Subject: Fwd: Guest chaplain in Kansas House delivers imprecatory prayer (fwd) Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 15:37:10 -0500 (EST) From: Chris Purdom Compliments of Laura Montgomery Rutt: > --------------------------------------------------------------- > "He made everybody mad" --Jim Long, D-Kansas City > > "It definitely wasn't a politically correct prayer" House Speaker Tim > Shallenburger, R-Baxter Springs > > The radical right seized control of the Kansas House and many other > legislative bodies in 1994. Tim Shallenburger replaced a moderate as GOP > speaker and immediately installed a Topeka minister who offended > nonChristian > members by refusing to pray ecumenically. Those complaining were told that > they could invite guest chaplains from time to time to make the environment > more inclusive. Not so, said the chaplain, Rev Washington, "I am the gate > keeper and will decide who can be a guest chaplain. God tells me who to > choose." > > So it was that Tuesday, Rev Joe Wright of Wichita offended even more people > with a prayer that sounded like a Pat Buchanan or Bob Dornan stump speech. > "We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle. We have > rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and > called > it choice." were among the most offensive parts of the prayer. House > minority > leader Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, pointed to it as more proof that radical > theocrats had seized control of the GOP caucus. In response, at least one > Republican scorned the Democratic protests as politically motivated. > One Democrat walked out in protest during the prayer and three others made > brief floor remarks condemning it. > > Rev Wright was invited by Anthony Powell, R-Wichita, who attends Wright's > 2500-member Central Christian Church. The church is one of the religious > right superchurches that helped take control of Kansas politics, starting > with Wichita, in the wake of 1991 mass demonstrations against a Wichita > abortion clinic. The "Summer of Mercy" drew national attention. > > Comments:Speaker Shallenburger (913) 296-2302 > Minority Leader Sawyer (913) 296-7630 > Rep. Anthony Powell (913) 296-7694 > > -- Chris Purdom phone:610-993-1134 Development Team Leader email: purdom@rabbit.com Tangram Enterprise Solutions homepage: http://www.tesi.com/~cpurdom/ Never let it be said I'm not vivid. -- Chris Purdom phone:610-993-1134 Development Team Leader email: purdom@rabbit.com Tangram Enterprise Solutions homepage: http://www.tesi.com/~cpurdom/ The world's going this way. Would you like to get on?