WASHINGTON (ABP) — The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States began Jan. 18 with an invocation and ended Jan. 21 with a benediction. Controversy over religion between those bookend events highlighted America’s ongoing give-and-take over the role of faith in political life.
An estimated two million people swarmed the National Mall for President Obama's inaugural swearing-in ceremony Jan. 20. (PHOTO/Greg Warner)
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Early in his Jan. 20 inaugural address, Obama alluded to the Apostle Paul’s words to the New Testament church at Corinth in a call to more civil discourse and more prudent decision-making.
“On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises — the recriminations and worn-out dogmas — that for far too long have strangled our politics,” he said.
“We remain a young nation, but — in the words of Scripture — the time has come to ‘set aside childish things,’” Obama said, quoting First Corinthians 13:11.
A Christian, Obama invoked “God’s grace” at the end of his speech, but praising American diversity he acknowledged those of minority faiths as well as secular Americans.
“We know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness," he said. "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers.”
Atheist groups praised Obama’s mention of the non-religious, and it reflected the ecumenical tone of the ceremony and the week’s other religious events related to the inauguration.
Obama began the day — as all presidents have since 1933 — with a private prayer service at St. John’s Episcopal Church, located on Lafayette Square just across from the White House. Speakers included the church’s rector, Luis Leon, as well as prominent evangelical pastors T.D. Jakes and Joel Hunter.
Evangelical mega-celebrity Rick Warren began the swearing-in ceremony itself with an invocation. Obama — who is well-acquainted with Warren — inspired some controversy for picking the California pastor because Warren supported Proposition 8, the successful ballot initiative that revoked same-sex marriage in the nation’s most populous state last year.
Warren offered a prayer that was conciliatory in tone and began on an inclusive note. He quoted the Shema, the most common prayer in Judaism, and also alluded to the Islamic formulation of referring to God, or Allah, as “the compassionate and merciful.”
“Almighty God — our Father. Everything we see, and everything we can’t see, exists because of you alone. It all comes from you. It all belongs to you. It all exists for your glory. History is your story,” Warren prayed. “The Scripture tells us, ‘Hear, Oh Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.’ And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.”
Warren ended on a more controversial note, closing his prayer “in the name of the one who changed my life” and referring to the Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish and English names for Jesus. He then led the two million-plus observers in the Lord’s Prayer.
President Obama swears his oath of office while his wife, Michelle, holds the Lincoln Bible. (PHOTO/Greg Warner)
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Another prayer delivered at an inaugural event garnered almost as much attention as Warren’s. The committee in charge of official inaugural activities picked Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, to deliver the invocation at the Jan. 18 inaugural kick-off concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The pick pleased gay-rights groups, but angered some conservatives. His intentionally non-sectarian beginning was itself an exercise in trying to strike a balance between civil religion and inclusiveness.
“O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will bless us with tears — tears for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women in many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS,” Robinson prayed. He went on to ask God for anger at discrimination, discomfort with simplistic political answers and humility, patience and compassion to fight the battles ahead.
In a preview story on his prayer, Robinson told the New York Times he disagreed with previous inaugural prayers that were exclusive of minority faiths and he would deliver an invocation that was not Christian-specific.
Conservative evangelical critics panned the Robinson pick and his publicly announced decision to make his prayer inclusive. Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., posted a blog entry Jan. 14 calling the prayer idolatrous and comparing the controversies over the Warren and Robinson picks.
“These two responses illustrate the depth of the divide over the issue of homosexuality,” he said. “Representation is undoubtedly symbolic, but Rick Warren and Gene Robinson represent radically divergent worldviews and incommensurate goals. They are not two very different representatives of one religion. They are instead two very symbolic representatives of two very different religions.”
The Jan. 21 Washington National Cathedral prayer service that officially ended the inaugural ceremonies was less controversial. Obama, his wife, Michelle, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, members of Congress and other dignitaries packed the cavernous Gothic cathedral to lift up the new administration in prayer — a tradition that dates back to George Washington.
Obama put his stamp on the traditional service, asking a larger and more ecumenical group of religious leaders to speak than those invited in the past. The order of worship — with hymns such as “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” choral presentations and a homily — followed a traditional Episcopal liturgy, but it also featured prayers and responsive readings by a broad array of Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Hindu leaders.
Christians participating included Otis Moss Jr., recently retired pastor of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland, and Andy Stanley, pastor of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga. Moss’ son, Otis Moss III, is the pastor of Obama’s former congregation, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Stanley is the son of Charles Stanley, the former Southern Baptist Convention president and longtime pastor of First Baptist Church of Atlanta.
The service also featured women prominently. For the first time in the history of the prayer service a woman delivered the sermon. Sharon Watkins, president and general minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), drew on Isaiah 58, where the prophet upbraids the ancient Israelites for keeping holy fasts but denying justice to the poor even as they have just returned from a long period of exile.
“Their joy should be great, but things aren’t working out just right," she said. "Their homecoming is more complicated than they expected; not everyone is watching their parade or dancing all night at their arrival.”
When the people ask God why, noting that they have kept up their religious rituals, Watkins noted, “Through the prophet, God answers: What fast? You fast only to quarrel and fight and strike with the fist. Is not this the fast that I choose, to loose the bonds of injustice; to share your bread with the hungry and to bring the homeless poor into a house?”
She asked Obama to lead Americans to choose the proper fast.
“In hard financial times, which fast do we chose? The fast that placates our hunkered-down soul, or the fast that reaches out to our brother and sister?” she said. “In times such as these we need you, the leaders of this nation — all of you. We need you to be guided by the counsel that Isaiah gave so long a go to work for the common good, to work for the public happiness, to work for the well-being of the nation and the world.
“This is the biblical way; it is also the American way — to look beyond ourselves, to reach out to neighbor, to build communities of common hope, of liberty and justice for all.”
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