{"id":2443991,"date":"2025-06-06T15:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T19:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-republican-posts-then-deletes-that-sikh-should-not-be-allowed-to-deliver-congress-prayer\/"},"modified":"2025-06-06T15:24:29","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T19:24:29","slug":"house-republican-posts-then-deletes-that-sikh-should-not-be-allowed-to-deliver-congress-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-republican-posts-then-deletes-that-sikh-should-not-be-allowed-to-deliver-congress-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"House Republican posts then deletes that Sikh should not be allowed to deliver Congress prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhouse-republican-posts-then-deletes-that-sikh-should-not-be-allowed-to-deliver-congress-prayer%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2443991&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/harris-heads-to-honduras-for-inauguration-of-incoming-president-with-anti-semitic-ties\/\" title=\"Harris Heads To Honduras For Inauguration Of Incoming President With Anti-Semitic Ties\">recently faced backlash<\/a> for a now-deleted <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >social media post<\/a> criticizing the house of Representatives&#8217; decision to have a Sikh cleric, Giani Surinder Singh, deliver a prayer. In her initial post, Miller expressed that allowing a &#8220;non-Christian&#8221; to lead the prayer &#8220;should never have been allowed&#8221; and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/poll-majority-say-the-ukraine-russia-conflict-will-hurt-the-u-s-economy\/\" title=\"Poll: Majority Say the Ukraine-Russia Conflict Will Hurt the U.S. Economy\">mistakenly referred<\/a> to Singh as a Muslim before correcting the error.Her remarks triggered condemnation from both Republican and Democratic colleagues, who labeled her comments as discriminatory and racist. Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) stressed that such attitudes constitute harassment and emphasized the importance of religious freedom. In contrast, Singh&#8217;s prayer emphasized unity and compassion, aligning with American values, as highlighted by Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ). The incident underscores ongoing discussions about religious diversity and depiction in governmental practices.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">House Republican posts then deletes that Sikh should not be allowed to deliver Congress prayer<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2137538\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/author\/rep-mary-miller\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Mary Miller<\/a> (R-IL) is under fire for a since-deleted post saying a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/india\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Sikh<\/a> or Muslim should not be allowed to lead prayer in the House.<\/p>\n<p>It is a long-standing tradition in the House to introduce legislative sessions with prayer, with Congress members regularly inviting guest chaplains from their districts. Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) asked Giani Surinder Singh, a Sikh cleric from New Jersey, to lead lawmakers in prayer Friday morning.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/3430476\/stutzman-netanyahu-meeting-israel-qatar-influence\/\">Stutzman returns from Israel raising concerns about Qatar&#8217;s influence<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/3433213\/comer-subpoenas-biden-physician-house-oversight-investigation\/\">Comer subpoenas Biden physician Kevin O&#8217;Connor in expanding House Oversight investigation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/3432666\/house-oversight-democrats-fail-subpoena-musk-again\/\">House Oversight Democrats fail to subpoena Musk again<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>The decision upset Miller, who posted and then deleted a social media post that said allowing a non-Christian to deliver the prayer &ldquo;never should have been allowed to happen.&rdquo; Miller initially mistakenly identified Singh as a Muslim before editing the post to say &ldquo;Sikh,&rdquo; which refers to an Indian religion. She then deleted the post.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s deeply troubling that a Muslim was allowed to lead prayer in the House of Representatives this morning,&rdquo; Miller said in the initial post.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This should have never been allowed to happen. America was founded as a Christian nation, and I believe our government should reflect that truth, not drift further from it. May God have mercy,&rdquo; she added.<\/p>\n<p>Miller appeared to be Singh&rsquo;s singular critic on Friday as Republicans and Democrats alike condemned her post.<\/p>\n<p>In comments to the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>, Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) suggested Miller&rsquo;s position constituted harassment and discrimination. Valadao <a href=\"https:\/\/valadao.house.gov\/news\/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1607\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">introduced<\/a> a congressional resolution last year to commemorate the Sikh genocide of 1984 in India.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m troubled by my colleague&rsquo;s remarks about this morning&rsquo;s Sikh prayer, which have since been deleted,&rdquo; Valadao said. &ldquo;Throughout the country &mdash; and in the Central Valley &mdash; Sikh-Americans are valued and respected members of our communities, yet they continue to face harassment and discrimination. Religious freedom is one of our nation&rsquo;s founding principles, and I started the American Sikh Congressional Caucus to draw attention to this very issue and work toward religious tolerance for all. Sikh-Americans deserve the right to live and work peacefully in our communities, and I remain committed to continuing to bring awareness to anti-Sikh hate crimes and transnational repression, which still persist today.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) called Miller&rsquo;s post &ldquo;racist&rdquo; in a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RepEscobar\/status\/1931026013275804077\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">statement<\/a> on X.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Our country was founded on the Constitution &mdash; which happens to care enough about freedom of religion that it&rsquo;s in the very first amendment,&rdquo; Escobar said. &ldquo;Not only is this racist, it dishonors the &lsquo;founding document&rsquo; you referenced.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Our country was founded on the Constitution &ndash; which happens to care enough about freedom of religion that it&rsquo;s in the very first amendment.<\/p>\n<p>Not only is this racist, it dishonors the &ldquo;founding document&#8221; you referenced. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NMgkzbVZMo\">pic.twitter.com\/NMgkzbVZMo<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Rep. Veronica Escobar (@RepEscobar) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RepEscobar\/status\/1931026013275804077?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 6, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Singh&rsquo;s prayer on the House floor said in part: &ldquo;Almighty God &hellip; . We call you by many names, sir. But you are one. Keep your divine hand over the members of this House &hellip; Keep truth on our tongues, sir, love in our hearts, and sound judgment in our minds. Remind us, sir, of our purpose: To love and serve one another and create a more peaceful world. We ask you for blessings unto all leaders, sir, and their work for the common good. Give all who govern this land humility and courage, integrity and compassion. Help us remember that we belong to one family &hellip; We ask for the Almighty also to keep watch over our nation&rsquo;s protectors who work tirelessly day and night to ensure our safety and our freedom.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) speaks during a news conference on border security and funding on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mariam Zuhaib)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Singh leads a Sikh congregation in New Jersey. He was introduced by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) before leading prayer Friday morning and was praised by Van Drew for exemplifying &ldquo;American values.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/3389785\/mary-miller-investigation-illinois-schools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">MARY MILLER DEMANDS INVESTIGATION INTO ILLINOIS SCHOOLS OVER TRANSGENDER ATHLETES IN GIRLS SPORTS<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Day after day, year after year, he leads not just with words, but with example, with peace, with humility, with service towards all,&rdquo; Van Drew said during remarks on the House floor. &ldquo;These are not just Sikh values. They are American values.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Washington Examiner <\/em>reached out to Miller&rsquo;s office for comment. <\/p>\n<p><em>Rachel Schilke contributed to this article. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_2137538\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"2137538\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) faces backlash for a deleted post claiming Sikhs and Muslims shouldn&#8217;t lead House prayers, contradicting the tradition of inviting diverse chaplains<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3142,"featured_media":2443992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/mary-miller.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[56688,50410,32920,37043,56687],"class_list":["post-2443991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-congress-prayer","tag-controversy-2","tag-house-republicans","tag-political-debate","tag-sikh"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/mary-miller.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443991"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2443995,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443991\/revisions\/2443995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2443992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}