WASHINGTON (JTA) — A Jewish state senator in Minnesota wants to require clergy invited to open sessions to keep invocations nondenominational.
Terri Bonoff, a Democrat, plans to ask the body’s leadership to change the standard letter given to clergy to say that it requires prayer to be "interfaith and nonsectarian" rather than the current "request."
Bonoff was prompted by an invocation Tuesday by the Rev. Dennis Campbell, a conservative Baptist, who mentioned Jesus Christ three times in his invocation. Bonoff told The Associated Press that the invocation made her "highly uncomfortable."
Sen. David Brown, a Republican, countered that it was not the body’s role to censor prayers.
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