Bishop V. Gene Robinson told NPR that he was shocked at how “aggressively Christian” past inauguration prayers have been. He vowed that his prayer would be inclusive of those of other faiths, praying to “the God of our many understandings.” He delivered on that vow before the “We are One” celebration on Sunday.
Rick Warren, however, the pastor of Saddleback Church in California, kept up that tradition of an “aggressively Christian” inauguration prayers. Perhaps, since I was raised in the Southern Baptist church—known for its aggressive form of Christianity—today’s inauguration prayer, to my ears, didn’t sound odd. However, it was out of context. Warren’s prayer would sound fine in his own pulpit, in his own church, in front of the aggressive Christians he pastors.
But, out in front of the entire United States—not to mention the entire world—he was “aggressively Christian” in his prayer from beginning to end. Opening with calling God “Father,” he alienated everyone, men and women alike, who understand God as Mother, Creator, Spirit, or simply the Holy. Acknowledging God as creator and owner of everything, and calling history God’s story, he alienated those who may honor science while still honoring a place for the holy. There had been some question as to whether he would pray in the name of Jesus—and he was at his most aggressive here, praying not just in Jesus’ name but in the many names of Jesus. Then came the “aggressively Christian” coup de grace—leading the crowd in the Lord’s Prayer—again alienating anyone who does not honor the Christian scriptures or subscribe to the Christian faith.
Warren accomplished an amazing feat in his prayer—calling for all Americans to unite and work together, even in their disagreements, while at the same time using his “aggressively Christian” prayer to perpetuate and deepen the religious divide in our country.
What a contrast to both Robinson’s prayer and the benediction led by Joseph Lowery, civil rights leader and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Both Robinson and Lowery pulled from traditional forms of prayer—but refused to use their words to create division along religious lines. Robinson’s prayer was based on a four-fold Franciscan blessing, with a litany to bless us with tears, anger, and the foolishness to believe we can make a difference in the world. Lowery opened his benediction with the words of James Weldon Johnson’s hymn “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing”—a song written in 1900 commonly known as the “Negro National Anthem.”
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee.
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.
The rest of his prayer was deeply rooted in Scripture valued by both Christians and non-Christians alike. He asked God to grant our nation unity—“to turn to each other and not on each other.” Lowery was careful to mention temples and mosques—to make his prayer as inclusive as possible. He ended his prayer in the tradition of many black preachers—harkening back to “the mountaintop” of Martin Luther King Jr.—in a litany of hope:
In the joy of a new beginning we ask you to help us work for that day when blacks will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead man, and the white will embrace what is right.
And instead of being “aggressively Christian” by invoking the name of Jesus at the end or leading the Lord’s Prayer, Lowery invited the crowd to pray in a different way.
”Let all those who do justice and love mercy, say, ‘Amen’!”
In unison, on this historic day, the world said, “Amen.”
