WASHINGTON – Gene Robinson, the divisive figure who was the first openly Episcopal gay bishop, led the invocation at today’s inaugural kickoff.
Robinson prayed for God to “bless this nation with anger ? anger at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.” He also prayed that God would bless us with “the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.”
Overall, his prayer was not especially surprising, since Robinson had told the Concord Monitor that it wouldn’t be “especially Christian” and wouldn’t use a Bible. Below is the video I took on my camera of Robinson’s prayer.
The event was mostly focused on the celebrities, including Bono, Tiger Woods, Beyonce, and Bruce Springsteen. Several journalists clearly need a brush-up on People, In Style, and US magazines because people had to call out each celebrity for those of us who were clueless. My favorite moment was when it looked like Samuel L. Jackson peeked around the corner to take a picture on his phone. Even Malia Obama pulled out a small digital camera.
Click below for the full text of the prayer and more pictures.
During the event, I stood close to the front and heard the prayer just fine, but my friend who stood closer to the Washington Monument said the sound of the prayer didn’t reach the crowd until halfway finished. In any case, here’s the full text of the prayer:
“O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will bless us with tears ? tears for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women in many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.
Bless this nation with anger ? anger at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.
Bless us with discomfort at the easy, simplistic answers we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth about ourselves and our world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.
Bless us with patience and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be fixed anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.
Bless us with humility, open to understanding that our own needs as a nation must always be balanced with those of the world.
Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance, replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences.
Bless us with compassion and generosity, remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable.
And God, we give you thanks for your child, Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.
Give him wisdom beyond his years, inspire him with President Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for all people.
Give him a quiet heart, for our ship of state needs a steady, calm captain.
Give him stirring words; We will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.
Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.
Help him 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.
Give him strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.
And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking far too much of this one. 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. Amen.”
This is the view from the Lincoln Memorial of an estimated 750,000 people on the mall.
Denzel Washington was one of the celebrities who spoke at the event.
Before Bono sang “In the Name of Love,” he said the song was also an “Irish dream, European dream, African dream, Israeli dream,” and, after a pause, “also a Palestinian dream.”
My apologies for the blur, but I don’t have a monstrous camera. This is Obama just before he leaves the Lincoln Memorial.
