The single most surprising aspect of having a Hindu priest offer an opening prayer in the United States Senate is that it happened on July 12, 2007. I can't be the only person to whom that must seem a bit late. After all, Hindu scriptures have been read and admired in this country for more than 150 years. (Thoreau took the Bhagavad-gita with him to Walden Pond.) These days, more than one million Hindus call themselves Americans; from Queens, N.Y., to Laguna Beach, Calif., their communities are not exactly obscure. Note that the priest, Rajan Zed, is a resident of Nevada. And, of course, if Protestants, Roman Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Jews and Muslims are extended the courtesy of having one of their own pray for the Senate, then that symbolic honor can hardly be denied other religious groups.
On the other hand, perhaps it is fitting that the current Congress should be the venue for this particular religious "first," given that voters last November effectively extended the religious pluralism within the House of Representatives by electing a Muslim and two Buddhists to that chamber.
But it does seem strange that some would argue that Mr. Zed's prayer violated the idea of "one nation under God." That's not a phrase in binding law. The July 12 occasion was made possible by our First Amendment, utterly unrestrained (thank you, James Madison) by four words inserted into the Pledge of Allegiance during the depths of the Cold War by politicians eager to distinguish the United States from, as they said, "godless communism."
The invitation to Mr. Zed to pray in the Senate in itself testifies to one of our most basic freedoms, a thing for which many in the world still do really admire us.
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