Let's compare. Re: Hindu prayer in the Senate

Rajan Zed July 12, 2007 with the United States Senate

Let us pray, We meditate on the transcendental glory of the deity supreme, who is inside the heart of the earth, inside the life of the sky and inside the soul of heaven. May he stimulate and illuminate our minds.

Lead us from the unreal to real, from darkness to light, and from death to immortality. May we be protected together. May we be nourished together. May we work together with great vigor. May our study be enlightening. May no obstacle arise between us.

May the Senators strive constantly to serve the welfare of the world, performing their duties with the welfare of others always in mind. Because by devotion to selfless work one attains the supreme goal of life. May they work carefully and wisely, guided by compassion, and without though for themselves.

United your resolve, united your hearts, may your spirits be at one, that you may long dwell in unity and concord!

Peace, peace, peace be unto all.



Jesus Christ with his disciples (Translated directly from Aramaic to English)

O cosmic Birther of all radiance and vibration. Soften the ground of our being and carve out a space within us where your Presence can abide.

Fill us with your creativity so that we may be empowered to bear the fruit of your mission.

Let each of our actions bear fruit in accordance with our desire.

Endow us with the wisdom to produce and share what each being needs to grow and flourish.

Untie the tangled threads of destiny that bind us, as we release others from the entanglement of past mistakes.

Do not let us be seduced by that which would divert us from our true purpose, but illuminate the opportunities of the present moment.

For you are the ground and the fruitful vision, the birth, power and fulfillment, as all is gathered and made whole once again.

and both completely ignore the purpose of the soul.

I won't be holding my breath though.

when there's nobody to pray to.

We'd have to do a mission statement and quasi benediction.

They sometimes go smoothly and sometimes get reactions. But in general they do what most such things do. Call attention to the things that are important and express joy that we have the opportunity to share in them.

They served 1903 (Edward Everett Hale) and 1909 (Ulysses Grant Baker Pierce). I don't know what religious view he had, probably fairly but not entirely traditional and quasi-Christian. Probably transcendental.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaplain_of_the_United_States_Senate

Here is what Wikipedia says about Hale:

Combining a forceful personality, organizing genius, and liberal practical theology, Hale was active in raising the tone of American life for half a century. He had a deep interest in the anti-slavery movement (especially in Kansas), as well as popular education (especially Chautauquas), and the working-man's home. He was a constant and voluminous contributor to newspapers and magazines. He was an assistant editor of the Boston Daily Advertiser and edited the Christian Examiner, Old and New (which he assisted in founding in 1869 and which merged with Scribner's Magazine in 1875), "Lend a Hand" (which he founded in 1886 and which merged with the Charities Review in 1897), and the Lend a Hand Record. He was the author or editor of more than sixty books—fiction, travel, sermons, biography and history.

Hale first came to notice as a writer in 1859, when he contributed the short story "My Double and How He Undid Me" to the Atlantic Monthly. He soon published other stories in the same periodical. The best known of these was "The Man Without a Country" (1863), which did much to strengthen the Union cause in the North, and in which, as in some of his other non-romantic tales, he employed a minute realism which led his readers to suppose the narrative a record of fact. These two stories and such others as "The Rag-Man and the Rag-Woman" and "The Skeleton in the Closet," gave him a prominent position among short-story writers of 19th century America. His short story "The Brick Moon", serialized in the Atlantic Monthly, is the first known fictional description of an artificial satellite.
. . . .

He is quoted as having said: “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something I can do.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Everett_Hale


As for Pierce:

Ulysses Grant Baker Pierce (1865-1943) a Unitarian minister, served churches in both Pomona, California, and Ithaca, New York. He received degrees from Hillsdale College and George Washington University, including an honorary DD. From 1901 to 1942, Pierce was the pastor of All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C. He held the position of chaplain of the United States Senate from 1909 to 1913, under President Taft. Pierce also published The Creed of Epictetus (1916) and The Soul of the Bible (1917).
http://www.hds.harvard.edu/library/bms/bms00646.html

More on Pierce:

The faith of a stoic being the teaching and philosophy of Epictetus synthetically arranged and edited /--by Ulysses Grant Baker Pierce. (1915)

* Pierce, Ulysses Grant Baker.


Abstract
Typescript.. Thesis (Ph. D.)--George Washington University, 1915.. Includes bibliographical references.

Publication details
Repository OCLC's Experimental Thesis Catalog (United States)

http://en.scientificcommons.org/5145933

Did you translate? Or did you find this translation? Is it accurate?

Many start with "Our Father-Mother" instead of "Birther"

I wish I knew Aramaic, Greek, Hebrew and such.

clergy. It violates the Constitutional separation of church and state. Why don't people see this? It would shut and close any controversy about this.

:thumbsup:

I wonder what Reid has had to say about such separation in the past...