Rev. Lowery nails it...and Rick Warren besides!

[thatcrazycajun]

I was one of those unfortunate souls not able to be present in D.C. today for the modern-day miracle of Barack Obama's inauguration as our 44th (and first black) President. And this was in part a blessing, as I was not forced to sit through Pastor Rick Warren's invocation and fume that a man who helped pass the atrocity that is Proposition 8 in California was even considered to be a part of this ceremony. I had to settle for listening to part of Obama's inaugural address on radio after lunch in the office, where today was just another workday (except for the black workers in back who cheered watching a TV brought in for the occasion).

But I finally got home and started watching the remaining coverage of the inaugural parade (and man, does this brother have guts to go on foot down the parade route, massive security or no!), looked at the text of Obama's address on several of my friends' pages (not as inspirational as I know he's capable of, but he did hit all the right notes, even to including us non-believers), and found the benediction given following his swearing-in (a bit after 12 noon; were we actually leaderless for a quarter hour or so? And if he's not sworn in by noon, is he legally President? Just wondering...). This closing prayer was given by Atlanta's own Rev. Joseph Lowrey, lieutenant to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and icon of the African-American civil-rights movement.

He started out unpromisingly; his speech seemed slurred and weak with the effects of age, sad to say. But as he got going, his voice got clearer and stronger, and his words were a pointed rebuke to Warren and his ilk even as they uplifted and included all those who have been afflicted and excluded these last eight years. Suffice to say, he hit this one out of the goddamned park and clear on out to the Moon. Read for yourself; the text is here, and a video of the benediction itself is here.

As he finished in classic gospel-preacher style, with "Let all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen!" and the crowd complied, then "Say Amen!" again and one more thundering "And AMEN!!" I found myself pumping my fist and yelling, "YES!! FUCKING A JOHN BUBBA!" Cynthia Tucker, you were abso-damned-lutely right; I shouldn't have worried.

Thank you so very much, Reverend Lowrey. And take that, Pastor Warren and all the rest of you homophobic Christianist bastards! Tomorrow, the work begins, and Obama has to live up to the hope...and the hype. (And you will be hearing more from me about that then.) Nonetheless, today a new era—for our nation and the world—has gotten off to a very auspicious start, and I rejoice to be American and alive today.

Comments

[archiver-tim.livejournal.com]

BHO became president at 12noon, regardless.

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

Ignored Robinson, eh?

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

No, I did not ignore Robinson; I saw his speech, thanks to you and others who posted the link. But as good as it was, (a) the speech got censored by HBO both on- and offline, and (b) he wasn't speaking on The Day itself, so far more people heard Warren and Lowrey than heard Rev. Gene. Warren needed someone bookending him on the podium today, and he got it...good and hard.

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

(a) the speech got censored by HBO both on- and offline,

Uh no.
The speech was "mistakenly" *cough,cough,cough* cut by the P.I.C.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Yes, he became president at 12 noon whether he'd been sworn in or not. It was just an obligation on the new president that he get sworn in ASAP. Exactly the way, if a president dies in office, the VP becomes president at the instant of death, but is then obliged to be sworn in as soon after that as conditions permit.

[jannyblue.livejournal.com]

I loved the "That's for YOU" comment President Obama made when they put out the box for Justice Roberts to stand on.

It was a short joke, but I thought it was a funny one.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

it was a short joke

Boooooooooooooo!!!!

(says the guy who's 5'6.75")

[jannyblue.livejournal.com]

You're taller than me.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Not that there's anything wrong with that. If your legs reach the floor, you're tall enough, and if they don't, we'll find you some wheels and you can go *really fast*. :)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Cynthia Tucker has come a long way over the years; she's gotten to where she's usually right..... and yeah. Warren got pWn3d.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[maugorn.livejournal.com]

There's a couple of interesting things to note about Warren's invocation.
1) It was quite vanilla enough and if you didn't know who he was and what he's done, it flew well under the radar, which is as it should be no matter who was talking.

2) As with many of the more "puzzling" things Obama has done and said, there turns out to be a side to it that (if I'm right) has Obama being just a little more foxy than you might think. Consider this:
That Warren *HAS* to know what people who oppose his views think about him. He HAS to have heard about it and he HAS to know that the people who oppose him and his views might very well be there among the people who were in the audience he was talking to yesterday. Did you see some of those shots from the podium out into that crowd by the Capitol, stretching out past the Washington Monument. That's a big space and an AWFUL lot of humanity out there that Warren had to face. It's one thing to say his brand of hate to a sympathetic, closed, and most likely conservative audience. The folks who were on the Mall yesterday were most certainly NOT a conservative audience.
(ok maybe there were a few, but come on...) And by all accounts, they were NOT just a few locals from a liberal bastion. This was AMERICA staring Mr Warren in the face. And then there were the cameras, and mics, all aimed right at him. And what's more, he had to know that the reason why there were ONLY about 1-2 million Americans right there in front of him, was that it was 20 degrees outside. As much as it pissed us off to have this man given the podium, this may also have been Obama's way of saying "Okay Ricky, was there something you wanted to share with the ENTIRE CLASS?"

And after that, Warren had to sit thru Lowrey's speech, AND Obama's public bitch slapping of the Right Wing's ideology, and hear the only 1-2 million people respond to it all.

You could see the pain on Bush's face. Just imagine what it must be like for Warren to experience this. Many of the Far Right think that they own America and that it's just a few blow hard lefties who oppose them. Yesterday may not have been quite like plugging into the Total Perspective Vortex for Warren, but I'm SURE that he got sent a message yesterday, and it very well could have been "You are ->Here"

[tokyosteven.livejournal.com]

I didn't mind not being in DC. The view on my TV was much nicer! It looked really cold there too. It was very inspiring to see so many people come together though. I'm looking forward to seeing our 44th (and first mulatto) President in action!