A Prayerful Inauguration

On her blog, Susan K. Smith discusses her take on the different prayers/speeches given on Inauguration Day. While she did not particularly care for Rick Warren's speech, she called it "good". In her mind, the Lord's Prayer at the end made it unnecessarily Christian and excluded those who were not of that faith. Of course, that is to be expected from a Christian preacher, but it doesn't seem to be the best way to pray for a President who ran on the platform of unity and change.

Obama's Inaugural Address, on the other hand, was very inclusive and was not full of the "religious rhetoric" that some might have expected (or hoped for). He made sure to include many different religions, and Mrs. Smith emphasizes that he even included non-believers. Instead of focusing on rhetoric, religious or not, Obama made sure to get straight to the concrete. He talked about all the problems that have built up over the past 8 years, and how it will be a tough journey to fix them. He spoke about the "Beloved Community", as Mrs. Smith puts it, and how we can broaden this community in order to encompass all Americans, not just those of a particular faith. Above all, the author felt that Obama left room for every American to participate in the process of rebuilding this great nation. She claims to have seen a sermon, however absent of religious rhetoric the speech may have seemed. In the end, Mrs. Smith praises Rev. Lowery's... prayer, in that it spoke to God and not particularly to religion.

I tend to agree with Mrs. Smith's points of view. However, on the topic of Rick Warren, I disagree. I feel that Rick Warren gave a very impassioned and thoughtful speech. As a non-religious person, I was not offended at all by his inclusion of the Lord's Prayer. In fact, I would have been more surprised if he had not included it given his background. That isn't to say that I wouldn't have preferred it without the Prayer, but I am not offended by it and I don't think others should be either. Even though I do not pray, I can still find inspiration and value in it, and I prefer to keep an open mind about things like this. Yes, it might have been better if the Christian preacher, who is against gay marriage and fervently campaigned against it in California, stepped out of his normal comfort zone and did not make his prayer a specifically Christian one... but that is who he is and that is most likely the very reason why Obama invited him.

It is important to remember that Obama himself quoted scripture. Now, technically, quoting the Bible would exclude quite a few religions: Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and non-believers, to name a few. Why was this not seen as equally as harmful as Rick Warren's Lord's Prayer? I myself was quite surprised that he used the word "scripture", and I'm also surprised that Mrs. Smith hardly commented on it. In my mind, that would be the epitome of using "religious rhetoric", quoting from the religious text of only a few particular faiths. I am not offended by it, for the same reasons I am not offended by Rick Warren's speech, and for the same reasons I would not be offended if a Jewish or Muslim president gave a speech and quoted from the Torah or the Qur'an. I just find it... interesting.