Who knew prayer might be so offensive to so many?
That is precisely the response Pastor Jack Hibbs obtained from a number of members of Congress after he supplied a prayer to open their session a number of weeks in the past.
Hibbs is pastor of mega church Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, California. Home Speaker Mike Johnson invited him to ship the invocation on Jan. 30, as one of many many visitor chaplains who’re requested to render a blessing to start lawmakers’ assemblage.
In his prayer, Hibbs referred to as for “humility and repentance of nationwide sins in a time of nice want.”
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However in a letter addressed to Speaker Johnson, 26 Democrats accused Hibbs afterward of being “an ill-qualified hate preacher” who was pushing a “Christian nationalist agenda,” in response to a Roll Name account in mid-February.
Fox Information reached out to the Speaker’s Workplace for remark.
Throughout a current episode of “Lighthouse Religion” podcast, Pastor Hibbs reacted to the Democrats’ accusations, saying, “You already know, I used to be honored to hope. And what lots of people do not understand is that … two thirds of my prayer was merely lifted, partly, from historic prayers, so to talk, from 1774.”
![Pastor Jack Hibbs of California](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/03/1200/675/Hibbs1.jpeg?ve=1&tl=1)
Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, California, mentioned he was “honored to hope” earlier than Congress earlier this yr, and that almost all of what he prayed was “lifted, partly, from historic prayers.” (Calvary Chapel Chino Hills)
Hibbs was referring to the First Prayer of the Continental Congress given by the Rev. Jacob Duche, rector of Christ Church of Philadelphia, on Sept. 7, 1774.
It begins this manner: “O Lord our Heavenly Father, excessive and mighty King of kings, and Lord of lords, who dost from thy throne behold all of the dwellers on earth and reignest with energy supreme and uncontrolled over all of the Kingdoms, Empires and Governments; look down in mercy, we beseech Thee, on these our American States, who’ve fled to Thee from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves on Thy gracious safety, wanting to be henceforth dependent solely on Thee.”
“That is simply a part of their manner of labeling and is void of truth.”
Reps. Jared Huffman of California, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin had been the highest organizers and signers of the two-page letter, in response to Rep. Huffman’s web site.
The letter acknowledged within the opening graph that “Pastor Hibbs is a radical Christian nationalist who helped gasoline the January sixth rebel.”
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In an announcement to Fox Information, Hibbs mentioned, “I am fairly impressed, as I did not know I had such energy. That is simply a part of their manner of labeling and is void of truth.”
He additionally mentioned that “when these progressives talk about ‘radical Christian nationalists,’ they’re utilizing verbiage paying homage to the rise of the Third Reich underneath the management of Adolf Hitler. Hitler, in addition to communists, Marxists and socialists, are identified to label and vilify those that disagree with their ideologies.”
![A combination of both the Constitution and Capitol Building.](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2022/02/1200/675/Capitol-and-constitution.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Throughout his prayer to Congress on Jan. 30, Pastor Hibbs referred to as, partly, for “humility and repentance of nationwide sins in a time of nice want.” (iStock)
Creator of the current ebook, “Daze of Deception: Learn how to Discern Reality from Tradition’s Lies,” Hibbs makes no excuses for being a Christian with orthodox — some would say extraordinarily conservative — beliefs.
Theologian, creator and speaker Dr. Alex McFarland, based mostly in North Carolina, mentioned that Christian nationalism is a phrase that the left roughly coined to strike worry within the hearts of liberals to equate it nearly as terrorism.
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But McFarland mentioned, “I like God. I like my nation. If that makes me a Christian nationalist … I am proud to be one.”
Hibbs agreed, saying, “The actual fact is {that a} Christian nationalist is a Christian who occurs to reside in a nation … Jeremiah 29:7 says that you must ‘search the welfare of town through which I’ve planted you for the betterment of all.’”
The letter does not even point out the precise prayer that Pastor Hibbs shared on Jan. 30.
But the letter to Speaker Johnson wasn’t nearly what Hibbs prayed earlier than Congress.
The letter blasts Hibbs himself and what he preaches and stands for, saying that the pastor “has a protracted document of spewing hateful vitriol towards non-Christians, immigrants and members of the LGBTQ neighborhood. He ought to by no means have been granted the best to ship the Home’s opening prayer on Jan. 30, 2024.”
Hibbs can also be underneath hearth from the atheist group Freedom From Faith.
It is calling on the Inner Income Service to take away the tax-exempt standing of his church after Hibbs endorsed Republican Senate candidate Steve Garvey from the pulpit.
Morality, deciding what is nice or dangerous, is implicitly based in spiritual values, not science.
Hibbs has since apologized for violating legal guidelines barring church buildings from supporting political candidates.
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However Hibbs’ prayer might be one more instance of a conflict of orthodoxies in political circles. Roll Name reported that Huffman calls himself a “nonreligious humanist.”
He, together with Raskin, based the Congressional Freethought Caucus.
Its acknowledged mission is to “promote public coverage fashioned on the premise of cause, science and ethical values.” That might be the battle in a nutshell.
![Lauren Green and praying hands](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/02/1200/675/green-split.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Lauren Inexperienced is chief faith correspondent at Fox Information Channel. She can also be host of the “Lighthouse Religion” podcast. (Fox Information/iStock)
Nearly all of theologians agree that there is no such thing as a such factor as a “non-religious” particular person, that there is no such thing as a impartial place in the case of faith; all of us have a stake in what could be the grand religious narrative of creation.
Morality, deciding what is nice or dangerous, is implicitly based in spiritual values, not science.
As Oxford College mathematician and Christian apologist Dr. John Lennox mentioned in a debate with atheist Richard Dawkins, “Science can let you know what’s going to occur once you put arsenic in your Aunt Tilley’s tea, but it surely can not inform whether or not or not you must.”
Theologian Dr. Timothy Keller, in a sermon on exclusivity, mentioned that “faith within the bigger sense is a set of solutions to the massive questions of life.”
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He famous, “Why are we right here? What is true and incorrect for human beings to be doing? What’s incorrect with the human race, and the way can we repair it? How will we resolve proper and incorrect? What ought to we be spending our time doing?”
He additionally mentioned, “No one can function in life and not using a set of solutions to these questions. And people solutions are not less than implicitly spiritual.”
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Politics at the moment, it appears, has turn into extra of a religious battleground than a platform for public servants diplomatically deciding what’s greatest for the nation.
Hibbs’ battle with a bunch of Democrats is simply one of many battles in a warfare of beliefs that continues to develop and fester.
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