California lawmakers may really be pressed with tough issues facing their constituencies, ranging from educational to environmental concerns. But some of them find themselves distracted by a religious brouhaha that has erupted in the Capitol in Sacramento.

This week, quasi-official Chaplain Ralph Drollinger ignited a religious tit-for-tat, when he touted his Bible study and disparaged a more religiously inclusive group of lawmakers as “disgusting to our Lord.”

Drollinger, a controversial fundamentalist Christian preacher (and former UCLA basketball player), has conducted weekly Bible studies for California legislators for more than a decade, the Sacramento Bee reports. His work is supported financially by a private entity called Capital Ministries, but his weekly Capitol sessions are attended by about a half-dozen lawmakers and are sponsored by Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines. (Villines declined to comment, the newspaper said.)


MORE