New Democrat controlled Congress opens with prayers and hallelujahs

In addition to the first democrat-controlled Congress in twelve years, and the first female Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, being sworn in to the 110th Congress last week, something else is new on the Hill – democrat politicians talking about and displaying their religion. And not just Nancy Pelosi.

The eldest U.S. Senator, 90 year old Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd, who after being sworn in by Vice President Dick Cheney for his ninth six-year term pumped his fist and yelled, “So help me God!” He also shouted “hallelujah!” and “praise Jesus!” in response to the Senate’s Chaplain’s opening prayer.

Keith Ellison, the first Muslim congressman took a ceremonial oath of office on the Quran in the presence of the new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. The Democrat Congressman Minnesota borrowed Thomas Jefferson's personal copy of the Quran from the Library of Congress, one of over 1600 books from Jefferson’s library which contains books from all cultures, languages and literary type. Jefferson was not a Muslim.

Ellison who announced last month that he would be sworn in on a Quran rather than the Bible as has been the standard from the forming of the United States, said the fact that one of the nation's founding fathers owned a Quran shows that "religious differences are nothing to be afraid of." His mother agreed, but said she's a practicing Catholic who goes “to Mass every day."

In the meanwhile, former republican U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft spoke at Missouri Governor Matt Blunt’s annual prayer breakfast at the beginning of their new legislative session. Ashcroft told the gathered bipartisan legislators, judges and public officials to not be afraid to pray; that religion should be in the public square, but not forced on anyone. He said, "It's against my religion to impose my religion, but I don't think it's against my religion to expose my religion." Hear Audio of Ashcroft Speech:
Former US Attorney General John Ashcroft speech at Governor's Prayer Breakfast (22:00 MP3)

Democrats and liberals who highly criticized President Bush for the open expression of his faith, have all of a sudden decided it’s a good thing. But dare I say, only after being advised by their ‘faith counselors’ to do so, if they want to win the votes of the Blue Dog democrats and evangelicals.

I’ve written more about this – See Democrats Hire ‘faith advisors’ to win in 2008.

And you can hear even more about this in my interview with David Brody, Capitol Hill correspondent for CBN, and WOMANTalk’s “What’s Ahead for 2007” show.

Hear interview with CBN’s David Brody here on 1/8/07. (See Broadcast Archives)

Hear WOMANTalk’s What’s Ahead for 2007 show here on 1/12/07. (See Broadcast Archives)