Anti-gay pastor Bradlee Dean, who has
close ties to Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann, was invited
to give the opening prayer at Friday's Minnesota House session.
Who invited Dean to deliver the prayer
on the day the chamber is expected to take up a gay marriage
amendment was unknown.
Dean founded the non-profit ministry
You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International, hosts the
nationally syndicated radio show The Sons of Liberty, and is
the drummer for the Christian rock band Junkyard Prophet.
The unconventional minister has
previously said he believes gay people, by definition, are
“criminals” and should be jailed.
Dean and Bachmann enjoy widespread
support from the Tea Party and have been featured together at several
fundraisers. Bachmann also opposes gay rights.
Dressed in a track suit, Dean suggested
President Barack Obama is not a Christian: “I end with this. I know
this is a non-denominational prayer in this Chamber and it's not
about the Baptists and it's not about the Catholics alone or the
Lutherans or the Wesleyans. Or the Presbyterians the evangelicals or
any other denomination but rather the head of the denomination and
his name is Jesus. As every president up until 2008 has acknowledged.
And we pray it. In Jesus' name.” (The video is embedded in the
right panel of this page.)
“Today hope was crushed by the words
of a single speaker,” Democratic Representative Terry Morrow told
lawmakers afterward. “Mr. Speaker, I do trust and hope that we
understand the gravity and the severity of the prayer that has been
given to the people within this chamber and out.”
“I'm shaking right now because I'm
mad,” he added. “This cannot happen again.”
House Speaker Kurt Zellers, a
Republican, apologized for the prayer: “I respectfully apologize to
all members in the Minnesota House of Representatives and all
citizens of this state for today's morning prayer. As Speaker of the
House, I take responsibility for this mistake. I am offended at the
presence of Bradlee Dean on the floor of the Minnesota House of
Representatives. I denounce him, his actions and his words. He does
not represent my values or the values of this state.”
In an interview with the Star
Tribune, Dean said it wasn't right to label him “anti-gay,”
but then enthusiastically added that he thinks gay sex would be
banned.
“I'm simply fighting for our
posterity. I'm simply fighting for our next generation and the way
to do that is to go back to who we are rather than what we are
becoming. … We don't enforce those laws anymore and we wonder why
we are going backwards. If you were to ask me my position as far as
enforcing the laws of sodomy in the state of Minnesota, I would say
absolutely yes. Yeah. Yeah.”