Last week, news reports emerged that House Speaker Paul Ryan had forced Father Patrick Conroy, a Jesuit priest and longtime House chaplain, to resign over what many, including Conroy, have claimed is about the content of his prayer. Speaker Ryan has disputed this account, saying that some members simply wanted a different chaplain to better serve their “pastoral needs.”

We are scholars of religion and American politics who, with Brandeis Ph.D. candidate Margaret Clendenen Minkin, have written about the history and work of congressional chaplains. The present controversy offers a unique opportunity to ask broader questions about why the U.S. Congress employs chaplains and what they do.

History of congressional chaplains

The American tradition of legislative prayer dates to 1774, when Jacob Duché, the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, was recruited to offer prayers before the First Continental Congress.

After the Constitution was ratified, the U.S. Senate selected an Episcopal bishop from New York, Samuel Proovost, as its chaplain in April 1789.

For its part, the House of Representatives chose William Linn, a Philadelphia Presbyterian minister, as its first chaplain in May 1789. Proovost and Linn each received an annual salary of US$500. After Congress moved to Washington, D.C., local clergy took turns leading prayer before the permanent chaplaincies were institutionalized.

Who are the chaplains today?

Today, congressional chaplains hold full time, nonpartisan, nonsectarian jobs. They are formal officials of the chamber in which they serve. Each chaplain has a staff and is paid as a level IV executive federal employee: currently $164,200.

The chaplains offer public prayers at the beginning of each day of congressional business. They also provide pastoral care for members of Congress and others associated with the House and Senate, including staff, police and family members.

It is noteworthy, however, that they do not demographically represent the American public, and quite strikingly so. Every congressional chaplain since 1789 has been a Christian man, and of those nearly all have been Protestant. Only one, the current Senate chaplain, Rev. Barry Black, has been a person of color. The only time that Muslim and Hindu chaplains have delivered prayers was as one-time guest clergy. It’s the same for women.

Church-state separation?

In a nation in which church-state separation is the law of the land, it has long been controversial to have chaplains formally working for the federal government. During the 1850s, Congress received a number of petitions calling for the elimination of the positions. But chaplains remained.

In 1983 a lawsuit led by Ernest Chambers, a member of the Nebraska State Legislature, to end the practice of legislative prayer reached the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the court decided to defer to historical custom rather than asserting a firm boundary between church and state.

In the current controversy, Father Conroy has become the first congressional chaplain ever to leave office in the middle of a congressional term. Whether Speaker Ryan in fact did ask him to resign due to the content of his prayer does not take away from the historic significance of Conroy’s departure.

Wendy Cadge receives funding from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Laura R. Olson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.