Anti-Gay Pastor Questions Obama's Religion In Prayer Opening Minnesota House Session

Salon reports on the controversy generated by the prayer offered on the floor of the Minnesota House of Representatives yesterday by Bradlee Dean, founder of the You Can Run But You Cannot Hide ministry. The prayer questions President Obama's religious beliefs. Dean ended his invocation as follows:

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.

Republican House Speaker Kurt Zellers denounced Dean's remarks and said: "That type of person will never ever be allowed on this House floor again as long as I have the honor of serving as speaker." As reported by the Minnesota Independent, Dean has previously generated controversy by statements calling for imprisonment of gays and lesbians, accusing gay men of child molestation and saying that Muslim countries that execute gays are more moral than American Christians.