OM...

On the 12th of July the prayer which will open the US Senate's day will start and end with the mystical "OM". Rajan Zed will be the guest "chaplain" uttering the Hindu prayer. It may be a first in the Senate's two hundred year history.

Zed may be lucky that he is not blessing the House. After January's row over whether or not Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison should be able to use the Qur'an during his swearing in process - a process that doesn't even use a holy text; the 'hand on the Bible' event is just a photo-op and is after the congressional oath - Capitol Hill may again buzz with "we are a Christian nation" rhetoric and fanfare in the weeks leading up to Zed's prayer. Perhaps Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode will issue another bigoted letter focused on the establishment of a homogeneous religious faith in the United States (read: Christianity).

Legal secularists may not want to condone the public expression of faith, especially in a government institution, however they should at least acknowledge the positive aspects of having an opportunity to expose our political leaders to religious pluralism. If the Supreme Court is going to allow the government to promote religion, so long as it isn't promoting a particular sect, it would behoove our society and its leaders to be exposed to the broad range of religious faiths of its members more often. "Value Evangelicals" - to borrow the term used by Noah Feldman - like Goode, will most likely decry the event as an example of the further degradation of our culture, morals, and tradition.

Hopefully the event occurs without much ado and Mr. Zed is allowed to conduct his prayer with the same respect the regular chaplain is given.