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The latest skirmish came last week after Democratic Rep. Athena Salman of Tempe delivered the chamber鈥檚 daily invocation at the start of the session.

Salman said a humanist prayer and didn鈥檛 ask members to pray to God or any other deity, a move that broke an informal House rule and led to a protest from Republicans on the House floor.

GOP Rep. Mark Finchem of Oro Valley was then allowed to offer a Christian prayer.

The dual messages, delivered Tuesday, were the latest in a series of prayer conflicts in the House.

Last year, then-Rep. Juan Mendez gave an invocation similar to Salman鈥檚, setting off a more vocal protest from GOP members. Republican leaders quickly called up a pastor who was in the chamber to give a Christian prayer. Mendez did the same in 2013, leading to similar results.

Mendez is now a senator and gave a nonreligious invocation last month that drew no complaints in the upper chamber.

Republican Sen. Warren Petersen, who was a House member during Mendez鈥檚 previous invocations, objected loudly last year. This year, he sat in silence.

In an interview Friday, he said members were deferring to Republican Senate leaders in letting Mendez鈥檚 invocation go.

鈥淚 certainly haven鈥檛 changed my position 鈥� we don鈥檛 pledge during the prayer, we don鈥檛 pray during the pledge,鈥� Petersen said. 鈥淪ometimes, you just let it go. I think the temperature鈥檚 a lot hotter in the House.鈥�

The House order-of-business rules show the daily session starting with the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by a prayer. The Senate follows a similar routine, although the prayer and pledge aren鈥檛 in the rulebook.

House Majority Leader John Allen issued an informal directive this year defining what constitutes a prayer. It should be 鈥渟hort, focused on a higher power, and serve no political platform.鈥�

The Republican said Salman鈥檚 prayer didn鈥檛 pass muster.

鈥淪he didn鈥檛 pray. She told us she didn鈥檛 pray,鈥� Allen said. 鈥淧rayer has a definition. Even if she probably would have said, 鈥榃ould you pray with me,鈥� or, 鈥業 personally don鈥檛 have a higher power, but if you do, would you turn this into your prayer,鈥� or something like that,鈥� it would have been fine.

Salman, who like Mendez is an atheist, is protesting mightily. She said a rule specifying what constitutes a prayer is unconstitutional.

鈥淲e鈥檙e talking about different faith perspectives, and it鈥檚 not the government鈥檚 job to define which faith perspectives are welcome in a prayer and how that should look,鈥� Salman said in an interview.