The American Family Network (the press arm of Donald Wildmon's AFA) has taken the lead in denouncing the prayer, with news headlines like "Senate Prayer: Starting Countdown to Judgment," a suggestion that this "watershed" event just may be prove to be God's tipping point...(please document all witnessed signs of the apocalypse in comments below). Yesterday's story highlighted "historian Barton's" misgivings:

WallBuilders president David Barton is questioning why the U.S. government is seeking the invocation of a non-monotheistic god. Barton points out that since Hindus worship multiple gods, the prayer will be completely outside the American paradigm, flying in the face of the American motto "One Nation Under God."

"In Hindu, you have not one God, but many, many, many, many, many gods," the Christian historian explains. "And certainly that was never in the minds of those who did the Constitution, did the Declaration [of Independence] when they talked about Creator -- that's not one that fits here because we don't know which creator we're talking about within the Hindu religion."

Then, of course, he moves to an appeal to majority, as if our constitutional rights might be up for a vote:

Barton says given the fact that Hindus are a tiny constituency of the American public, he questions the motivation of Senate leaders.

And, finally when all else fails, he falls back on plain old derogatory assessments of the Hindu faith:

"This is not a religion that has produced great things in the world," he observes.

But of course, he covers his own backside by insisting there are no legal problems in opening a session with prayer...no, the problems here are more, well, personal:

[W]hile Barton acknowledges there is no constitutional problem with a Hindu prayer in the Senate, he wonders about the political side of it. "One definitely wonders about the pragmatic side of it," he says. "What is the message, and why is the message needed? And will it actually communicate anything other than engender with folks like me a lot of questions?"

So there you have it. Freedom for me, but not for thee. David wants our government to be rife with acts of free religious expression, just not so free as to put him outside his comfort zone, or leave him with "a lot of questions." No, indeed, what good is religion if we can't use it to remain comfortable and unquestioning?

In all honesty, apart from the chance to share a so-this-is-how-they-must-feel learning moment with my Christian brothers and sisters like Mr. Barton, I am not any more excited about opening the Senate of the United States with a Hindu prayer than I am a Christian prayer. That ceremonial prayers like this one have been found constitutional doesn't mean they are wise, from a religious perspective. There is, for sure, symbolic value in this reminder of our nation's religious diversity, but at the same time, prayers are deeply personal expressions, not roadshows. The necessary compromise of state involvement diminishes the integrity of faith.

Though the situation he describes is different, I'm reminded of a part of Randall Balmer's recent speech to a group of Baptists at the Religious Liberty Council Luncheon in Washington, D.C.:

I attended a meeting a few years back where a representative of the Religious Right in this town actually proposed that the way to maneuver around the Supreme Court was to have schoolchildren recite a Hindu prayer on Monday, a Jewish prayer on Tuesday, a Christian prayer on Wednesday, and so on. No real Baptist would stand for such tomfoolery, for Baptists, following the lead of Roger Williams, recognize the perils to the faith of too close an association with the state. I, for one, have no interest in having my daughter or my sons recite a Shintõ prayer at the beginning of each school day, much less a prayer written by Congress or by the state legislature or even by a local school board. Baptists, of all people, understand that making prayer rote and obligatory makes prayer into a mockery.

Read the whole speech.

[UPDATE: TPMCafe has video of the Senate prayer here, as well as more info on the Christian disrupters.]