As the US House of Representatives enters its fourth day of failed attempts to elect a Speaker of the House, one of the few functions of this part of Congress has been the performance of its daily prayer ritual. Even as the House Republicans have engaged in bitter infighting and failed even to swear in new members of Congress, the current US House Chaplain, Margaret Grun Kibben, has repeatedly stood on the floor of the US House and performed her Christian prayer ritual over and over again.

The content of Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben’s governmental prayers have explicitly attempted to invoke the power of the Christian god to unite members of Congress so that the US House of Representatives can begin its work.

In her first prayer on January 4, Chaplain Kibben called upon her religion’s god to give the 118th session of the US House the power to begin its work:

“Eternal god, you spoke and the Earth brought forth life. With a word, your spirit breathed into humanity the essence and purpose of our very being. Speak to us now, oh lord, and breathe into the body of the 118th Congress your word of truth and justice, compassion, and wisdom. Give each member the guidance to be faithful stewards of this divine tasking, and to wield this privilege carefully… Lay on the shoulders of these men and women the mantle of both respon- sibility and accountability… Bring this 118th Congress to life.”

Then, the US House of Representatives failed to come to life. The prayer didn’t work.

The next day, the US House Chaplain rose again, and spoke her prayer into the microphone for all the assembled members of the House of Representatives to hear. She spoke to the god of Christianity, saying:

“Regardless of the circumstance, lord, you are not just present but provisioning, supplying us all that we need to forge into and navigate the unknown ahead… In our momentary distress, may we never lose sight of your divine hand that guides our own nation.”

Then, the divine hand of the Christian god didn’t show up. Several more times, the House of Representatives failed to form a leadership and could not begin its business. The god of Christianity did not provide a divine hand to guide the nation and show a path forward.

Nonetheless, later that day, at 8:00 in the evening, US House Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben stood up and performed another Christian prayer ritual on the floor of the House. She prayed to the god of Christianity to intervene and make the House of Representatives demonstrate its unity.

“Remind us that we fulfill this divine mission only when we acknowledge that we are meant to function as one body.”

As with her other prayers, this prayer from the US House Chaplain failed to accomplish anything. Once again, the US House of Representatives failed to make any progress toward choosing its leadership. The prayer ritual was once again a flop.

Nonetheless, at the beginning of the third day of the effort to install a Speaker of the House, US Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben took center stage to perform her Christian prayer rituals once again. Kibben invoked the supernatural powers of the Christian god, calling upon her great spirit to magically prevent U.S. Representatives in Congress from speaking at all that day.

The idea behind Chaplain Kibben’s prayer seems to have been that the voice of the Christian god is so pathetic and weak that it can only be heard when no one else is speaking. So, Kibben asked the god of her religion to force the elected members of the US Congress to be quiet.

“Silence all voices but your own, oh lord! Quiet the cacophony of counsel and still the storms of dissent, that each of us would be able to hear you speak your word to us this day!”

Did Margaret Grun Kibben’s prayer work? No. In contradiction to the magical spell the US House Chaplain attempted to weave through her prayer ritual, members of the US House of Representatives spent the whole day talking. The god of Christianity didn’t show up even once, and was not heard to speak at all.

Over and over again, the prayers of the US House Chaplain have plainly failed. Margaret Grun Kibben’s work has achieved nothing except to prominently demonstrate the powerlessness of prayer. They haven’t provoked any supernatural intervention. Neither have the government prayers inspired social cohesion among US Representatives.

So, what’s the point of having a government-paid Christian priest in the US House of Representative whose job is to hold government-established official prayer rituals every day, when those prayers don’t have any actual effect?

(This article is a shortened version of an article from Stop Christian Nationalism, republished here with permission.)