Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri representative serving his ninth term, once served as a United Methodist pastor (though credentials from a religious organization do not make someone a pastor—only the true calling of God can impart that status). He recently ended his prayer over the 117th Congress with an incredible closing (and I do mean “incredible”—a word that literally means “beyond belief”). Maybe he was trying to be kind and inclusive (for the benefit of others), or maybe he was simply trying to be politically correct (for his own benefit), yet it is still so hard for me to believe that anyone professing to be a Christian would present such a wrongly-worded petition to God. 
Not only is his theology warped beyond biblical recognition, his reference to a Hindu deity would be considered erroneous to a Hindu. As Jesus told the woman at the well, “You don’t know what you’re worshiping” (John 4:22 ISV).
Here’s the closing statement of his controversial prayer:
“We pray to the monotheistic god, Brahma, and ‘god’ known by many names by many different faiths.” Then he ended by saying, “A-men and A-woman.”
These final gender-blending words (which have nothing to do with the Bible word “Amen” meaning truth, or so be it) have garnered most of the negative comments online. Mr. Cleaver defended himself by saying it was a “pun”—yet prayers are not the place for puns. However, the prayer that preceded this statement is even more incriminating. I intend to focus on that in the remainder of this article.
First and foremost, Brahma is not “the monotheistic god”—he is only one of 330 million gods and goddesses worshiped in Hinduism (the traditional number). Since the prefix “mono” means one—Congressman Cleaver missed his description by a count of 329, 999, 999.
Maybe he was mistakenly trying to reference Brahman (and there is a huge difference between “Brahma” and “Brahman” even though the two names only differ by the letter “n”). Brahman is considered ultimate reality in Hinduism, an impersonal life force from which the universe was emanated, which is the reason all things are considered possess a divine essence (in Hinduism and New Age spirituality, its offspring). Not only did Brahman manifest “Itself” (genderless) as the physical cosmos, Brahman also manifested in the pantheon of millions of deities who are worshiped in that belief system. The reason Hindus often say, “There is only one God” is simple: they believe that all individual personal deities (including Brahma referenced by Mr. Cleaver) were emanated out of this absolute Source called Brahman. So, even though some would argue otherwise, Hinduism is definitely not monotheistic; it is polytheistic to an excessive degree.
There are at least eight huge theological problems with Representative Cleaver’s prayer:
First, as just stated, Hinduism is not monotheistic; it is polytheistic.
Second, the true God is not an impersonal force; He is a personal God—the everlasting Father.
Third, the true God exists separate from the universe; He was not manifested as the universe.
Fourth, the true God never has and never will manifest Himself in multitudes of gods and goddesses.
Fifth, in no uncertain terms, the true God commanded from Mount Sinai, “I am the Lord your God . . .You shall have no other gods besides Me” (Exodus 20:2-3).
Sixth, to mix the worship of the God of the Bible (Yahweh) with the worship of Brahma is not just spiritual ignorance; it is heresy.
Seventh, by making this invocation, Mr. Cleaver achieved something quite stunning—while professing to represent the God of the Bible, he publicly broke the first of ten commandments and caused all who said “Amen” to be complicit in his sin.
Eighth, since Paul said these false deities are actually demons (see 1 Corinthians 10:20), whether he did it knowledgeably or not, this Methodist minister appealed to demons to bring peace to the congressional proceedings. What? Are you kidding!?! If there is anything our government does not need right now, it is an infiltration of demon spirits under the guise of being benevolent deities. With all the chaos going on right now in our ruling bodies, this could only make matters worse.
Now for a little bit, let’s focus on the individual deity named Brahma that Mr. Cleaver referenced. Of all the millions of gods worshiped in Hinduism, the three primary gods (the Hindu Triad) are Brahma (the creator god), Vishnu (the preserver god) and Shiva (the destroyer god). Is this the same as what is termed “The Trinity” in Christianity (I prefer to use the phrase “Triune God”). Absolutely not! The true God as revealed in the Bible is made up of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who are one in essence and always work in perfect unity. Also, two traits of the true God are perfection and omnipotence—One who is without flaws and One having all power. Hindu deities often are found subject to human-like conflicts, passions, and weaknesses (as in all other polytheistic religions). For instance, in one of the sacred writings of Hinduism, Brahma (who originally had five heads) had one of them decapitated by Shiva (also spelled Siva), the god of destruction. Here is the passage describing that ‘unfortunate’ happening:
“Brahma desired Sarasvati and went to her, asking her to stay with him. She, being his daughter, was furious at this and said, ‘Your mouth speaks inauspiciously and so you will always speak in a contrary way.’ From that day, Brahma’s fifth head always spoke evilly and coarsely. Therefore one day when Siva was wandering about with Parvati and came to see Brahma, Brahma’s four heads praised Siva but the fifth made an evil sound. Siva, displeased with the fifth head, cut it off. The skull remained stuck fast to Siva’s hand, and though he was capable of burning it up, Siva wandered the earth with it for the sake of all people, until he came to Benares.” – (Siva Purana, Jnanasamhita 49:65-80).
So according to this passage, it could be inferred that Brahma desired an incestuous relationship with his daughter, the goddess Sarasvati (though these imaginary deities do not propagate like humans so Hindus would probably insist it was not an incestuous advance). However, this story does prove that Brahma was far from being perfect or omnipotent. Quite the contrary, he was error-prone, vulnerable and weak when attacked by the god of destruction (who incidentally is also referred to as the Lord of yoga—a connection which needs to be brought out in a future article).
So, Mr. Cleavor, though you referenced a powerful biblical prayer (Numbers 6:24-26), you ended by appealing to the “god . . . known by many names in many faiths.” However, irrefutably, the God of the Bible is not the same god as the one described as Brahma in Hindu scripture, losing one of his heads because of his evil speech. If someone prays to the Almighty using that name, and if He responded, He would be validating the myth that goes along with that name—which would be a very confusing statement for the Almighty to make about Himself. “No”—a thousand times “No”—god is not “known by many names in many faiths.” Only in true biblical Christianity do we find the correct revelation of the nature and name of God. When that “true God” came to earth in the form of the Lord Jesus Christ, He did not say, “Worship any god you want and you will connect with the Divine. Use any name you want for God and He will respond.” Quite evidently promoting exclusiveness, Jesus (Yeshua) clearly said:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
And Paul clearly laid out the requirement, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). Notice, the apostle did not say “a name,” rather, he said, “the name.”
Yes, there is only one God, but that means one God to the exclusion of all others. Many members of the very first congress of the United States must have understood that, because one of their first acts was to print and distribute—not the Vedas or the Bhagavad Gita—but the Bible, throughout the colonies of our newly formed nation.
May God heal our land (the United States), may God move mightily in your nation as well (if you live elsewhere in the world), and may God take us all back to a pure biblical worldview, in Jesus’ name!
Amen!