‘They Worship Cows!’ Seven Idaho GOPers Skip Hindu Invocation At Capitol

This Friday, Dec. 11, 2009 shows the Idaho statehouse in Boise, Idaho. State lawmakers are finally scheduled to return to their official government home Monday, Jan. 11, 2010 in the Capitol building after 2 1/2 years... This Friday, Dec. 11, 2009 shows the Idaho statehouse in Boise, Idaho. State lawmakers are finally scheduled to return to their official government home Monday, Jan. 11, 2010 in the Capitol building after 2 1/2 years and about $120 million in renovations and expansion work. (AP Photo/Charlie Litchfield) MORE LESS
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Seven Republican lawmakers skipped a Hindu invocation at the Idaho state Senate on Tuesday morning, a day after a senator accused the ceremony of undermining Judeo-Christian values, the Spokesman-Review newspaper reported.

State Sen. Steve Vick (R) told the Spokesman-Review on Monday that he would walk out of the invocation, delivered by Hindu leader Rajan Zed. He explained that the U.S. was “built on the Judeo-Christian not only religion but work ethic,” and said he didn’t want to see that “undermined.”

Hindus “have a caste system,” he added. “They worship cows.”

Although Vick was the only lawmaker to speak out on the issue, he told the Coeur d’Alene Press that several of his fellow lawmakers objected to the invocation.

In the invocation on Tuesday morning, Zed quoted Hindu scriptures in English and Sanskrit, according to the Spokesman-Review. He told the newspaper that “most” of the state senators welcomed him warmly.

The Spokesman-Review reported that all seven lawmakers took their seats in the chambers “immediately after” the invocation was done. Two of the lawmakers later told the newspaper that they did not intend to boycott the invocation, but were simply running late.

Notable Replies

  1. The republicans consistently and ignorantly assume a ’ hair on fire’ position on anything they don’t like or think the baby Jesus wouldn’t like if the baby Jesus was an American republican.l

  2. Avatar for jinnj jinnj says:

    OH … Coeur d’Alene, Idaho - AKA - the NAZI-White Supremacist NO-GO ZONE

  3. Ignorant, stupid, hateful louts.

  4. From Wikipedia’s Steve Vick entry: “Steve attended Power High School in Power, Montana. He achieved his Bachelor of Science in Engineering at Montana State University in 1979. Steve’s career is in home construction and remodeling business. He previously had worked as an Engineer, a Farmer, and a Real Estate Appraiser.”

    How do you go from engineer to farmer to real estate appraiser to home construction and remodeling? Restlessness?

  5. Avatar for korvu korvu says:

    Lot of sheep in Idaho I thought.

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