House and Senate Chaplain attend anti-Obama Presidential Inaugural Breakfast Prayer Meeting)

[cali]

First up from the God Machine this week is an interesting controversy involving the chaplains for the U.S. House and U.S. Senate -- two religious leaders, whose salaries are paid by taxpayers.

Ordinarily, the congressional chaplains are rarely noteworthy. They deliver a prayer at the start of legislative sessions, but otherwise, are generally neither seen nor heard outside Capitol Hill. (James Madison insisted these positions are unconstitutional and should not exist.)

But this week, the chaplains raised questions about how they intend to spend Inauguration Day, in a story first brought to my attention by Faithful America.



Just before President Barack Obama's swearing in on Monday, a group of religious conservatives plans to hold a prayer breakfast featuring a number of anti-Obama conspiracy theorists. The Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast -- billed as offering "prayer, worship, and reconciliation of the nation" -- will feature the editor of the birther site WorldNetDaily and minister and media mogul Pat Robertson, according its website. The organizers of the prayer breakfast also claim the House and Senate chaplains will speak at their event -- appearances that may conflict with the non-partisan nature of the chaplain job.

House Chaplain Rev. Patrick Conroy and Senate Chaplain Barry Black ... are listed under the "Prayer for the Nation" portion of Monday's event, just ahead of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). But featured speaker Joseph Farah, the WorldNetDaily editor, has drawn the most attention, given his website's regular assertions that President Obama was actually born in Kenya and allegations that he is "the first Muslim president." The event also features "messianic rabbi-pastor and author" Jonathan Cahn, who believes that there are signs of the apocalypse encrypted in Obama's communications.


<snip>

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/01/19/16600194-this-week-in-god?lite

These disgusting piece of shit need to be fired for this stunt. Actually, I'm with Madison; cut these positions.

[Rider3]

1. I agree with you.

This is totally disgusting.

[RedstDem]

2. There's no room for these idiots

in a modern country!
they should be terminated, and not just for being dicks.

[cali]

3. OK, it looks like the Senate Chaplain may not have attended but the House

fuckwad did.

[Angry Dragon]

4. +76,576

[Smilo]

5. We don't need these positions

if they want to prayer/whatever go to Church. Fire their arses.

This is such a disrespectful display against the President and our country.

[cali]

6. Contact info:

The Reverend Patrick J. Conroy, Chaplain, U.S. House of Representatives
U.S. Capitol, Room HB25, Washington, DC 20515-6655
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]

[MADem]

7. Wait a minute--Barry Black is a black man. Last I knew, he supported Obama.

He used to be a Navy chaplain--top dog for a bit, in fact.

Are we sure about our facts, here?

I think they may have attended in a "spirit of bipartisanship"--not as a 'diss' to the POTUS. I would be very careful about jumping to conclusions here without asking the attendees what their 'take' was, first.

[cali]

8. He backed down and didn't go

Senate Chaplain Rev. Barry Black will no longer attend an inaugural prayer breakfast being hosted by religious conservatives, after a petition criticizing the event garnered thousands of signatures online.

House Chaplain Rev. Patrick J. Conroy, however, will attend the event. His office says the Jesuit priest will deliver a quick prayer, and won't "stay too long."

The breakfast, which will take place just hours before President Barack Obama is publicly into office Monday, features special guests Pat Robertson, a televangelist whose commentary has managed to offend gays, Haitians and feminists alike, Jonathan Cahn, a preacher who believes some of Obama's actions are apocalyptic, and Joseph Farah, the editor of WorldNetDaily who has long pushed the birther conspiracy theories about the president's citizenship.

<snip>

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2013/01/18/senate-chaplain-wont-attend-controversial-inaugural-prayer-breakfast

There is NO FUCKING EXCUSE at all for even considering attending this vile disgusting event. Good on him for succumbing to the pressure and dropping out of the event. Too bad it took that.

[MADem]

9. Let me put it this way--Barry ain't the sharpest knife in the drawer.

He also ain't the hardest working man in show biz, either. He's got the "delegating" thing down, but he was never a real ace on the "follow through/check up" bit. He was too busy seeing about himself--he has always been a gentleman who thought highly of himself.

If he is staying true to form, his staff sucks too--back in the day, they never did have his back like they should, and he never did check and correct them like HE should. He got the people he deserved because he didn't do what he could to make them better.

He got real lucky to grab that Senate gig. REAL lucky--the stars aligned for him; he was in the right place at the EXACT right time. I was shocked he made the cut. He had some "value added" in that he was a minority and a "minority faith group." His ethnicity worked on the left, and his faith group worked on the right. He also was pretty astute politically, in that he managed to leave a very light footprint as he moved along during his military career. He didn't fuck up and he moved up.

All that dissing aside, I am pretty sure, unless he's changed some, that he isn't down with the wingnuts. You can chalk his gaffe up to inattentiveness and not mendacity--IMO, anyway.

[cali]

10. sounds like you're quite familiar with him

I take your word for it that his gaffe was inattention.

[MADem]

13. I am. Or, to be clear, I was. I knew him back in the day, I haven't seen much of him since

he moved up to the Hill, except on TV.

I think he'd do a better job if he rolled up his sleeves every now and again and got his hands dirty. It's the stand-offish delegation of labor that gets the guy in trouble, that, and a tendency towards liking being treated with no small amount of deference--that leaves openings for fawners to bullshit him.

He's not a bad guy, just, like I said, not the sharpest knife. Maybe he's honed his edge in his new gig (though it wouldn't appear so with this latest near screw-up).

[cthulu2016]

11. Meh. Madison was a whiner

[cali]

12. oh, please. you can do better than that

there's a difference between a President choosing to have an invocation at inauguration and having official positions in the Senate and House that endorse religion and as precedent so clearly demonstrates, endorses Christianity.