Oklahoma’s House speaker announced Wednesday that outrage over the prominence of Christian prayers and sermons before the state legislature has prompted some upcoming changes.
Interfaith leaders in Oklahoma heavily criticized the House Chaplain of the Day and Chaplain of the Week program after state Rep. Chuck Strohm, a Republican who leads the program, denied Imam Imad Enchassi of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City from leading prayer and delivering a sermon before the legislature and then changed the rules of the program to limit eligibility to ministers from current legislators’ “own places of worship,” according to The Associated Press. In response, House Speaker Charles McCall said the chaplain program will be changed to mirror that of the U.S. House chaplain program, since the Supreme Court has already ruled that it is not discriminatory.
“The reason we’re looking at pivoting in that direction is that it’s been approved by the U.S. Supreme Court,” McCall said, according to AP. “We know that approach is non-discriminatory.”
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Under the new program, the Oklahoma House like the U.S. House would have a main chaplain who will lead prayers before the legislators and who will coordinate visits from guest ministers. The permanent House chaplain will most likely come from Capitol Commission, a North Carolina-based Christian nonprofit, McCall also said. Capitol Commission’s stated mission is “to reach the Capitol community for Christ, one person at a time, to disciple them, and to prepare them for a lifetime of ministry.”
The Interfaith Alliance of Oklahoma held a press conference Wednesday with representatives from five different religions and several other interfaith groups in which they called for Strohm to reverse his newly imposed rules for the chaplain program. Rev. Shannon Fleck of the Oklahoma Conference of Churches called the rules discriminatory and that they prevent non-Christian ministers from participating in the program, citing Strohm’s denial of Enchassi as an example.
“This group is calling for the discriminatory practices that had been happening under Rep. Strohm’s oversight to come to an end, for there to be a reversal of the discrimination that has occurred and for acceptance and inclusion to be the message that the Oklahoma Legislature wants to put out,” Fleck said, according to NewsOK.
Strohm also garnered criticism from state Rep. Jason Dunnington, a Democrat who sponsored Enchassi and is a former Nazarene minister. Dunnington claimed Strohm told him that the chaplain should be of the same faith as their sponsoring representative, according to AP.
“If Rep. Strohm can’t get over his own personal agenda, then he needs to step down from the program and allow someone else who can fill that position in a way that represents all Oklahomans,” Dunnington said.
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