Mayor Vince Gray announced today the appointment of 26 religious leaders to his Interfaith Council, which will, in the words of a press release, "advise him and his staff on religious affairs..." One of those advisers is a Scientologist. Guess how many Buddhists, Mormons, Hindus, and Jehovah's Witnesses there are?

Continue reading

Zero.

Generally I'm not one to place one religion above another — if I had kids, they'd be attending this camp — but there are a lot of people in this world who don't consider Scientology a religion at all, and for a number of good reasons. And yet, this council has the same number of representatives from Scientology — the one being Rev. Susan Lee Taylor, president of the Founding Church of Scientology, and a "Sea Org" member of the church — as it does Islam, the second-largest religion in the world. Perhaps the mayor is hoping to impress these people?

To be fair, I could find neither a Hindu nor Mormon temple in D.C. proper, but there certainly are Buddhist temples and Kingdom Halls. Gray spokeswoman Linda Wharton-Boyd says the council is decided through a nomination and interview process, with the final decision made by the Office of Boards and Commissions. Some people who were nominated chose not to serve, she added, and more appointees could be named later.

"We've got to get started somewhere," Wharton-Boyd said. "The idea of 'One City' is to be inclusive of all religious backgrounds."

Ron Collins, who heads the OBC, said the board tried to include every religion that's predominant in D.C.; he said he knows of at least three Scientology "locations" here. There may be Mormons, Bahá'ís, Hindus, and Buddhists here, too, "but there are not a lot of them in the District."

"No, [the council] doesn't represent every particular faith there is under the sun," he said, but there's still room for it to grow. The council can have as many as 30 members, and will rotate membership if necessary.

Far as I can tell, the 26 appointees to be sworn in tomorrow break down as follows:

Baptist: 9

Catholic: 4

Jewish: 2

Protestant: 8

Muslim: 1

Scientologist: 1

Non-denominational Christian: 1

Athiest: 0

If you want to prove me wrong by wading through the entire list, be my guest:

Rabbi M. Bruce Lustig of the Washington Hebrew Congregation; Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld of Ohev Shalom – The National Synagogue; Rev. Canon Jan Naylor Cope, Vicar of Washington National Cathedral; Rev. Mario E. Dorsonville, Vice President for Mission at Catholic Charities and Director of Immigrant and Refugee Services at the Spanish Catholic Center; Rev. David A. Bava, Pastor of Holy Redeemer Catholic Church; Rev. Raymond Kemp, Coordinator of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University; Mr. Michael D. Scott, Director of Government Relations, Archdiocese of Washington; Rev. Dr. Marcus E. Turner, Sr., Pastor of Beulah Baptist Church; Rev. Dr. Morris L. Shearin, Sr., Pastor of Israel Baptist Church; Rev. Dr. Kendrick E. Curry, Senior Pastor of Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church; Rev. Dr. Wallace Charles Smith, Senior Minister of Shiloh Baptist Church; Rev. H. Lionel Edmonds, Senior Pastor of Mount Lebanon Baptist Church; Rev. Joseph N. Evans, Senior Pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church; Rev. Dr. Derrick Harkins, Senior Pastor of 19th Street Baptist Church; Rev. Kate Murphy, Pastor of Wesley United Methodist Church; Rev. Dr. Louis Shockley, Senior Pastor of Asbury United Methodist Church; Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler, Senior Minister of Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ; Rev. Dr. E. Gail Anderson Holness, Senior Pastor of Christ Our Redeemer African Methodist Episcopal Church; Rev. Dr. Henry Y. White, Senior Pastor of Brown Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church; Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, President of the Muslim Society of Washington; Rev. Susan Lee Taylor, President of the Founding Church of Scientology; Rev. Charles Hang-Jiang Koo, Senior Pastor of the Chinese Community Church; Rev. J. Dwayne Johnson, Senior Minister of the Metropolitan Community Church of Washington; and Rev. Clark Lobenstine, Executive Director of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington.