Obama inauguration: Non-believers part of U.S. “patchwork heritage”
American Atheists Inc. is pleased with President Barack Obama’s reference to “non-believers” in his inauguration speech on Tuesday.
“For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers,” Obama said in his speech.
In a news release, Ed Buckner, president of American Atheists Inc., said atheists and others who could be labeled as “non-believers” should routinely be acknowledged by elected leaders as “the good, patriotic, taxpaying and contributing citizens we have always been.”
However, before Obama’s speech that acknowledgement has rarely been offered, the atheists organization said.
Buckner said Obama’s forthright acknowledgement is appreciated.
“President Barack Obama finally did what many before him should have done, rightly citing the great diversity of Americans as part of the nation’s great strength — and including ‘non-believers’ in that mix,” Buckner said in his statement.
Buckner also alluded to Obama’s mother, who was an atheist.
“His mother would have been proud, and so are we. Congratulations and best wishes on your presidency, Mr. Obama. And thanks for including us all, right from the start.”
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Obama inauguration: Virtual inaugural prayer meeting
The Oklahomans behind the Prayer Force One ministry, the Rev. Ed Moore and his wife, are inviting people to a virtual prayer inaugural prayer meeting.
To participate in the meeting, which is to occur all day today, click here: Virtual Inaugural Prayer Meeting.
After logging in you will be transported to one of the rooms in the White House. Rev. Moore asks that participants use this time for prayer for America.
Prayer Force One, a bus ministry but also an Internet ministry, also has a prayer guide for folks who can’t participate in the united virtual prayer effort, but who want to be involved in some way.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Obama inauguration: Pope sends telegram
A congratulatory telegram was sent to President Barack Obama from Pope Benedict.
The Religion News Service reports that the pople sent the telegram urging Obama to “promote understanding, cooperation and peace among the nations.”
The pope said he hoped that Obama’s leadership would foster the “building of a truly just and free society, marked by respect for the dignity, equality and rights of each of its members, especially the poor, the outcast and those who have no voice.”
“I pray that you will be confirmed in your resolve to promote understanding, cooperation and peace among the nations, so that all may share in the banquet of life which God wills to set for the whole human family,” Benedict wrote.
The RNS reports that according to Vatican protocol, the pope sends greetings to all new heads of state when they take office.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Obama inauguration: Speech contained godly references
Barack Obama’s first speech as the nation’s new president contained several references to God and Holy Scripture.
Stephen Mansfield, author of the book “The Faith of Barack Obama,” predicted as much.
Here are some examples from Obama’s inauguration speech:
1. “We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
There are several allusions to Scripture in this passage of Obama’s text. One that stands out is a specific reference to 1 Corinthians 13:11: When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
Also: Obama’s text indicates a belief that there is a “God-given promise” of equality and freedom for everyone.
2. “For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every End of this Earth; …”
Obama acknowledges that America is a country that includes both people of faith and those who do not ascribe to faith beliefs.
3. “This is the source of our confidence — the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.”
A reference to a sense of God-given purpose for America.
4. “America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardships, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children’s children that wehen we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
“Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.”
Obama concluded with clear references to God’s grace and blessings.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Obama inauguration: Warren invokes Jesus’ name
In the midst of all the hoopla about megachurch pastor Rick Warrren doing the invocation at today’s presidential inauguration was this question: Will he invoke the name of Jesus?
Well for the curious, Rev. Rick did just that.
Some people may remember that evangelist Franklin Graham ignited a firestorm when he invoked the name of Jesus in his invocation at the 2001 inauguration of George W. Bush.
Franklin G., son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham, was filling in for his father who was ill at the time.
Franklin Graham refused to retract his words after criticism became public. He later wrote a book about the reasons why Jesus’ name incites and draws ire.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
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Obama inauguration: What do Wright and Robinson have to do with it?
Yesterday, the Rev. Kathy McCallie, pastor of Church of the Open Arms, joined me in the OPUBCO video studio to discuss prayer at the inauguration with another local pastor, the Rev. Paul Blair, pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond.
I promised McCallie that I would try to find some information about the prayer offered by V. Gene Robinson (pictured at right), the Episcopal Church USA’s first openly gay bishop, who was asked to offer a prayer at the inauguration kick-off concert on Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial.
The Religion News Service sent out excerpts of his prayer, which I share here:
Robinson prayed that Americans may be “blessed” with anger at discrimination and with “freedom from mere tolerance.” Robinson also prayed that God would help Obama “to remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.”
“Please, God, keep him safe,” Robinson prayed for Obama. “We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking far too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe.
“Hold him in the palm of your hand — that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.“’
Meanwhile, who doesn’t remember the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s former preacher at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ? Obama ended up denouncing some of Wright’s imflammatory comments and ultimately severed ties with Wright during his candidacy for president.
Well Wright was in Washington D.C. where he preached at a chapel service at the historically black college Howard University.
According to the Religion News Service, Wright told those gathered at the service that he sees Obama’s inauguration as a sign of God’s providence and the fruit of “the faith of Rosa Parks and the blood of Martin Luther King Jr.”
“The Lord stepped into a scrawny black kid’s ability,” Wright, who is now pastor emeritus of Trinity, said in his sermon. “The Lord stepped into his story and gave him a new attitude. The scrawny kid with the big ears said. `Yes we can. I got a new attitude.“’
Both Robinson and Wright have been controversial for various reasons and yet they have had their say in D.C.
Stay tuned for commentary on Rick Warren and his invocation prayer …
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
How to pray for Obama
Beliefnet.com features “How to Pray for Obama,” written by preacher and author Max Lucado especially for today — Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration day.
If you’ve been watching TV this morning, then you know that Obama’s big day has already begun with much fanfare.
See what Lucado has to say about offering prayers for the new president: “How to Pray for Obama.”
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
We knew her first
Many Oklahomans, particulary Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) members, are proud that former Bartlesville pastor Sharon Watkins is poised to become the first woman to preach at the National Prayer Service at the National Cathedral come Jan. 21.
The service will be attended by the new president, vice president and a host of other clergy, dignitaries and lay people.
I interviewed Watkins in July 2005, right after she was elected to lead the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada. She was the first woman to lead that 700,000-member group.
Watkins, 54, was still pastor of Disciples Christian Church in Bartlesville when I talked to her.
I learned that she has diverse background.
She is an Indianapolis native (which is where the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) headquarters are located) and daughter of an ordained Disciples pastor. She graduated from college with a degree in French and a degree in economics.
After college she took a volunteer position as a Disciples adult literacy missionary to Zaire (now Congo).
She was ordained as a Disciples pastor in 1984.
Here’s what she had to say about being the first woman to lead her denomination:
“In a church process like this, you want it to be a process of discernment about who God is calling. At each step along the way, I had to reflect harder and pray harder to be sure within myself that I would be ready and willing to move forward.
“At this particular time, given my background, this is who God is calling. It’s a very exciting time for our church. The fact that I’m a woman is just part of the timing.”
(STAFF PHOTO BY DAVID MCDANIEL The Rev. Sharon Watkins, then pastor of Disciples Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), stands in the Bartlesville church’s sanctuary in July 2005.)
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Joe the plumber has faith
T
he man known to most Americans as “Joe The Plumber” recently talked to an Ohio radio station about his future plans.
Joe, whose last name is Wurzelbacher, made national news during the presidential election campaign when he met then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama who was out campaigning and took issue with Obama’s proposed tax plan. Eventually he became a household name after then-Republican presidential candidate John McCain brought him up during one of the presidential debates.
Wurzelbacher is back in the new. His recent comments were featured as the Religion News Services’s “Quote of the Day” on Thursday.
“Being a Christian, I’m pretty well protected by God. That’s not saying he’s going to stop a mortar for me, but you gotta take the chance,” he told WNWO-TV in Toledo, Ohio, about his plans to report from the Middle East for a conservative Christian Web site, www.pjtv.com. The RNS reports that he was quoted by The Washington Post.
Guess the plumber’s 15 minutes of fame just keep getting longer and longer.
(AP PHOTO ABOVE)
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Obama to use Lincoln’s Bible
A historic Bible will be used at the presidential inauguration of Barack Obama.
The Religion News Service said today that Obama has chosen the Bible used at President Abraham Lincoln’s first inauguration.
According to the RNS, it will be the first time a president has used the Bible at an inauguration since Lincoln used it in 1861.
“President-elect Obama is deeply honored that the Library of Congress had made the Lincoln Bible available for use during his swearing-in,” Emmett Beliveau, executive director of the Presidential Inaugural Committee, told the RNS.
“The president-elect is committed to holding an inauguration that celebrates America’s unity, and the use of this historic Bible will provide a powerful connection to our common past and common heritage.”
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
