumenical as "promoting cooperation or better understanding among differing religious faiths."
Since the debate, the Senate clerk screens prayers ahead of time and flagged the written text submitted by Hughes.
When Sens. Ida Ruben and Gloria Hollinger – both of whom are Jewish – heard of the reference, they asked Mooney to strike it.
"I said, 'Hey, I'll let him pray however he wants to pray. I'm not going to censor him and tell him how he needs to pray,'" Mooney told WND.
Ruben told the Frederick News-Post she then urged Hughes to substitute "messiah" for Jesus, telling him the reference could offend non-Christians and goes against the guidelines.
Neither Ruben nor Miller returned calls seeking comment.
"This is part of my faith," Hughes responded, according to Mooney. "The Gospel says when you pray, pray in Jesus' name."
The senators next asked to be excused from the floor during the prayer.
Paradoxically, a walk-out over a Muslim cleric's prayer opening a Washington state legislative session last month backfired on one Christian lawmaker.
Washington state Republican Rep. Lois McMahan
As WorldNetDaily reported, Rep. Lois McMahan, a Republican from Gig Harbor, Wash., refused to participate in the prayer and declared, "My god is not Muhammed."
"The Islamic religion is so ... part and parcel with the attack on America. I just didn't want to be there, be a part of that," she said in an interview with the Seattle Post Intelligencer. "Even though the mainstream Islamic religion doesn't profess to hate America, nonetheless it spawns the groups that hate America."
But a day later, McMahan apologized on the floor of the state House of Representatives amid mounting furor over her stance.
Debate over invocations is raging elsewhere in the country. As WorldNetDaily reported, several Southern California cities are grappling with threats from both sides of the issue.
Under pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union to quit using the name Jesus Christ in invocations, the city of Lake Elsinore, in Riverside County, decided to eliminate mention of "religious figures." The decree subsequently had the apparent effect of eliminating the prayer altogether, as no local pastors would accept invitations to deliver the prayer, and city councilors adopted moments of silence instead.
The ACLU contends that praying at the request of a government entity is a violation of the First Amendment's prohibition against the establishment of religion.
But the nonprofit United States Justice Foundation, which threatened to sue the city if it failed to reverse its decision, maintains telling a pastor what to pray is a violation of his First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and religion.
The notion of "separation of church and state" is derived from the dissenting opinion of the 1946 Supreme Court case Everson vs. Board of Education, which upheld a program allowing parents to be repaid from state funds for the costs of transportation to private religious schools. The court required only that the state maintain neutrality in its relations with various groups of religious believers.
"The decision in Everson does not rise to the level of being a battle cry for those who would wish to remove every vestige of religion from the public forum," USJF litigation counsel Richard Ackerman asserts.
"There's a push in this country to remove religion from society," Mooney echoed, "from the Supreme Court's decision on the Pledge to the ACLU going after all the Ten Commandments posted across the country. ... Nothing in the church-state relationship allows censorship and the removal of religious values from society."
Then why not just have the janitor deliver it? Or a Muslim? Or anybody at all?
What you're asking for is a speech, as the beliefs of Jews and Christians are completely exclusive.
I don't have a problem with respecting the opinions of Jews who happen to be present, but to ask the Christian to pray in something other than Christ's name is ridiculous.
That concession would be insulting to anyone with any, real religious values at all. It's better not to have the prayer in the first place if it requires dishonesty on the part of the minister.
Always enjoy your comments. Keep the Faith.
It is nice to finally understand each other.
As I said earlier, we have much more in common that what we have different. And we should work together against the Leftist --- whether from Jewish of Christian families --- to bring this nation back to its Christian roots.
Regards, TQ.
Hmmmm, Patrick Henry, George Washington, James Madison and even (probable Deist) Benjamin Franklin all seemed to take religion very seriously, giving it (at least) the utmost respect--all major founding fathers and none from New England. Jefferson's career was at risk when simply accused of being Deist (he wasn't....more accurately TJ can be called a proto-Unitarian) a charge he denied, by the way...
Of more than 50 elite founders, Jefferson and Franklin were the only ones close to being Deist...the rest, for the most part were regular church goers, many mentioning God (or "Providence") many times in their personal correspondance. The normal language of Jefferson and Washington, sound like that of someone deep within the "religious right" of today--which is why its so strange people, perhaps like yourself, are so distrustful and afraid of religious Christians today.
No one had ANY "sufferage" before the USA came along--as we were the first democractic republic since ancient Greece. The fact that it took a while for "universal sufferage" to be fully realized, doesn't tarnish the vision and ideals of our founders one iota...
You sound like you had too much of a dose of those unoriginal Marxist assumptions in your own education, in order to inaccurately portray the founders like that....
You are not a standard-bearer. And certainly do not strike me as a logician.
Ummm...Because Satan hates the name of Jesus?
By no means do i say that Jews are not Americans. They are most certainly welcome here.
Israel is the best ally we have at the moment (cept' maybe the Brits).
I think you are still not comprehending fully what I am trying to say, but no worries.
C U soon. 'Pod
This is cure but not true: an important word is implied but missing. A prayer designed solely for the audience is not a prayer.
A minister selecting and formulating a prayer for a particular occasion, although surrounded by his correligionists, designs a prayer.
Any corporate religious experience is collective, hence takes into account those present. A priest at a service for the youth of the congregation, selects and designs his prayers to make them effective for the appropriate age. He does not betray his religion, nor is he lacking deapth.
In every religion there is a personal element and behavior, and there are corporate experiences. Collective prayers are designed for the collective present.
As is said, cute but not true.
BTW, we are having a "support the troops" rally in DC on 12 April.
'Pod dangles carrot: Ann Coulter will be there. < broad hint> ;-)
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