To state that “Hindu” has not one god but many is not even completely factual, since all the gods are supposedly merely manifestations of the one god, Brahma. Just like the three persons of the Trinity partake of the same essence, as Erich pointed out.

Christianity is a peculiar type of “monotheistic” religion: a polytheistic monotheistic religion. I suspect that Christians have worked hard to portray their religion as “monotheistic” to distinguish themselves from those “polytheistic” religions, so that they could antagonize and persecute those multi-god religions with gusto.

The irony is that there’s this problem with the three gods in one. Christians write off this problem as a “mystery,” to quickly try to dust it under the rug. It’s classic cherry-picking, deserving no more respect than designating “Limbo” as a place to permanently park innocent babies.

What I’m doing with this comment is setting up a claim of hypocrisy regarding the recent Christian protest of the Hindu prayer before a session of the U.S. Senate. That protest was instigated by the American Family Association. In its press release, AFA refers to an article by David Barton, who is associated with an organization called Wallbuilders.  Here’s the goal of Wallbuilders:

WallBuilders’ goal is to exert a direct and positive influence in government, education, and the family by (1) educating the nation concerning the Godly foundation of our country; (2) providing information to federal, state, and local officials as they develop public policies which reflect Biblical values; and (3) encouraging Christians to be involved in the civic arena.

If you look at the AFA’s press release, you’ll see lots of irony, delicious irony. These people just don’t get the First Amendment.  The problems are so incredibly salient, that I’ll simply present a chunk of the press release without further comment:

Action Alert

Send an email to your senator now, expressing your disappointment in the Senate decision to invite a Hindu to open the session with prayer.

On Thursday, a Hindu chaplain from Reno, Nevada, by the name of Rajan Zed is scheduled to deliver the opening prayer in the U.S. Senate. Zed tells the Las Vegas Sun that in his prayer he will likely include references to ancient Hindu scriptures, including Rig Veda, Upanishards, and Bhagavard-Gita. Historians believe it will be the first Hindu prayer ever read at the Senate since it was formed in 1789.

WallBuilders president David Barton is questioning why the U.S. government is seeking the invocation of a non-monotheistic god. Barton points out that since Hindus worship multiple gods, the prayer will be completely outside the American paradigm, flying in the face of the American motto “One Nation Under God.”

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“In Hindu, you have not one God, but many, many, many, many, many gods,” the Christian historian explains. “And certainly that was never in the minds of those who did the Constitution, did the Declaration [of Independence] when they talked about Creator — that’s not one that fits here because we don’t know which creator we’re talking about within the Hindu religion.”

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Barton says given the fact that Hindus are a tiny constituency of the American public, he questions the motivation of Senate leaders. “This is not a religion that has produced great things in the world,” he observes. “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.”