THIS strikes me as cause for concern:
Just before President Barack Obama’s swearing in on Monday, a group of religious conservatives plans to hold a prayer breakfast featuring a number of anti-Obama conspiracy theorists. The Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast—billed as offering “prayer, worship, and reconciliation of the nation”—will feature the editor of the birther site WorldNetDaily and minister and media mogul Pat Robertson, according its website. The organizers of the prayer breakfast also claim the House and Senate chaplains will speak at their event—appearances that may conflict with the non-partisan nature of the chaplain job.
House Chaplain Rev. Patrick Conroy [above] and Senate Chaplain Barry Black (who has been in the newsrecently for his prayers during the fiscal cliff negotiations asking God to “save us from self-inflicted wounds”) are listed under the “Prayer for the Nation” portion of Monday’s event, just ahead of Rep. Michele Bachmann and Sen. Roy Blunt. But featured speaker Joseph Farah, the WorldNetDaily editor, has drawn the most attention, given his website’s regular assertions that President Obama was actually born in Kenya and allegations that he is “the first Muslim president.” The event also features “messianic rabbi-pastor and author” Jonathan Cahn, who believes that there are signs of the apocalypse encrypted in Obama’s communications.
The group Faithful America started a petition on Thursday asking the chaplains to skip this “anti-Obama” event, which gathered more than 5,000 signatures in less than a day. But it got weird when Mother Jones asked the chaplains if they were actually attending the event. “Chaplain Black has NOT agreed to attend,” Senate Chaplain Black’s office responded via email. “We are working with the organizers planning the event to get his name taken off any promotional materials associated with this.”
Another reason to start taxing churches.
Is the appointment of Chaplains to the two Houses of Congress consistent
with the Constitution, and with the pure principle of religious freedom?
In strictness the answer on both points must be in the negative. The Constitution
of the U.S. forbids everything like an establishment of a national religion.
The law appointing Chaplains establishes a religious worship for the
national representatives, to be performed by Ministers of religion, elected by a
majority of them; and these are to be paid out of the national taxes. Does not
this involve the principle of a national establishment, applicable to a provision
for a religious worship for the Constituent as well as of the representative
Body, approved by the majority, and conducted by Ministers of religion paid
by the entire nation.
The establishment of the chaplainship to Cong[res]s is a palpable violation of
equal rights, as well as of Constitutional principles: The tenets of the chaplains
elected [by the majority] shut the door of worship ag[ain]st the members
whose creeds & consciences forbid a participation in that of the majority. .
– James Madison