I absolutely respect everybody's religious choice. I respect everybody's choice to not practice a religion for that matter. But when somebody begins trying to impose their religious choice on me or on other people, I have a problem with that. The First Amendment guarantees each and every single one of us the right to practice whatever faith we choose to practice. And yet the Christian Right, time and time again, tries to force their faith down our throats.

A couple of days ago, the American Family Association, a far right leaning Christian organization circulated a call to action to its membership, outraged that the U.S. Senate had invited a Hindu priest to deliver today's morning invocation. GASP! A Hindu on the floor of the U.S. Senate? Say it ain't so!

Apparently, three Christian Right extremists from Operation Save America decided to take that call to action a little too seriously. They turned up in the Senate gallery today, disrupting Zed's opening prayer repeatedly. As Zed approached the podium to deliver his invocation, these extremists began shouting.

"Lord Jesus, forgive us father for allowing a prayer of the wicked, which is an abomination in your sight. This is an abomination. We shall have no other gods before You."

A prayer of the wicked? An abomination? Idiot.

David Barton, president of WallBuilders chimed in with this little gem:

"You look at India, you look at Nepal -- there's persecution going in both of those countries that is gendered by the religious belief that is present there, and Hindu dominates in both of those countries."

Well, I find that to be fairly ironic. "There's persecution going on in both of these countries that is gendered by the religious belief that is present there..." Persecution engendered because of religious belief... now why does that sound familiar? Oh yeah, it's kind of like the Christian Right in America today.

The three idiots, extremists, terrorists, Christian folk were escorted out by the Sergeant at Arms and arrested. As they were escorted out, they continued interrupting Zed by shouting out more religious slogans. Apparently, the arrest didn't set well with their people. Reverend Flip Benham, the director of the terrorist cell... Operation Save America had this to say:"

"When you stand up and are arrested, and the Hindu is allowed to go free, this country has gone upside-down."

So... we should be arresting people simply for being a Hindu? That's a very moral and very Christian attitude. Sadly though, this epitomizes the attitude of the Christian Right these days. It's nothing new, but I think this is the first time I've ever seen it on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Usually, they confine their douchebaggery to more casual settings.

Oh, and just in case the aim of these extremists was to protect the "sanctity" of the Senate, it should be noted that Zed was not the first non-Christian to deliver the morning prayer in the Senate. There is a long-standing tradition of religious leaders ranging from Native Americans to Muslims being invited deliver the morning invocation.

The First Amendment guarantees each and every one of us the right to practice whatever religion we choose to practice. The Senate honors that tradition by honoring members of different faiths. That the Christian Right tries to force their religion down our throats shows that they do not understand that tradition or our Constitution.

You can view the entire ridiculous episode here... this video is about a minute long.