Housekeeping

by Danny Fisher

First things first: I owe a debt of gratitute and an apology to my good friend Erick. Erick sent me an article last month–about a story I had missed–and I haven’t gotten around to posting about it until now.

The story concerns comments made by Rep. Bill Sali (R-ID) regarding Hindu chaplain Rajan Zed’s recent benediction at the U.S. Senate. (Regular readers might remember discussion of the event in this post, this post, this post, and this post.)

    Last month, the U.S. Senate was opened for the first time ever with a Hindu prayer. Although the event generated little outrage on Capitol Hill, Representative Bill Sali (R-Idaho) is one member of Congress who believes the prayer should have never been allowed.

    “We have not only a Hindu prayer being offered in the Senate, we have a Muslim member of the House of Representatives now, Keith Ellison from Minnesota. Those are changes–and they are not what was envisioned by the Founding Fathers,” asserts Sali.

    Sali says America was built on Christian principles that were derived from scripture. He also says the only way the United States has been allowed to exist in a world that is so hostile to Christian principles is through “the protective hand of God.”

    “You know, the Lord can cause the rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike,” says the Idaho Republican.

    According to Congressman Sali, the only way the U.S. can continue to survive is under that protective hand of God. He states when a Hindu prayer is offered, “that’s a different god” and that it “creates problems for the longevity of this country.”

I find Rep. Sali’s comments troubling for a number of reasons. For one thing, they’re terribly exclusivistic and they marginalize the hard work of fellow Americans such as Chaplain Zed and Rep. Ellison. Rep. Sali also displays a very offputing theocratic streak in his suggestion that the founding fathers didn’t intend non-Christians to take part in the affairs of state. But what stands out to me the most in his comments, though, is his remarkable level of ignorance about what this country has become. For all his talk about “the founding fathers,” “changes,” and the “longevity” of the United States, he doesn’t seem to have a very good sense of who makes up the United States in 2007. I have quoted Diana L. Eck on this point, and I will do so again now:

    In the past thirty years [following the Immigration Act of 1965] massive movements of people both as migrants and refugees have reshaped the demography of our world. Immigrants around the world number over 130 million, with about 30 million in the United States, a million arriving each year. The dynamic global image of our times is not the so-called clash of civilizations but the marbling of civilizations and peoples. Just as the end of the Cold War brought about a new geopolitical situation, the global movements of people have brought about a new georeligious reality…“We the people of the United States” now form the most profusely religious nation on earth. [1]

How can a congressman have such a poor perspective on the religious demographics of his country?


A while back, Erick and I were also exchanged emails about Aidan Delgado’s new book, The Sutras of Abu Ghraib: Notes from a Conscientious Objector. Delgado is a Buddhist and one of few veterans of the current Iraq War to be granted a discharge as a conscientious objector.

Writer Dewey Hammond is currently featuring an exclusive interview with Delgado at his blog. It’s a fascinating read that I recommend.


Speaking of Buddhism and the military…

Last month, I wrote a post about the new Buddhist Military Sangha website. In that post, there appeared material about 2nd Lt. Somya Malasri, a Thai Buddhist and colleague of mine at UWest, who is set to become the first Buddhist chaplain in the U.S. Army. (Lt. Jeanette Shin, a Navy chaplain, became the first Buddhist chaplain officially commissioned to serve in any branch of the United States Armed Forces in 2004.) He was recently the subject of a First Coast News report. For more on Chaplain Malasri’s story, take a look.


The Buddhist Channel picked up two good stories recently about Buddhist caregiving endeavors–one involving Sogyal Rinpoche’s community in Ireland, the other involving an AIDS hospice at a Buddhist temple in Thailand. (I’ve posted about the latter before–here. I’ve also posted about similiar efforts in Cambodia here.)


Finally, an announcement from the Department of Shameless Self-Promotion…

I neglected to mention last month that the Buddhist Channel recently published my interview with the Rev. James Ishmael Ford (Zeno Myoun, Roshi). I thought James said some hugely insightful and very important things, so I was happy to see the interview appear elsewhere. Please take a look if you have a moment.