Most Underrated Part of Inauguration

Pre-inaugural chatter speculated what each of the ministers would say. Would the Rev. Rick Warren use the opportunity to pray against the maladies of abortion or homosexuality? Would he end his prayer in the nonpolitically correct and exclusive "in Jesus' name"? Would the Rev. Joseph Lowery resurrect a civil right spirit in his ecumenical prayer? Would he slide in a pro-gay comment within the final entreaty of the inauguration? (SNIP) ... just when you think the "amen" is imminent, Warren gives a coup de grace to any political or earthly power – a possible subversive chess move to subtly call Obama's regime into checkmate. He called upon the global Christian community to ...

Thanks, Ray -- that was good. I was surprised that some people saw the same things that I did. I didn't see the prayer as inclusive in terms of being watered down; I did, however, see it as inclusive in terms of reaching out to the lost. Of course, he couldn't preach an entire sermon in 3 minutes, but I think that he planted a few seeds that others can water.

Warren was clearly referring to the Quran, but he was applying the supposed attributes of Allah to the real attributes of the one true God. Someone mentioned calling God compassionate and merciful and I also recall a passage in Exodus I read a few weeks ago that used the same words.

I had no problem with using the name of Jesus pronounced in English, Arabic, Hebrew, and Spanish. I don't know why so many people do.

One of the things that I keep up with is the growth of the church where it is undergoing persecution. I've read some books over the past years about how Christianity is growing in the Arab world, and also especially in Iran.

These people need to know that the one true God is compassionate and merciful. They need to learn that the Isa they read about in the Quran is not the Isa who died on the cross for our sins.

One thing I find funny is that so many American Christians took offense at what Warren said. However, I guarantee that Arabic speakers heard the words "merciful and compassionate" and "Isa" coming from Warren's mouth and made the connection. Arabic Christians also call God "Allah." We as Christians need to preach and witness to the Muslim world who the real Isa is, who the real Allah is, and proclaim that God is indeed compassionate and merciful.

I saw the prayer as an uncomfortable meshing of evangelical speak and liberal “social justice” theology.

Hey, I like evangelical speak!

I did not see any liberal social justice speak. Yes, there was talk of social justice, but didn't God the Father and God the Father speak of social justice? We just finished studying Deuteronomy in Bible study and I'm in Genesis as part of my Bible in a Year program. Lots of talk about how to treat the poor, the traveler, and the foreigner.

The danger is moving into Marxist liberation theology, but I don't think that Warren came anywhere near there. Having read most of his books, I would imagine that he would find that concept appalling.

BTW, it would have been nice to have had the pope on stage, too. :-)

(Random thoughts)

“Help us, O God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race, or religion, or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all.”

The above statement has no place in a prayer to God Almighty... maybe a prayer to Superman, but not to God.

“Help us to share, to serve and to seek the common good of all. May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet.”

This is total Kum-ba-yah liberal Christianity.

“And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in heaven.”

Very doubtful, given that he was a denier of the resurrection, a communist and an adulterer.

This is total Kum-ba-yah liberal Christianity.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Those who love you will prosper.
Peace be within your walls, and prosperity within your palaces.
For my brothers' and companions' sakes, I will now say, "Peace be within you."

That's from Psalms 122. Read the book of Deuteronomy and you will see chapter after chapter of promises of peace, health, and prosperity if the Israelites would obey God's commandments.

Believe me, I am very much against "name it and claim it" Christianity and Marxist liberation theology. I still do not see any hint of those in Warren's prayer.

Someone better start sending “them missionaries” here to the United States... :-)

Along with that, we need a Presidential Proclamation like Lincoln gave, which is probably more appropriate now than it ever was before...

A Proclamation.

Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.

And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.

And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.

All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.

—By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward, Secretary of State

If it would only be so....

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