Hindu Prayer Interrupted in US Senate

[Nineveh]

To be fair, there are fundamentalist Hindus who have attacked Christians and attempted to deny them basic rights, as the nominally Christian demonstrators tried to do to a Hindu minister this time. Every religion has it's fruitcakes and hateful people who don't get the message.

In reality... here is your "force":

NEW DELHI, INDIA (BosNewsLife)-- At least 18 Christians, including children, were injured when Hindu militants armed with sticks, rods and other sharp weapons broke up a Christian seminar in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, the fourth such incident in as many days, a Christian news agency reported Monday, January 30. cite

INDIA (ANS) -- India continues to be an unsafe place for its tiny Christian minority. A mere 2.3 per cent of its 1.20 Billion population, and concentrated in eight of its 30 States, the Christian community averaged a crime against them every third day during 2006 - a total of 128 cases reported in the national or international media in the year. The figure may actually be much more. cite

 

[Nineveh]

It's even sadder when people think that "freedom of religion" means "for me but not for anyone else."

Yeah, especially when 70% claim a Deity but it appears didn't get a vote when a pagan is asked to pray for them and their nation in their capitol to a minority idol. Sounds pretty bigoted to me.

 

[Granite]

And it has stood for over 200 years. The more folks rely on a pullik skool understanding of American History, the more our freedoms are at stake. As I said, you may not like who our founders honored, but we sure have been able to enjoy His given freedoms for a long time. And will continue, until the re-education takes it ultimate toll.

Some honored your deity and others didn't. Anyway this is off topic: the behavior directed towards this Hindu was rude, appalling, and totally unnecessary.

 

[jeremiah]

Here you have confused sin (doing what God does not want you to do) with a crime (doing what the government does not want you to do).

Some sins can also be crimes, but what counts for God is whether or not they are sins.

Are you confused? In America and for Americans all three things, abortion, adultery and homosexuality used to be crimes. Just as they were sins and crimes in the Bible.

A few decades ago no one would have even thought of having a Hindu lead the U.S. Senate in prayer.

How is this nation doing, and how are our families doing since we started to allow these three crimes to become legal. Do we have peace? Do we have unity? Are we respected as a people and a nation? How are we doing? Do you really not see the connection?

Adultery has destroyed families. Abortion rights and homosexual rights have divided this nation right down the middle. The more acceptable they become, the less peace and protection that we have. Have you noticed the death and destruction they create directly and collaterally.

Even if they were "rights" it would be better to outlaw them just because of their obvious destructive and disharmonious consequences. Just as a Tuba player would be kicked out of the orchestra, if he blared his instrument on purpose during the violin solo!

Homosexuals, go back to your closets, and women can still find the "same" backstreet abortionists, who now put their signs up on Broadway. That is when this country had a "measure" of peace, and protection.

Only there is a lot less of either one, when a country, at the very least, does not declare these things, to be morally wrong, and illegal.

Perhaps you are not old enough to know simpler, and more peaceful times, in this land?

 

[Balder]

Nineveh, perhaps you're forgetting the 1796 treaty with Tripoli, written and signed under the presidencies of George Washington and John Adams, which states that the United States of America was "not in any sense founded on the Christian religion."

 

[Nineveh]

Some honored your deity and others didn't.

The majority claimed a Christian denom. I'm sorry you loath the history, but that's how it is.

 

[ApologeticJedi]

Some honored your deity and others didn't. Anyway this is off topic: the behavior directed towards this Hindu was rude, appalling, and totally unnecessary.

We've seen first hand .... had it been a Christian group praying and pagans or atheists heckling you would have been 100% behind that action. It happens all the time when it is a Christian, and you'd be happy about it.

I think it probably was a little rude. However I'm not sure that by itself makes it wrong. If they had asked me, I'd probably have counseled them not to do it.

 

[Nineveh]

Nineveh, perhaps you're forgetting the 1796 treaty with Tripoli, written and signed under the presidencies of George Washington and John Adams, which states that the United States of America was "not in any sense founded on the Christian religion."

The Mayflower Compact, which gave the founders their starting place for authority, is a good read. Google: Mayflower Compact.

 

[Nineveh]

Um, no. Go and look at all the documents. Not a one mentions Christianity or Jesus. In fact, the founders specifically stated that the United States was not based on Christianity.

Nature and Nature's God. Which doesn't mean chuck darwin or gaia. Do some homework.

Nope. The Supreme Court ruled that shouting down a person is the same crime as physically stopping him from speaking.

SCotUS also ruled it's ok to murder babies. Do you really need to hide behind men in robes to make your point about forcing this guy on religion? As far as I know he is still free to be a pagan.

Rather, they were trying to deny him the right to practice his religion, and to force him to submit to them.

It appears you are gunna stick with your over generalization of what happened.

They were attempting to stop a man from exercising his rights, and they were arrested. That's a crime, no matter what the religion is. Get used to it.

The true crime was having a pagan open the US Senate. But you can't even see where the founders stood on religion yet. So we will have to save this until you educate yourself.

That's exactly how it went down.

Nuttin' like a google search: Vid of event


For all your bluster about practicing religion in public, less was done to this guy than a kid in pullik skool reading a Bible on lunch break.

 

[Granite]

The Mayflower Compact, which gave the founders their starting place for authority, is a good read. Google: Mayflower Compact.

That was a colonial document that had next to nothing to do with the founding of our country. Once again, there is a misplaced sense of entitlement at work here.

 

[Granite]

We've seen first hand .... had it been a Christian group praying and pagans or atheists heckling you would have been 100% behind that action. It happens all the time when it is a Christian, and you'd be happy about it.

I think it probably was a little rude. However I'm not sure that by itself makes it wrong. If they had asked me, I'd probably have counseled them not to do it.

No, I'd be opposed to that as well. This behavior is immature and degrading no matter who's doing it or who it's directed towards. We are by design a pluralistic society, whether you guys like it or not.

 

[Nineveh]

That was a colonial document that had next to nothing to do with the founding of our country. Once again, there is a misplaced sense of entitlement at work here.

What you don't wanna acknowledge... let's just sweep under the rug. Lest we... oh... so we can forget.

 

[Granite]

What you don't wanna acknowledge... let's just sweep under the rug. Lest we... oh... so we can forget.

Nineveh, have you actually read the Compact? The Constitution and Compact are diametrically at odds: "In the name of God" versus "We the People" is a stark study in contrasts. Stick with the actual founding documents of this country and not colonial compacts drafted by loyalists to the crown.

 

[Balder]

The true crime was having a pagan open the US Senate.

Sorry, Nineveh, but how was that a crime? We do not live in a theocracy, as much as Bob and a bunch of his people wish we did.

 

[Nineveh]

Nineveh, have you actually read the Compact? The Constitution and Compact are diametrically at odds: "In the name of God" versus "We the People" is a stark study in contrasts. Stick with the actual founding documents of this country and not colonial compacts drafted by loyalists to the crown.

Well... then we need to ignore the Declaration which was us telling the king we were pulling out... followed by the Constitution.

Here is a little for you to know, or ignore... whichever suits your purpose of the day:

The Declaration of Independence contains a theological teaching because the ultimate source of our rights and duties is God. There are four references to God in the Declaration:

* The "laws of nature and of nature's God" entitle the United States to independence.
* Men are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights."
* Congress appeals "to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions."
* The signers, "with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence," pledge to each other their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.

The term "nature's God" refers to that which responsible for human (and the rest of) nature being what it is. It is a way of speaking of God insofar as God is knowable by human reason. In other words, our minds, unassisted by divine revelation, can figure out that there is such a thing as human nature, and that there are laws or rules that we must follow if we are to live justly and well. Reason can see that if we violate those laws, we will suffer such evils as death, slavery, or misery. A New England preacher explained the concept in this way: "The law of nature (or those rules of behavior which the Nature God has given men, . . . fit and necessary to the welfare of mankind) is the law and will of the God of nature, which all men are obliged to obey. . . . The law of nature, which is the Constitution of the God of nature, is universally obliging. It varies not with men's humors or interests, but is immutable as the relations of things." (Abraham Williams, Election Sermon, Boston 1762.) cite

No other nation on this planet offers such freedoms. When the majority feel like you do, granite, and the authority of our freedoms is completely ignored, you will have the nation you so desire to have. For those who seem to revel in the anarchy we already have, just wait, it will get "better".

 

[Nineveh]

Sorry, Nineveh, but how was that a crime? We do not live in a theocracy, as much as Bob and a bunch of his people wish we did.

If Deity A gives rights, how is it not a crime to thank deity b? Is this beyond you to contemplate... meditate on for even 30 seconds?

 

[Balder]

If Deity A gives rights, how is it not a crime to thank deity b? Is this beyond you to contemplate... meditate on for even 30 seconds?

Again: We do not live in a theocracy. There is nothing in the Constitution that makes it a crime to pray to a "pagan" God.

 

[Nineveh]

Again: We do not live in a theocracy.

We never did have. Now... meditate on my question for a sec.

There is nothing in the Constitution that makes it a crime to pray to a "pagan" God.

No, because the founders, who gave thanks to God for our rights, put the freedom to be a pagan in the very first one.

Now think for a second:

Dad gave me a fresh baked apple pie, I'm going to go thank the pagan down the street for it on behalf of my entire household. Make sense to you?

 

[ApologeticJedi]

No, I'd be opposed to that as well.

Sorry, not buying it. Whenever the video was posted where Operation Save America was praying and the two pagan protesters were heckling you lacked any out-rage in your comments against them because it was Christians being attacked.

Correct me if my memory is bad, but I believe you had no outrage then, so it is not a question of what you will do, but of what you have already shown.

We are by design a pluralistic society, whether you guys like it or not.

I'm not convinced that Hindu prayer necessary deserves respect, but apparently what you mean by pluralistic society is that I must adopt your belief that it does.

 

[ApologeticJedi]

Again: We do not live in a theocracy. There is nothing in the Constitution that makes it a crime to pray to a "pagan" God.

It is not a crime to pray to a pagan God, and Christians should not wish it any other way. It is, however, an affront to the real God and a sad statement on how disrespectful to Him our nation has become.

Which is worse, to be disrespectful to your dad, or to someone who is mocking your dad?