Minnesota House Speaker Apologizes After Preacher's Shock Prayer Takes Shot at Obama's Faith

Fox News:

A controversial, anti-gay pastor was invited by Rep. Ernie Leidiger, a Republican from Mayer, Minn., to start Friday morning's session with a prayer at the Minnesota House, drawing anger and criticism from both sides of the aisle, MyFox9.com reports.

Bradlee Dean ended his prayer saying, "It's not about the Baptists, not about the Catholics alone, or the Lutherans, or 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."

House Majority Leader Kurt Zellers took responsibility and immediately apologized after Dean's opening prayer, calling for a restart, asking the regular House chaplain to say another prayer.

"I denounce him, his actions and his words. A person like that will never, ever be allowed on this House floor again as long as I am speaker,"  Zellers said.

Mayer Rep. Ernie Leidiger Invited Controversial Pastor: MyFoxTWINCITIES.com

TPM:

Bradlee Dean -- the controversial preacher who on Friday questioned President Obama's Christianity in a prayer on the Minnesota House floor -- went on his radio show Saturday to say his prayer "didn't have anything to do with Obama."

Dean was blown away by the response to his prayer, he said on his radio program, Sons of Liberty. "I went into them chambers with total respect [sic]," he said. "I feel like Martin Luther, innocently nailing the 95 theses on the wall, and I'm not even Catholic."

At one point, a caller from Minneapolis challenged Dean to admit he was, in fact, referring to Obama. "That's splitting hairs," Dean responded.

"I didn't say we weren't a Christian nation, Obama did," Dean said. "If you want to point the finger at someone denying Christianity in our country, you might want to talk to Obama about it, because I didn't say it."

StarTribune:

House DFLers are upset that a legislative journal scrubbed mention of the controversial religious leader who gave a divisive prayer before Friday's floor session.

Democrats on Saturday wanted to know why the Journal of the House, the historical record of the day's legislative work, had no mention of pastor Bradlee Dean offering the prayer. Dean had said that Jesus Christ is the "head of the denomination ... as every president up until 2008 has acknowledged."

"I am not trying to make this a difficult thing, but I think it's important to have this civic discussion," said DFL Rep. Terry Morrow, who questioned the omission of Dean's name on the House floor.