First up from the God Machine this week is a new lawsuit challenging one of Congress’ stranger quirks: members’ taxpayer-financed chaplain.
As longtime readers may recall, the U.S. House and U.S. Senate each choose a designated religious leader, whose salaries are paid by American taxpayers, to serve as the respective chambers’ designated chaplains. In Congress’ early days, the idea was that lawmakers would be away from their home districts for many months at a time, so a chaplain could meet members’ spiritual needs during lengthy legislative sessions.
In modern times, however, congressional chaplains rarely do anything noteworthy, and religious members of Congress are in contact with their own faith leaders in their own states and districts. Chaplains deliver congressional prayers, often to rooms that are largely empty, but otherwise, they’re generally neither seen nor heard outside Capitol Hill.
The Washington Post reported this week that a new lawsuit is challenging the legality of these offices themselves.
The leader of a group dedicated to promoting the separation of church and state filed a lawsuit Thursday against House Chaplain Rev. Patrick Conroy after he rejected a request to deliver a non-religious invocation on the House floor.Dan Barker, president of the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, alleges that Conroy denied him an opportunity to deliver a guest invocation because Barker is an atheist. The lawsuit was filed in D.C. District Court on Thursday, the same day designated as the National Day of Prayer. […]The lawsuit is the result of a year-long effort led by Barker and the Freedom From Religion Foundation and reopens a long-standing fight over whether it is appropriate for a religious leader to open the daily session in Congress.
The lawsuit, by most accounts, is a bit of a longshot, but let’s not forget that James Madison — generally recognized as the Father of the Constitution — believed taxpayer-financed congressional chaplains are unconstitutional and should not exist.
Also from the God Machine this week:
* A historic election in London: “Sadiq Khan has been elected the new Mayor of London – boosting Labour after it slumped in Scotland’s elections. Mr Khan is the city’s first Muslim mayor, after beating Tory Zac Goldsmith by 1,310,143 votes to 994,614.”
* India this week rejected “a U.S. panel’s charges that the religious freedom of minorities in the world’s largest democracy is being violated with tacit support from elements in the ruling party. By contrast, leaders of the country’s Christian and Muslim minorities welcomed the findings of the report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, released on Monday (May 2) in Washington.”
* Um, what? “[On Thursday night], a teary-eyed Glenn Beck and his studio audience engaged in something of a therapy session as they struggled to come to grips with the fact that God’s chosen candidate, Ted Cruz, has withdrawn from the Republican presidential race. The rejection of Cruz by Republican voters was ‘the last reckoning for us,’ Beck declared, warning that God will now allow this nation to suffer the consequences of our decisions. America, Beck said, has become ‘a petulant child’ that God has warned and scolded and disciplined over and over again ‘but the behavior is getting worse’ and so punishment must follow.”
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Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."