I can smell the virtue signaling from here.
Sarah Trone Garriott thought it would be a good idea to get up, and read an Islamic prayer from one of her constituents during a session of the Iowa state senate.
To me, this is disingenuous, and insensitive. Most of the people in Iowa come from a Christian perspective, and everybody knows it.
I wouldn’t support Christians going to the middle of Saudia Arabia to read Christian prayers in the middle of some government proceeding, it’s a poor move.
Why don’t I support it?
Simple. It’s not a Christian country, but this one is.
The federal government, film, TV, and mainstream media all regularly gaslight Christians, and throw them under the bus.
If a politican reads a Muslim prayer, it’s progressive. If a Chrisitan reads a Chrisitan prayer in a Christian country they call them backwards.
That is not fair at all.
That is probably why people are upset here. If she had opened up with a Christian prayer she probably would have gotten some pushback from some liberal with a megaphone somewhere.
It happens all the time, too often to count, but perhaps we should see her reasons for reading it.
Take a look:
The Des Moines Register reported:
Trone Garriott said she received at least a dozen messages through social media, which included people from outside the state as well as within the Des Moines metro.
Trone Garriott is an ordained minister through the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the coordinator of interfaith engagement at the Des Moines Area Religious Council. She said she has encouraged her Democratic colleagues to request people in their district write prayers on their behalves and share them. She said she wants to use the opportunity to elevate the perspectives of those whose voices are lacking.
During a typical session, Iowa senators take turns inviting community members to the chambers to pray at the opening of each day. But because of coronavirus precautions that limit guests in the chamber, senators this session are offering the invocations themselves. Nearly all of the prayers in the Senate this year have come from a Christian perspective.
Iowa Capital Dispatch had more on her reasons for doing it:
I often tell people that I became a Christian minister because of Navajo medicine men and Jewish women. In 1999, I was an AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteer in Gallup, New Mexico, for a legal aid program on a domestic violence project. I heard stories from survivors of how Christian faith was used as a weapon: to shame them, to blame them, to keep them in violent situations. At the same time, I saw the Indigenous traditional spiritual leaders in the women’s shelter offering ritual and prayer to help the residents heal.
I found something in other religious communities to admire and it inspired me to look for the good in my own Christian faith. It was the Jewish women in the legal aid office that encouraged me to coordinate a conference for faith leaders on the topic, and started me down the road to ordination.
The day before I began my master of theological studies degree at Harvard University was Sept. 11, 2001. On that religiously diverse campus, I was more aware of the rising anti-Muslim bigotry and its harm. I am kind a biblical literalist, and when Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers, I took that to heart. I worked with my Muslim classmates to organize a meal to bring the community together during Ramadan.
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