TruthBook Religious News Blog

Nica Lalli

President Obama acknowledged me in his first speech as president. He looked up from the podium on the steps of the capitol of this country and he seemed to look right at me, in my living room hundreds of miles and thousands of feet of television cable away. In one phrase he included me and made me feel part of the country I live in, the country I was born in, my country: The United States of America.

"For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness," Obama said. "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and non-believers." Including the words non-believers was a first. Never before has a president recognized people like me in the many others, sub-groups or factions that they might mention so as to be inclusive of all who call this country home. Never.

So January 20 was a big day. Not only did I watch as our first ever black president sworn in, not only did I feel immense happiness that the guy I voted for made it all the way, but on top of all that I, a non-believer, was welcomed in a whole new way.

During the inaugural events preceding the speech I was beginning to feel a little outside of some of the goings on. I am not hostile toward religion, and in fact I help out at my local church and volunteer at a soup kitchen in my neighborhood run by some very wonderful nuns. I knew that there would be prayers offered during the ceremony, and I knew that the oath would include the phrase "so help me God" and would be part of the swearing-in of the 44th President even though it is not mandated in the Constitution. Oh, sure, part of me was hoping that Mr. Obama would leave that part out, but most of me knew he wouldn't dare. I know that the president has to be religious. I know he has to go to church and close his eyes during prayers and talk about his relationship to Christ, and assure us all that he is not a Muslim even if his middle name is Hussein and his forefathers followed the word of the prophet Muhammed. I may not be religious, but I know I live in a country where a large majority of the population is Christian.

The part of the morning that made me feel most left out was when Pastor Rick Warren got up to deliver the invocation. Again, I was not surprised by his words but I did hope for a little more inclusiveness. Pastor Warren did not speak to me, or to anyone who differs with his views. Many other religious leaders manage to do both, stay true to their beliefs and open themselves up in a way that can allow for other ideas to be included - or at least acknowledged.

It is as simple as somehow stating that they understand the fact that in a crowd of 2 million there would be (statistically speaking) about 280,000 people who would fall into the non-belief category. That is 14 percent of the general population which, according to the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey, is the percent of the American population that has no religion or does not believe in God. Never mind figuring out how to acknowledge all the other religions that would also be represented, all the non-Christians who live in this country and vote and are as American as Mr. Warren. It has become too easy for people like Pastor Warren to think that this is a Christian nation. And during the last eight years it felt as if it was leaning heavily in that direction.

It took our newly minted President to remind us that indeed it is not. Our country has no religion embedded within its government and thanks to the Constitution it never will. It took a man who is part black, part white and whose extended family truly represents the new American family in all it's mixed up crazy diversity to remind us that the patchwork that is America is what makes this country so special and so great. I am honored to be part of that patchwork. And I thank my new President for thinking to include me, and the 42 million other Americans like me, in it as we face forward and work together to fix problems, celebrate greatness and overcome divisiveness.

Labels: inauguration, Nica Lalli, non-believer, President Obama, religion, Rick Warren

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Friday, January 23, 2009

Inauguration prayers and sermons

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

The fact that religion played an important role in today’s inauguration received a lot of notice in the news. See here a Los Angeles Times article on how “Obama’s religion-studded inauguration joins a long history” of inaugurations. However, how much of that was coverage of substance with regard to the faith-issues?

Rachael Zoll of the Associated Press noted about a week ago that a Muslim woman and rabbis would be offering a prayer at the inauguration’s National Prayer Service. The article is a preview of sorts that announced that The Rev. Sharon Watkins would be delivering the service’s sermon. Watkins happens to be the first woman president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and is based in Indianapolis.

Fortunately for religion readers in my neck of the woods, The Indianapolis Star’s Robert King picked up on this story, and my front page this morning had a nice religion-oriented feature tied nicely into the inauguration:

Watkins made history in 2005 when the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), whose general offices are in Indianapolis, made her the first woman to lead a mainline denomination. But this latest achievement is prompting a renewed round of congratulations from women who now look at her with the pride she felt that day at Yale.

“It seems to give a moment of hope and opening that the aspirations of girls and young women can be wide open,” she said.

Watkins, 54, met Obama last summer in Chicago when his campaign called together a diverse group of faith leaders to offer the candidate lessons about their concerns and pet issues.

“He was not reticent to come back with his own opinions,” she said. “There was some pretty good give and take.”

So much, in fact, that the meeting bordered on contentious. But Watkins offered a closing prayer that, she was told later, seemed to have a calming effect. She doesn’t know whether that landed her the sermon Wednesday. But she will take it.

Unfortunately, the article is not long enough to give the reporter the necessary room to expound upon any of the larger issues such as how this selection reflects Obama’s own faith and worldview and a deeper look into Walkins’s own religious views, but it is a start.

The key will be to see whether the media follows up on any of these prayers and sermons to give its readership an in-depth view of what was said and what those words meant.

As a quick but incomplete survey of what is out there, see Zoll’s report on the prayers here and Newsweek’s Lisa Miller here.

Labels: inauguration, prayer, President Obama

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Prayers for the president-elect

January 18, 2009

President-elect Barack Obama is one of a long line of leaders who has invited God to the inaugural ceremonies. Yet never in recent history has there been such a fuss. Setting the issue of public prayers aside, shouldn’t we all be ushering in a new era with a prayer or at least keep our fingers crossed—whether we’re religious or not?

Before public prayers during the inauguration became an issue, nearly 300 faithful organized to pray for Obama.

Members of the Obama Prayer Team have been gathering online, asking God to protect the president-elect and guide him through the next four years. On Sunday, some traveled to Washington on Sunday to attend a prayer service. Others set their clocks to pray at the same time, so God would hear their voices in one accord.

But the prayers didn’t stop with Obama’s victory on Election Day. Overman recalls standing in Grant Park that night, thanking God and shedding tears as the crowd recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

Even after the inauguration, members of the team will continue to keep the First Family and the Oval Office in their conversations with God.

"Oh, the battle has just begun," said Jordan, "We can’t just leave him stranded ... He needs all of us to help hold him up."

Labels: Barack Obama, God, inauguration, prayer

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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The pulpit and the presidency

Rick Warren has the power to broaden the evangelical agenda
By Electa Draper
The Denver Post
Posted: 01/13/2009

Rick Warren, the chubby, denim-clad, goateed 54-year-old Southern Baptist now hailed as America's pastor, was the heir apparent to 90-year-old Billy Graham long before President-elect Barack Obama asked him to give the inaugural invocation.

Warren rose to the occasion in 28 years, under circumstances very different from Graham's.

Long before the Saddleback Civil Forum last August, where Warren moderated a values-focused Q&A session with presidential candidates Obama and John McCain, the media represented Warren as the authoritative spokesman for a new generation of evangelical Christians.

"Nobody takes a vote on this kind of thing . . . but I can't imagine any other religious leader who could have pulled off (the candidate forum) the way he did," said Michael Cromartie of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

"Rick Warren has become America's pastor, replacing Billy Graham in that role," Cromartie says without qualification.

People are looking for a Graham successor and anointed spokesman for evangelical Christians because they constitute a powerful bloc politically, commercially and culturally.

Nearly eight in 10 Americans say they are Christians. Evangelical Christians
Time and Newsweek both named Warren to their lists of top American and world leaders.

Warren, who started out in 1980 with a few people in Bible study in his home, now leads more than 20,000 members at his Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. He doesn't take a salary from the church and practices a reverse tithe when it comes to his considerable income as an author, keeping 10 percent and donating 90 percent.

Warren is known as the pastors' pastor. His first book, "The Purpose Driven Church," started a small revolution among clergy in 1995. His worldwide pastor-training network has half a million alumni.

Warren heads innovative global missions, such as The Peace Plan, and is widely credited with broadening the evangelical agenda beyond abortion and gay marriage to confront poverty, disease, climate change and genocide.

Franklin Graham predicts Warren will have Obama's ear on important issues, while his father will not be a spiritual adviser to the new president. He recently told Christianity Today magazine that his father is "just happy to get up in the morning."

Billy Graham has been the confidante of 11 presidents, every one since Harry Truman. He led prayers at four inaugural ceremonies. He participated in inauguration-related events for every president since John F. Kennedy, until Obama.

Warren disavows any role for himself as cultural warrior, yet, unlike the elder Graham, whom Warren has called one of his important role models, he has been a lightning rod for people on both the left and right of the social divide.

The selection of Warren to pray at the inauguration Jan. 20 elicited sharp criticism from gay rights advocates angered by his belief — the traditional evangelical Christian view — that homosexuality is a sin.

The 2008 Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reported that 64 percent of members of evangelical churches believe homosexuality should be discouraged; while only 34 percent of mainline Protestants believe the same.

Labels: Barack Obama, Billy Graham, evangelicals, inauguration, presidency, pulpit, Rick Warren

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Friday, December 05, 2008

Obama's inaugural oath

When Obama takes the oath of office, there's no reason not to include his middle name.
November 30, 2008

When George W. Bush was sworn in for his second term in 2005, he began his oath of office with the words: "I, George Walker Bush." Never mind that Bush isn't in the habit of using his middle name (as opposed to his middle initial, which became the title of an Oliver Stone movie). In inaugural oaths, as in baptisms and other ceremonies, the addition of middle names adds an appropriate note of solemnity.

No controversy surrounded Bush's inclusion of his middle name in the oath. The same might not be true of a decision by Barack Obama to take his oath as "Barack Hussein Obama" -- which is precisely why he should do so.

Stripped of such evil intent, the "Hussein" in Obama's full name shouldn't be taboo. Nor should the idea of an openly Muslim citizen deciding to seek the presidency. That point was made eloquently by former Secretary of State Colin Powell when he endorsed Obama. "Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?" Powell asked. "The answer is no. That's not America. Is there something wrong with a 7-year-old Muslim American kid believing he or she could be president?"

Most Muslim Americans believe in and are pursuing the American dream, and as Powell also noted, they are sometimes dying for it. Last year, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released a survey concluding that American Muslims are "largely assimilated, happy with their lives and moderate with respect to many of the issues that have divided Muslims and Westerners around the world." The survey also found that "Muslim Americans reject Islamic extremism by larger margins than do Muslim minorities in Western European countries."

The way to increase those numbers is to make clear that an American with an Islamic faith -- or an Islamic name -- is not a second-class citizen. When the new president takes the oath, he should say, loudly and proudly: "I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Labels: American Muslims, Barack Obama, Colin Powell, inauguration, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life