God Enjoyed Inauguration Rhetoric

I thought God - the real God, the One Who cares passionately about justice, peace, and diversity - came out rather well in the Inaugural ceremonies.

God's official spokespersons did better than I had expected. Rev. Rick Warren - whose choice I had strongly criticized because of his views about gay and lesbian sexuality - did much better than I had feared. I was especially moved by his speaking, in English, the Jewish "Sh'ma" about God's Unity and the Muslim "Bismillah Er Rachman Er Rahim" -- "In the name of God Who is Compassionate and Merciful." I doubt that most Christians knew what he was doing in either case, but Jews and Muslims did.

As for Rev. Lowery: he moved me to tears and to delighted laughter too. Tears when he began with a passage from a poem/song by James Weldon Johnson , "Lift Every Voice and Sing," long known as the "Negro National Anthem." Not only the words of the song but its melody move back and forth from grief to hope, as they reflect on the past and future of Black life in America.

I respected Warren's going out of his way to affirm that he spoke in Jesus' name not as if Jesus were the self-evidently, universally accepted God Incarnate but rather, explicitly that Jesus is the aspect of God that Warren himself feels called by.

I also appreciated his effort to contextualize Jesus as both actually a Jew and in Muslim eyes a prophet by saying his name in both Hebrew and Arabic as well as the Greek by which most of the Christian world knows him.

And though Warren did not confess and repair the sin of his attacks on gay sexuality, his words were in general pacific.

I know "Lift Every Voice and Sing," and so do my adult children, who learned it in mostly black schools in the District of Columbia when they were growing up. Indeed, I sang it last Sunday morning when I preached on Martin Luther King and the American future at Old South Church in Boston, and the church leadership chose it from the hymnal of the United Church of Christ to end the service. I thought then, "Every black church in America is also singing that song this very morning!" But it had not occurred to me that Rev. Lowery might use it.

I am sure that few American whites know it, or understood what Lowery was doing. But practically every Black American did.

I laughed out loud when Lowery then turned upside down the despairing and cynical old Black patter about "black, brown, yellow, red, white." Who could have imagined these in-group cultural artifacts, these nearly secret rituals of Black life, coming out of the closet in such a public way on this most broadly American occasion?

As for President Obama himself, any God worth the salt that was spread upon the Temple offerings would have smiled benignly as he mentioned "Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and non-believers." Monotheists, polytheists, and atheists all included in our community. (Maybe Obama, like many Buddhists, sees Buddhism as a philosophy, not a religion.)

As for much of the content of Obama's speech - for example -- ''A nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous": it seemed secular on the surface but at least to my ears bespoke an implicitly religious sensibility. Some of the immediate post-ceremony TV commentary heard the speech as prose rather than poetry; but as I read it later, that line and others seemed to me to glow and chime as poetry. God shining through.

Shalom, salaam, shantih, namaste, peace.

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Regarding the title of your comment, “God enjoyed Inauguration rhetoric”: I don't know which God the “religious” leaders were referring to, which God Obama was referring to or which God you’re talking about. Surely it cannot be the God of the Hebrew Scriptures or the God of the Christian Greek Scriptures, or the Creator of the universe. That God has a name and those who know Him use it (Psalm 83:18, Exodus 6:2-3, Isaiah 42:8, Isaiah 54:5). As the true “Hearer of Prayer” (Psalm 65:`12), Jehovah teaches us about prayer through his inspired Word (2Timothy 3:16). The entire Scriptural record testifies that 1) Jehovah is the One to whom prayer should be directed (Psalm 5:1, 2: Matthew 6:9). 2) To be heard by the Creator of the universe, the one praying must have faith (Hebrews 11:6) demonstrated in striving to live in harmony with God's righteous principles set out in His Inspired Word (Matthew 7:21). In addition, Jesus showed the prayers of a sinful person who sincerely wanted to change were more acceptable to God than the prayers of a proud man who carefully observed religious customs (Luke 18:10-14). 3) Jehovah doesn’t listen to all payers (Isaiah 1:15). Any who do not respect the sacredness of life cannot expect their payers to be heard, no matter how often and how fervently they pray. 4) Jehovah, the Creator of the universe (Revelation 4:11), does not “enjoy…rhetoric” (Matthew 6:5, 7-8). You identify yourself as a rabbi. This may lead people to believe you can teach the truth about God. But, you are teaching you own ideas. (Isaiah 29:13-15; Matthew 15:1-9). You are not helping those who listen to you. (Matthew 15:14).

Posted by: Christie2 | January 30, 2009 11:30 AM
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Joseph Lowery's use of the words from "lift every voice and sing," written to keep hope flowing through the weary years of slavery and oppression in the African American community, complemented perfectly Barack Obama's evocation of the journey of the United States as a whole.

Whatever metaphor we use for the hope that keeps us going, whatever keeps us true to something larger than ourselves, we need to be reminded that we are tried by prosperity and success as well as by depression and tears.

Whether we call on God, Love, YHWH, Reason, Allah, Nature, Brahman, Wisdom, Enlightenment, Tao, we move through sorrow and hope along the way.

As a nation, as a world, let us embrace one another's metaphors and dance together into our future. We can. Yes, we can.

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far along the way;
Thou who has 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 thee O God, and
true to our native land.

Posted by: Racje | January 27, 2009 7:12 PM
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Rabbi Waskow,

Keep talking, because you are one voice I have no problem listening to.

Posted by: RandomGuy | January 27, 2009 6:10 PM
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Rabbi Waskow - I was extraordinarily pleased to read your words today. Thank you for your open minded perspectives even as you are able to guide and help others find their way. May blessings shine upon you and your work.

Posted by: ChristianT | January 27, 2009 2:40 PM
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Rabbi Waskow, my impression from this first encounter with your words, is that you are a truly an extraordinary individual. Our world is much better off thanks to your beautiful efforts. You are a shining example of civility and tolerance for us all. You have set the gold standard for inclusion of all. Many warm regards and wishing that you just keep getting better.

Posted by: AgentG | January 26, 2009 3:36 PM
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Barak Obama has a unique gift for uniting people of all persuasions. So why does he end every speech with the divisive and exclusionary "God bless America"? Didn't God make all humans? Twenty-first century problems are not confined to national boundaries...they are global. Climate change is global; the financial meltdown is global. Seeing images of Earth from space quickly brings home the fact that we are all passengers on Spaceship Earth, sailing through the void on a single fragile blue sphere. We can no longer be provincial and survive, but who speaks for Earth?

No other leader in history has captured the world's imagination like Barak Hussein Obama, so while we have the world's attention let's reinforce America's new outgoing message by a new and inclusionary tag line...”God Bless Planet Earth”.

Posted by: jay_w | January 26, 2009 2:11 PM
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Very nicely written, Rabbi.

One comment. You wrote:

"(Maybe Obama, like many Buddhists, sees Buddhism as a philosophy, not a religion.)"

Buddhism is actually something more concrete and practical than a philosophy: it's a psychology of the human mind which is usable by anyone for their own improvement and benefit.

Buddhism is also also a cosmology in that it describes with particularity the structures and nature of the universe, including the human mind and the path toward enlightenment.

For sure though, Buddhism is most certainly not a religion.

Posted by: norriehoyt | January 23, 2009 9:46 PM
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Responding to one comment: I don't have a "concept" of God; I have many metaphors. The Interbreathiung of all life (pronounce YHWH with no vowels). The Old Guy in the sky dancing in a circle dance with all the beings of the universe, getting to taste the experience of every being as the great Circle dances. The hyper-DNA of ALL life, woven of all names in a double helix. The mother nursing, embodying the Majesty of Nurture ("El Shaddai" : shaddaim = breasts.) The dance of Control & Community. The fitted-together jigsaw puzzle made of all the faces of the world. And lots more. --- Rabbi Arthur Waskow, The Shalom Center

Posted by: Arthur Waskow | January 22, 2009 8:36 AM
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Posted by: Arthur Waskow | January 22, 2009 8:35 AM
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"I also appreciated his effort to contextualize Jesus as both actually a Jew and in Muslim eyes a prophet by saying his name in both Hebrew and Arabic as well as the Greek by which most of the Christian world knows him."
______________________
And I appreciate your gentle spirit, Rabbi. That said...

It is true that in Islam's eyes, Jesus was a prophet. What you neglected to say was that in Islam's eyes he was also Muslim. (See Quoran.) However, the larger issue is when one gets specific to one's faith, one introduces difference and politics, and with Jesus, that difference and politics is huge. Another case in point, in Judaism's eyes, Jesus who?

As for the Warren apologists, they essentially say the same thing, albeit, some with reservations. To them, I say Warren's personal calling by any person, vocation, or supernatural being, has as little place in a government-funded inauguration as would his proclaiming Christian universalism.

In sum, a homophobic, anti-choice religionist like like Warren, a person abuses his tax exempt status by meddling in political affairs, sectarian in every cell, just doesn't cut it at inaugurations. I'm hopeful I'll never see him at such an event again.

Arthur Waskow

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