When the Minnesota State Senate started with a prayer to Alcoholics Anonymous on Monday February 4, 2013

JR Harris's picture
Submitted by JR Harris on Wed, 02/06/2013 - 03:54

Here is what Rev. Lamberton said Monday, as the Senate's chaplain for the day:

For a growing number of people, the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous have become more than suggestions. Along with regular attendance at 12 Step meetings in relationship with other recovering people, they become a way of living—sober—one day at a time.

At a 12 Step meeting not long ago a newcomer talked about how shocking sobriety is after many years of active addiction.

He made the word "sober" into an acronym. For him, SOBER has come to mean "Son of a gun, everything's real."

Well, every day is real. Every day that you senators enter this chamber, take a phone call in your office, or read a contituent email, you're doing a real job that, like the job of a clergyperson, has as much to do with relationships as it does with accomplishments. Whe you get right down to it, it's really all about relationships.

The apostle Paul in his letters to the Ephesians encourages early believers toward maturity in faith and conduct. He uses the expression, "Speaking the truth in love." It sets the standard for speaking both honestly and respectfully, even to those with whom we disagree.

Please join me now in prayer:

God of all the living, we come before you at the beginning of this week, mindful of the opportunities and challenges set before us. Let your loving spirit dwell in and flow through each senator and those who help them do their jobs, that what they say and do would ultimately benefit all of the people who have elected them to serve. Help them help all of us speak the truth in love. Amen.

Source: http://fridley.patch.com/articles/photo-fridley-resident-reads-prayer-at-m...

Just one more way that Alcoholics Anonymous is slithering into politics.......


Sen. Barb Goodwin is pictured with Rev. Dodd Lamberton, Senior Pastor of Mount Carmel Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. Rev. Lamberton read the prayer to open the Senate Session on Monday, February 4. Lamberton lives in Fridley and in Goodwin's senate district. Credit MN Senate Media Services

Comments

JR Harris's picture

JR Harris

Wed, 02/06/2013 - 05:07

Of course the Minnesota Senate has been noted for its controversial prayers in the past. I guess it's OK to pray to the church of the adulterous Bill Wilson because it's a Spiritualist, not religious cult built on a Ouija board.

Pastor who gave controversial Senate prayer bought anti-Muslim ads

By Andy Birkey
Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 4:30 pm

The Associated Press reports that a Christian prayer on the Minnesota Senate floor on Monday made non-Christian members of that body uncomfortable. Pastor Dennis Campbell’s prayer was highly Christian, as opposed to the nonsectarian prayers that were commonplace under DFL control. It’s not Campbell’s first controversy; last summer he took out ads in the St. Cloud Times that were viewed as anti-Muslim.

“We pray, lord, that you help us show reverence to the Lord Jesus Christ,” Campbell prayed. “Jesus said, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ our savior, we pray.”

That prayer sparked non-Christian members of the Senate to cry foul, the Associated Press reports.

The controversy mirrors that of one in 2000, when the Republicans last took over the Minnesota House. Previously, the DFL has allowed non-sectarian prayer in the House, but when Republicans took control, many of the chamber non-Christians protested the overtly Christian prayers.

Rep. Arlon Lindner, instead of acquiescing, instead attacked those members.

“You know, we’re told there’s one God and one mediator between God and man. That man is Jesus Christ. And most of us here are Christians. And we shouldn’t be left not able to pray in the name of our God… And if you don’t like it, you may have to like it. Or just don’t come. I don’t come sometimes for some prayers here… We have that privilege, and you need to exercise it. But don’t impose your irreligious left views on me.”

Following that statement, an ethics complaint was filed against Lindner, one of many in his career in the Minnesota Legislature.

Pastor Campbell came under fire for religious intolerance last summer when his church took out ads in the St. Cloud Times.

“What happens when Moslems take over a nation?” asks Campbell in the ad. “They will destroy the constitution and force the Moslem religion on the society, take freedom of religion away, and they will persecute all other religions.”

The ad also said, “Moslems seek to influence a nation by immigration, reproduction, education, the government, illegal drugs and by supporting the gay agenda.”

He later said he is not a racist and that he was simply trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

Source: http://minnesotaindependent.com/79034/pastor-who-gave-controversial-sena...

Is this an attempt to convert people to Buchmanism?

"Tradition 10 - Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy." Please follow orders from the Interchurch Center if you are an AA member and don't comment.

Orange's picture

Orange

Wed, 02/06/2013 - 14:31

Ah yes, Minnesota. Hazelden buys and sells politicians there. Hazelden used to own Sen. Norm Coleman and Rep. Jim Ramstad.

JR Harris's picture

JR Harris

Wed, 02/06/2013 - 14:44

Controversial anti-gay preacher Bradlee Dean started one prayer in the Minnesota State Senate in 2011. People weren't very happy about it...

GOP invites preacher who advocates jailing gays to give House prayer

By Andy Birkey
Friday, May 20, 2011 at 10:13 am

Minnesota House Republicans invited anti-gay preacher Bradlee Dean of You Can Run But You Cannot Hide to give the morning prayer. The prayer was so offensive to many legislators that House leadership brought in the chaplain to redo the prayer.

Dean has made many controversial statements as pastor of You Can Run, including advocating the incarceration of gays and lesbians, that the LGBT community is trying to usher in Sharia law in Minnesota, that gay men molest an average of 117 children “before they get caught,” and that Muslim nations that execute gays are more moral than American Christians. His prayer on Friday touched off a firestorm at the Capitol as the LGBT community was rallying outside the House chambers against a proposed anti-gay marriage amendment.

Dean said during his prayer, “I know this is a nondenominational chamber,” he said listing off a litany of Christian denominations and leaving off any mention of Judaism.

Then he took a dig at President Obama, insinuating that he is not a Christian. “The head of the denomination is Jesus as every president up until 2008 has acknowledged, in Jesus name.”

Rep. Terry Morrow, DFL-St. Peter, rose to speak out against the prayer. At first he was at a loss for words.

“I want to express a deep level of concern about what occurred in this chamber this morning,” he said.

He said the fact that the House restarted the prayer was an indication that something went wrong. “I take that as an acknowledgment that there is legitimate cause for deep concern among the members and the staff and among the people of Minnesota.”

Today hope was crushed by the words of a single speaker,” he said. “Mr. Speaker, I do trust and hope that we understand the gravity and the severity of the prayer that has been given to the people within this chamber and out.”

“I’m shaking right now because I’m mad,” he concluded. “This cannot happen again.”

Already this year, in the Minnesota Senate, Republicans invited a pastor who gave a sectarian prayer that caused concern among that chamber’s non-Christian members.

See the videos of what this preacher says and does: http://minnesotaindependent.com/81762/gop-invites-preacher-who-advocates...

"Tradition 10 - Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy." Please follow orders from the Interchurch Center if you are an AA member and don't comment.

El Oso's picture

El Oso

Wed, 02/06/2013 - 16:22

I thought religion was kept seperate from government

"And if somebody told you God is on your side. I was told the very same thing So you know somebody lied." [Big Wind - Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee]

El Oso

JR Harris's picture

JR Harris

Wed, 02/06/2013 - 16:59

The battle over the prayers at the beginning of the House of Representatives in Minnesota have been going on since March 2011 when non christian representatives complained about it. They are asking the same questions..

Minn. Senator Objects to Religious Prayer in Senate Chamber

Mar 17, 2011 – 7:48 PM
Katelynn Metz
Patch

A debate over prayer and its place in Minnesota's state Legislature is heating up at the Capitol and it's Minnetonka's own state senator, Terri Bonoff who is at the heart of the fight.

Sen. Bonoff (DFL-Minnetonka) said on Tuesday that she wants it to be not only a standard policy, but also an enforced rule, that any prayer said in the Senate chamber be non-denominational in nature.

"We have a policy at the Minnesota Senate that says the prayers must be non-denominational [and] I want to make sure that it's crystal clear," she told Minnetonka Patch on Tuesday.

The move comes less than 24-hours after Baptist pastor Dennis Campbell delivered the standard invocation that opens every Senate and House floor chamber session, during which he repeatedly referenced Jesus and Christ-concluding the invocation with, "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ our savior, we pray."

Bonoff immediately responded to the prayer, which she called "inappropriate" and "uncustomary" by publicly calling on President of the Senate Michelle Fischbach (R- District 14/Stearns County) to enforce, going forward, the Senate tradition which restricts any prayer said in the chamber from including specific religious references.

"But she did not affirm that she would do that," Bonoff said. "She gave a rather weak response."

Now Bonoff is concerned that unless the policy is concretely laid out and the Senate leadership commits to enforcing it, the blurring of the lines between religion and government, which she said played out during Monday's invocation, may continue.

"I'm concerned the new Republican majority is not clear about the constitutional separation between church and state."

Bonoff told Minnetonka Patch that she plans to ask Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch (R-District 19/Wright County) not to just request of speakers that their invocations be non-denominational, but to go a step further and also require it. If Koch refuses, Bonoff said she would introduce an amendment to chamber rules, which will definitively outline an interfaith policy.

Bonoff, who is Jewish, insisted that this issue is not about faith, but the law: "This is a constitutional issue. It's black and white."

Source(s):
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/17/minnesota-senator-objects-to-religious...
http://minnetonka.patch.com/articles/local-senator-fights-to-keep-religi...

"Tradition 10 - Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy." Please follow orders from the Interchurch Center if you are an AA member and don't comment.

seagal007

Thu, 02/07/2013 - 02:44

I dont see any difference between fundamentalist christians, moslums, or billshit steppers. They all think their way is the only way and will go to extreems to force their way on others. I am so sick of all these idiots.

Understanding and Empowerment=Freedom

NoAAUK's picture

NoAAUK

Sat, 02/09/2013 - 03:24

The main difference is steppers promise you Hell in this life if you dont do as they say, not only the next.

Powerlessness over alcohol is fundamental to their scaremongering. How else would anyone take this cult serious. Victims have to be scared to death before they will listen to these idiots, I know I was.

Steppers take advantage of people at possibly the worst time of their lives, when they are drying out, many with shattered nerves and complete mental agony. For a stepper to control someone simply for empire building or even for something more sinister, the more confused the victim is, the better (wilson was aware of this). The whole doctrine of this cult is designed to entrap the frightened and bemused victim. The HP, the orders from god, this god removing steppers character defects the whole nonsensical pantomine of steppism has this one purpose in mind......to scare people into attending this cult for life and to obey those who have been in it longer. For them to function as 'spiritual gurus or sexual predators they need a stream of available victims, step 12 ensures that people are only too willing to recruit further victims to this madness with the promise of ensured reprieve from a fatal, incurable spiritual disease.

As if the real God would use such tactics to scare and con people into His cult. This is at best the will of self serving predators like wilson.......at worst something far far more sinister

......and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Matthew 24:11