The Hindu prayer, reportedly the first such prayer in Senate history, departs from the American Christian tradition and showcases a religion which persecutes Christians and has subjected its lowest caste members, the Dalits, to grinding poverty and hopelessness for 3,000 years.

The practice of Christian prayer at legislative proceedings dates to before the American Revolution. When the First Continental Congress met in September 1774, Anglican clergyman Rev. Jacob Duche read Psalm 35 and several prayers. Then, as John Adams wrote, Duche “struck out into an extemporary prayer, which filled the bosom of every man present.”

The U.S. Supreme Court recognized our nation’s religious identity in 1931, when it announced that “We are a Christian people.” This year, a Barna poll found that some 83 percent of Americans consider themselves to be at least nominally Christian.

While the Bible teaches that God is one in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—the Hindu god(s) is dramatically different. Hinduism is pantheistic. It believes that all (including mankind) is god and god is all. It is also polytheistic; Hindus worship millions of gods.

The prayer offered by Hindu chaplain, Rajan Zed, was directed not to the God of the Bible, but to what Zed called “the Deity Supreme, who is inside the heart of the Earth, inside the life of the sky, and inside the soul of the Heaven.”

But the God of Scripture is not pantheistic. He is above and distinct from His creation. He is not the world; He made the world and everything in it; He is Lord of heaven and earth. The Bible teaches in Isaiah 40:22 that He is the one “who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.”

And while Hinduism teaches that Nirvana—freedom from a seemingly endless cycle of death and reincarnation—comes as a consequence of one’s devotion, study, or action, Christianity teaches that Heaven—eternal existence in paradise—is the consequence, to all who believe, of what Jesus Christ has done.

The distinctions between America, where Christianity has held sway, and India, where Hinduism is dominant, are many. The most pronounced, however, is the plight of the Dalits, the some 250 million Indian “untouchables” who are locked into a social/religious system in which they are considered less than human, and denied decent education and employment.

In addition, Hindu radicals have attacked and killed Christians in India. According to the website, persecution.org, there have been hundreds of attacks on Christians since 1998. These assaults have included killing, torture, rape, destruction of church property, and the disruption of church events.

However one views Hindu prayer in the U.S. Senate, the fact is that the freedom extended to this Hindu chaplain is an outgrowth of our Christian heritage. Hindus and people of all faiths are free to practice their religion in America precisely because of our Christian heritage. Christians in India do not enjoy the same liberty.

Chaplain Zed intoned “Peace, peace, peace be unto all” in his invocation, but for Dalits and Christians oppressed and persecuted by Hindus, there is no peace.

Religions are not all alike. Different deities lead to sharply different social realities. Nowhere is that more evident than in the profound contrast between India and America. As the Scripture states: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12).

While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who sponsored Chaplain Zed, wants us to think of Mahatma Ghandi when we consider this historic Hindu prayer, our minds are focused instead on the victims of the religion given a forum last week in the U.S. Senate.

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Coral Ridge Ministries is the radio and television outreach of Dr. D. James Kennedy. Its programming reaches more than three million people weekly through more than 750 radio outlets and more than 600 TV stations.