Steve Smith #fundie

Steve Smith #fundie abcnews.go.com

An atheist lawmaker's decision to give the daily prayer at the Arizona House of Representatives triggered a do-over from a Christian lawmaker who said the previous day's prayer didn't pass muster.

Republican Rep. Steve Smith on Wednesday said the prayer offered by Democratic Rep. Juan Mendez of Tempe at the beginning of the previous day's floor session wasn't a prayer at all. So he asked other members to join him in a second daily prayer in "repentance," and about half the 60-member body did so. Both the Arizona House and Senate begin their sessions with a prayer and a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

"When there's a time set aside to pray and to pledge, if you are a non-believer, don't ask for time to pray," said Smith, of Maricopa. "If you don't love this nation and want to pledge to it, don't say I want to lead this body in the pledge, and stand up there and say, 'you know what, instead of pledging, I love England' and (sit) down.

"That's not a pledge, and that wasn't a prayer, it's that simple," Smith said.

Mendez said he was just looking for a way to convey his own feelings like other members do when they take the rotation giving the daily prayer.

"I wanted to find a way to where I could convey some message and take advantage of the opportunity that people have when they offer these prayers," he said. "If my lack of religion doesn't give me the same opportunity to engage in this platform then I feel kind of disenfranchised. So I did want to stand up and offer some kind of thing that represented my view on what's going on."

43 comments

old comment by emau99

Republican Rep. Steve Smith on Wednesday said the prayer offered by Democratic Rep. Juan Mendez of Tempe at the beginning of the previous day's floor session wasn't a prayer at all.

...and? What law or statute was broken?

"When there's a time set aside to pray and to pledge, if you are a non-believer, don't ask for time to pray," said Smith, of Maricopa.

So...atheists aren't entitled to equal treatment by the AZ HoR? Very interesting. One moment, please, I'd like to make a couple of phone calls. Can I use your cell phone?

"If you don't love this nation and want to pledge to it, don't say I want to lead this body in the pledge, and stand up there and say, 'you know what, instead of pledging, I love England' and (sit) down.

Uh...atheism has nothing to do with patriotism. The fact that you are conflating the two speaks volumes.

Here's a thought, guys...maybe you shouldn't spend ANY time with prayers while you're on the job. It seems that you're wasting time doing something that's divisive, and then wasting more time squabbling about it when somebody dissents. Separation of church and state, remember?

old comment by Zagen30

Here was Mendez's invocation (from Patheos)

Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads. I would like to ask that you not bow your heads. I would like to ask that you to take a moment to look around the room at all of the men and women here, in this moment, sharing together this extraordinary experience of being alive and of dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people in our state.

This is a room in which there are many challenging debates, many moments of tension, of ideological division, of frustration. But this is also a room where, as my Secular Humanist tradition stresses, by the very fact of being human, we have much more in common than we have differences. We share the same spectrum of potential for care, for compassion, for fear, for joy, for love

Carl Sagan once wrote, “For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.” There is, in the political process, much to bear. In this room, let us cherish and celebrate our shared humanness, our shared capacity for reason and compassion, our shared love for the people of our state, for our Constitution, for our democracy and let us root our policymaking process in these values that are relevant to all Arizonans regardless of religious belief or nonbelief. In gratitude and in love, in reason and in compassion, let us work together for a better Arizona.

old comment by Canadiest

Someone recommends a prayer that's more inclusive to the entire body and the Christian grandstands to appeal to his voters. That's what happened here, these people reach high office by playing their Christian supporters and instead of getting to the job, they play this endless lip-service to the sheep. It's safe, it gets a chunk of the populace behind them no matter how many damaging policies they force in and for many it becomes a shield against critisism.

Good example; Michelle Bachman, has spent her entire time in office pushing a Dominionist agenda, trying to force religion in and creating barriers for those who won't agree. She's finally pulled enough anti-constitutional stunts that their able to force her ass out. Resigned under threat of persuing charges which, like Palin, is the high-office get out of jail card.