So as we were about to begin the invocation prior to a very
heavy school board meeting, one of the
individuals in the front row took a prayer mat, set it right next to the
podium, and began mumbling and chanting incomprehensible gibberish as our
invited pastor was trying to give a really heartfelt Christian invocation.
The assembled guests in the front row were visibly impacted
by this spectacle.
(A part of me was surprised he didn’t attempt to light an
incense candle start beating a drum or tambourine.)
Talk about a distraction!
I was trying to listen carefully to what the minister was
saying, but my attention was diverted by this stunt being performed rudely at
the same time as the invocation. And the
chanting was loud enough that I could hear
in up on the dais, I could just imagine the nuisance level the poor
minister had to deal with as he tried to deliver his prayer while that chanting
and grunting was going on in his ear.
This guy claims he simply wants to be included in our
invocation rotation, and that he will be respectful.
But his actions speak louder than his words as this is two
months running where he himself has been disrespectful.
I just wonder what a guy like this is really after….. Wait a
minute, I got it. Attention, that’s what
he’s after.
You have been quick to say that non-Christians wanting to deliver the invocation is only to draw attention to themselves. You also say the guy referenced in this post was "mumbling and chanting incomprehensible gibberish" and claim the pastor was trying to give a "heartfelt" invocation.
ReplyDeleteFirst, what is gibberish to you may have been "heartfelt" to him. Just because what he was doing wasn't Christian doesn't make it any less heartfelt.
Second, I partially agree with you about the attention bit. However, non-Christians are doing this to call attention to the fact that we are continually being marginalized by the Christian majority, and to call attention to the absurdness of actually having an invocation of any sort in governmental meetings at all. This is not about calling attention to themselves.
Your bigotry would be unbelievable were it that you did not display it so often. I guess I'm grateful that you and your ilk are confined to a relatively irrelevant part of the country, and that your outdated beliefs and activities won't influence the rest of the US at large.
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