A conservative California preacher invited to deliver the invocation as a guest chaplain in the U.S. House last month has drawn the ire of self-identified atheist Rep. Jared Huffman and 25 other House Democrats.
Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, who spoke of “a coming day of judgment,” in his Jan. 30 invocation, is described in the Democrats’ letter of protest as a “radical Christian Nationalist who helped fuel the January 6th insurrection and [who] has a long record of hateful vitriol toward non-Christians, immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ community.”
In their letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, who invited the evangelical leader to offer the prayer, Democrats cite a particular reference to “national sins” that is part of Mr. Hibbs’ 257-word invocation. Lawmakers say the “sins” reference is an allusion “to the militant and fanatical agenda [Mr. Hibbs] preaches about the LGBTQ+ community, Jews, Muslims, and anyone who conflicts with his ‘biblical worldview.’”
The California megachurch pastor has been targeted for years by LGBTQ+ activists and media for his high-profile opposition to gay marriage and transgenderism.
According to a published transcript of the Jan. 30 invocation, that key passage cited by Democrats reads: “Hear my cry in this hour of great need that we might be humbly blessed before You in repentance of our national sins.”
The objectors noted Mr. Hibbs is not a resident of Mr. Johnson’s district, which the letter claims “makes a mockery” of the chamber’s guidelines for inviting guest chaplains. They also wrote that Rep. Mark Pocan, Wisconsin Democrat, has been unsuccessful in attempting to invite “Nontheistic Chaplain Dan Barker,” who heads the Freedom From Religion Foundation, as a guest chaplain.
Those guidelines may not always have been followed in recent months, however: Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, spoke on the floor to welcome His Holiness Aram the First, Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church of the Holy See of Cilicia, who lives in Beirut, Lebanon, to give the invocation on Nov. 9 last year.
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The Washington Times contacted the speaker’s office for comment and asked a spokeswoman for Rep. Huffman whether he objected to the Aram the First invitation.
In a telephone interview, Mr. Hibbs said he would challenge Mr. Huffman “to produce any connection I have with January 6 because I do take that as a slanderous statement when in reality, I had nothing to do with it.”
He said his church is attended by 15,000 people weekly, including non-Christians, who attend “to hear the truth about the Bible for real,” but that he “never [has] delivered it in a way that is spiteful, or angry or hateful.”
Mr. Huffman and Mr. Pocan were joined on the letter by House colleagues Jamie Raskin of Maryland; Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia; Pramila Jayapal of Washington; Jan Schakowsky, Delia Ramirez and Sean Casten of Illinois; Susan Wild and Summer Lee of Pennsylvania; Henry C. “Hank” Johnson Jr., of Georgia; Jerrold Nadler and Dan Goldman of New York; Julia Brownley, Mark Takano, John Garamendi, Raul Ruiz, Katie Porter, Barbara Lee, Kevin Mullin and Robert Garcia of California; Becca Balint of Vermont; Ilhan Omar of Minnesota; James P. McGovern of Massachusetts; Rosa L. DeLauro of Connecticut; and Gerald E. Connolly of Virginia.
According to the House Chaplain’s website, chaplains have been elected for the House since May 1, 1789, when the Rev. William Linn, a Presbyterian, was chosen by members, continuing “a tradition established by the Continental Congress.”
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