The sanctity of this great nation was violated when a Hindu priest, Rajan Zed, was invited to give the opening prayers at the US Senate. The same government that brought us segregation and the Iraq War had its moral high ground compromised when it was forced to tolerate the following invocation:Let us 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 heaven. May he stimulate and illuminate our minds.
As you can imagine, these blasphemous pagan words of peace and enlightenment are a threat to our American way of life. Fortunately, Christian activists were on hand Thursday*, July* 12 to voice their discontent at this infiltration of polytheism into our Senate* and into our God-given democracy*.
Lead us from the unreal to real, from darkness to light, and from death to immortality. May we be protected together. May we be nourished together. May we work together with great vigour. May our study be enlightening.
George Washington, Neptune, Venus, and Mercury looked down from atop the Capitol Rotunda in disbelief at this Hindu priest's audacious affront on America's Judeo-Christian monotheistic ideology.
The Apotheosis of Washington, by Constantino Brumidi depicting the ascension of George Washington into the pantheon of Roman gods.*The consequential fact that Thursday, July, Senate, and democracy are respectively named for a Norse god, a Roman emperor who claimed to be a god, a Roman legislative body of pagans, and an Athenian political system of pagans is totally unrelated to the fact that polytheistic thought should not be tolerated by our society, no matter how peaceful or enlightened, especially now, during our war against religious fundamentalism.
5 comments:
Such a fragile country US is, that its sanctity is violated by openeing prayers of a hindu priest?? I don't find any wrong in the prayer. If this all is threat to american way of life..then certainly there is pressing need to change the American way of life! I thought America a society having respect for all the religion, sects...but all that glitters is not gold.you people badmouth polytheism,...but practise yourself. You pray GOD and you pray God's son...Jesus..you pray Mary...and then criticise polytheism.huh...rather than trying to find the words of enlightenment..a fool will always try to criticise the things!!
kalps,
irony: n. The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.
Hi snehal..
seems you thought to comment over mine..but then settled just for my name...or may be i couldn't understand what you mean. anyways i am waiting for your comments
kalps,
In my last comment, I posted the definition of irony to clarify that I wrote this post with a sense of irony. That is to say, I took the position of religious intolerance to show how foolish and un-American such religious intolerance actually is. From your first comment, I wasn't sure if you understood that.
Honestly, though I'm cynical about many things going on in America the past few years, I am optimistic about religious tolerance here. While scenes of intolerance tend to make the news, America is perhaps one of the most tolerate places on Earth. Jews are safer to practice Judaism in the US than in Israel, Shias and Sunnis are safer here than in the Middle East, and Hindus are safer here than in India.
While intolerance does occur, it's usually harmless and merits little more than sarcastic commentary on a minor blog.
I am sorry for not being able to identify the satirical tone in your post. And As you mentioned I also felt that US society is more tolerant for all religions and races but this incident was a big blow on my belief.
Thanks for elucidating your point!
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