I don’t know what law would prohibit this. Nor do I think it is an issue of separation of church and state. It is a question of appropriateness, however.

If there were Hindu members of the Senate, then it would be appropriate from a pastoral sense. If there is not a member being represented in the Senate, then there would be no point in having a Hindu pray because, as I understand it, this is a prayer for the Senators. I personally don’t see any problem with representatives of a religion, practiced by the members, praying.

A physician’s primary responsibility is to care for his patient, to do no harm (which is in the Hippocratic Oath), to help in healing, and to protect the patient's life; that is an absolute obligation. If there is anything he has to do that might in any way force him to compromise his faith, then as a serious believer he would have to fully inform the patient and then help the patient get another doctor.

Thirty-four years ago this week, as a nominal Christian at best, I was witnessed to by a friend. In a flood of tears in his driveway, I called out to God to take me just as I was.

So this week I celebrate the thirty-fourth anniversary of my conversion to Christ.

A lot of people described it as a foxhole conversion, because it came in the darkest days of Watergate. But thirty-four years later I am more convinced in the reality of Jesus Christ than I am in my own reality.

Another person who had a dramatic conversion was the Apostle Paul, who wrote the following: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV).

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The decision by the ELCA to ignore biblical standards of moral behavior is, given the history of modern mainline Christianity, not surprising, but it is deeply distressing.

Who wants to belong to a church that doesn't treat biblical teachings as truth? Would I sacrifice my life for something I didn't believe to be true? Of course not. But martyrs from the first century on have.

This kind of decision dishonors our Lord, dishonors the Church, and dishonors those who have kept the faith for two millennia.

This is why John Gresham Machen said, almost a century ago, that liberal Christianity is not a brand of Christianity: it is simply another religion altogether -- liberalism.