Rajan Zed, President of Universal Society of Hinduism, delivers a prayer from Sanskrit scriptures before the Idaho Senate on Tuesday, March 3, 2015 in Boise. The Idaho Senate convened Tuesday with a... (Associated Press) 
 
 BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Three lawmakers refused to attend the Idaho Senate's daily invocation after objecting to the offering of a Hindu prayer. 
 
 Rajan Zed, guest chaplain, gave a lengthy prayer in both English and Sanskrit on Tuesday that focused on selflessness and peace. Senators from both sides of the aisle shook his hand and thanked him for coming. 
 
 "Fulfill all your duties, action is better than inaction," Zed said. "Even to maintain your body, you are obligated to act. Selfish action imprisons the world. Act selflessly, without any throughout of personal profit." 
 
 However three lawmakers, all Republican, only came back onto the floor once the prayer was over: Sens. Steve Vick of Dalton Garden, Sheryl Nuxoll of Cottonwood and Lori Den Hartog of Meridian. 
 
 Prayer is a common event in Idaho's Republican-controlled Statehouse. The Idaho Senate and House convene each day with a prayer by the chamber's chaplains from Christian denominations followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. And most lawmakers cite their religion in the heir bios for the state's legislative directory. 
 
 Nuxoll says she declined to attend because she believes the United States is a Christian nation. 
 
 "Hindu is a false faith with false gods," she said. "I think it's great that Hindu people can practice their religion but since we're the Senate, we're setting an example of what we, Idaho, believe." 
 
 Nuxoll added that she wished the Senate had conducted a Christian prayer along with the Hindu invocation. 
 
 Vick had announced his objections the day before, saying that he would ask his colleagues to join him. 
 
 Den Hartog said it would've been disingenuous to her Christian faith to attend. 
 
 "It was a personal decision, I didn't want to announce it prior to the event," Den Hartog said. 
 
 While nine lawmakers were absent in total for the prayer, five were caught up in meetings —not protesting the event — and one was excused. 
 
 Zed said he reached out to Senate Pro Tem Brent Hill to offer the invocation. Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, has delivered traditional Hindu prayers to both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate and in nearly a dozen state legislatures. 
 
 Guest chaplains often visit the Statehouse, Hill said, often when the sitting chaplain is taking time off. Last year, the Idaho Senate received an invocation from a Jewish rabbi, he said. ||||| Rajan Zed delivers a Hindu prayer in the Idaho Senate on Tuesday morning, as the opening invocation (Betsy Russell) 
 
 Seven senators remained outside the Senate chamber this morning as guest chaplain Rajan Zed delivered today’s opening invocation, a Hindu prayer, then took their seats immediately after it was done. The seven: Sens. Vick, Nonini, Nuxoll, Den Hartog; and Rice, Patrick and Siddoway (who all three later said they weren't boycotting the prayer and were just running late). Vick had previously announced his plans to walk out, saying he objected to the Hindu prayer being delivered. Nonini said, "I was just late getting up there - I didn't want to walk in in the middle of it." But, he said, "I was disappointed that we didn't also have a Christian prayer." 
 
 Clad in a flowing orange robe, Zed said afterward, “We don’t mind. Hinduism is more embracing,” he said. “We are very inclusive in Hinduism. … I think that is fine.” He said, “Most of them welcomed me. They came out and shook my hand – some of them hugged me. It was good. There are multiple viewpoints. … That is what makes the country great, you know? Different viewpoints.” 
 
 In his prayer, Zed told the Senate, first in Sanskrit and then in English, “Strive constantly to serve the welfare of the world; by devotion to selfless one attains the supreme goal of life. Do your work with the welfare of other always in mind.” He said afterward, “It’s all from Hindu scriptures, very ancient. I didn’t write it.” ||||| An atheist lawmaker's decision to give the daily prayer at the Arizona House of Representatives triggered a do-over from a Christian lawmaker who said the previous day's prayer didn't pass muster. 
 
 Republican Rep. Steve Smith on Wednesday said the prayer offered by Democratic Rep. Juan Mendez of Tempe at the beginning of the previous day's floor session wasn't a prayer at all. So he asked other members to join him in a second daily prayer in "repentance," and about half the 60-member body did so. Both the Arizona House and Senate begin their sessions with a prayer and a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. 
 
 "When there's a time set aside to pray and to pledge, if you are a non-believer, don't ask for time to pray," said Smith, of Maricopa. "If you don't love this nation and want to pledge to it, don't say I want to lead this body in the pledge, and stand up there and say, `you know what, instead of pledging, I love England' and (sit) down. 
 
 "That's not a pledge, and that wasn't a prayer, it's that simple," Smith said. 
 
 Mendez said he was just looking for a way to convey his own feelings like other members do when they take the rotation giving the daily prayer. 
 
 "I wanted to find a way to where I could convey some message and take advantage of the opportunity that people have when they offer these prayers," he said. "If my lack of religion doesn't give me the same opportunity to engage in this platform then I feel kind of disenfranchised. So I did want to stand up and offer some kind of thing that represented my view on what's going on." 
 
 Wednesday's dust-up over religion comes just days after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to decide whether an upstate New York town is violating constitutional prohibitions on government sanction of religion by offering prayers to open public meetings. The justices will review an appeals court ruling that held that the upstate New York town of Greece, a Rochester suburb, violated the Constitution by opening nearly every meeting over an 11-year span with prayers that stressed Christianity. 
 
 Arizona House Speaker Andy Tobin and Senate President Andy Biggs filed a legal brief agreeing with the town's position. 
 
 On Wednesday, Tobin said he had no problem with Mendez's prayer. 
 
 "From my perspective I didn't see an issue with Mr. Mendez yesterday," said Tobin, R-Paulden. "I can appreciate what Mr. Smith was saying, but I think all members are responsible for their own prayerful lives and I think the demonstration that we take moments for prayer we all do collectively and in our own hearts." 
 
 Rep. Jamescita Peshlakai, who represents a northern Arizona district on the Navajo reservation, did take offense. She said Smith's criticism of another member's faith, or lack of it, was wrong. 
 
 "I want to remind the House and my colleagues and everybody here that several of us here are not Christianized. I'm a traditional Navajo, so I stand here every day and participate in prayers," even without personally embracing them, said Peshlakai, D-Cameron. "This is the United States, this is America, and we all represent different people ... and you need to respect that. Your God is no more powerful than my God. We all come from the same creator." 
 
 Mendez gave the invocation Tuesday while members of the Secular Coalition for Arizona were in the visitors' gallery. He began his remarks by asking fellow lawmakers not to bow their heads but to instead look around at the other men and women in the room, "sharing together this extraordinary experience of being alive and of dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people of our state." 
 
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– Three Republican state senators in Idaho skipped the chamber's daily invocation yesterday because they objected to the guest chaplain's religion. The three didn't take their seats until after Hindu cleric Rajan Zed had finished his prayer, which focused on selflessness, the AP reports. "Hindu is a false faith with false gods," said Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll. "I think it's great that Hindu people can practice their religion, but since we're the Senate, we're setting an example of what we, Idaho, believe." Another of the three, Sen. Steve Vick, had tried to have the prayer stopped, warning that a non-Christian prayer could "send a message we're not happy with the way America is," reports the Spokesman-Review. "They have a caste system. They worship cows," Vick complained, saying he had plenty of support from constituents who wanted the prayer stopped. Several other lawmakers missed the prayer, but they said it was because they were running late. After the prayer, Zed—who has delivered Hindu prayers for the US House, US Senate, and other state legislatures—said Hinduism is very inclusive and he didn't mind that some lawmakers had boycotted the prayer. "Most of them welcomed me," he told the Spokesman-Review. "They came out and shook my hand—some of them hugged me. It was good. There are multiple viewpoints. ... That is what makes the country great, you know? Different viewpoints."