RNS
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 13, 2007: (HPI note: We include here excerpts from a few more reports on the disrupted Hindu prayer in the US Senate. The only other non-Christian or non-Jew to give a Senate prayer was Wallace Mohammed, a Muslim who recited a prayer in 1992.) Conservative Christian groups protested the first appearance of a guest Hindu chaplain on the Senate floor Thursday (July 12). When Rajan Zed, public relations officer of the Indian Association of Northern Nevada, stepped to the Senate rostrum to pray, protesters began shouting from inside the chamber before he could begin. “Lord Jesus, forgive us, Father, for allowing the prayer of the wicked which is an abomination in your sight,” shouted one protester before the U.S. Capitol Police removed three people. Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, a representative for the Capitol Police, said a man and two women from Davidson, N.C., were charged with a misdemeanor count of unlawful conduct for disrupting Congress. Zed went on to pray: “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.”
Pastor Rod Parsley, president of the Columbus, Ohio-based Center for Moral Clarity, said in an interview that Zed’s appearance reflects American diversity, and said he had no objections. “My opinion would be that America is the marketplace of ideas and that we should open our doors and our hearts to those of differing religious persuasions than ours, and in a free and open society allow points of views to be heard as loudly and clearly as they can be made,” he said.