I suppose the legislature in Arizona isn’t the only one in the nation that begins each session with a prayer—never mind that church and state thing. But when your elected officials are mostly white and mostly fundy Christian, with a big helping of the Mormon, you can darn well bet you’re going to start your day appealing to one of the Big Dudes.
It doesn’t matter which Dude you invoke, apparently, but there has to be at least one, says House Majority Leader John Allen, a Republican from Scottsdale. He reminded members this week that he issued orders outlining what constitutes a real prayer. Specifically, it must “invoke a higher power.”
And if you don’t happen to have a higher power in your life, then your prayer should instruct other members to “focus on theirs.” Otherwise, just don’t sign up to give the morning prayer. Leave it to the pros.
Rep. Allen and other godly officials got their Deuteronomy in a dingle this week when Rep. Athena Salman, a Democrat from Tempe, had the nerve to ignore The One and appeal to humanity in her morning prayer. Here’s just a taste of Salman’s sacrilegious invocation:
In a nation often eager to be polarized in its views, allow us in this moment to recognize what we have in common: A deep-seated need to help create a more just and positive world.
As we speak today, remember that commonality. Remember the humanity that resides within each and every person here, and each and every person in the city, and in all people in the nation and world as a whole.
In the words of former President of Illinois Wesleyan University Minor Meyers, Jr., “Go forth and do well, but even more, go forth and do good.”
Sheesh, she wants to “create a more just” world; she asks other members to remember that humanity “resides within each and every person”; she invokes the words of a university president—a school founded by Methodists—to encourage us to “go forth and do good.”
Well, those words were too deficient of the God stuff for Rep. Mark Finchem, a Republican from tony Oro Valley. He was given permission by the House Speaker to attach an addendum to Rep. Salman’s statement, so he tacked on Jesus.
Whew, saved! Now, with God on their side, these bozos can get back to work eliminating healthcare for vulnerable families, destroying public schools in poorer districts, ripping immigrant families apart by deporting mothers and fathers, cutting school nutrition programs, ruining our fragile environment, and abolishing food stamps for low-income Arizonans. Thank you, Jesus!