All 3 of us sat down on Wednesday night to watch various parts of Obama’s inauguration. I had recorded the transmission over CNN. I had wanted to do the BBC version but having had a less than satisfactory experience with Channel 7’s coverage of the Beijing Games, I thought I’d trust an American network more for this American event. It was a toss up between Fox and CNN but I thought Fox had a bit too much light banter so CNN it was.
I had programmed the recorder to start at 3am and ending at 6.30am. When I watched it on Wednesday morning just after 6 however, it was obvious I needed to extend it so a second segment started at 6.30am and ended at 9am. All in, it was a whopping 6 hours. I had never recorded anything that long before. So it was a momentous occasion not just in America, but also in a little entertainment unit in a little home in suburban Melbourne Down Under…
The crowd was so large. Everywhere across the screen, there were people. It looked really cold but that did not stop them showing up. When the man of the hour finally took to the podium (having taken the surprisingly bumbling version of the oath) to deliver his speech, we hanged off every word. It was an impressive 20-minute oration which he seemed to have memorised. I didn’t catch him referring to any notes. Theresa thought there might have been a teleprompter. I would have agreed but this was no ordinary man. Obama’s apparent intelligence and charisma only accentuated the disaster that George Bush’s presidency was. To borrow kiddo’s lingo, Obama was awesome, stumbled oath notwithstanding.
Rick Warren has always been a favourite of mine, mega church notwithstanding. I thought he was less inclined to go on about wealth and health theology. So when he stepped up to pray during the inauguration (the invocation), I listened closely. The text of that pray is as follows:
Text of the invocation by Rev. Rick Warren for President Barack Obama’s inauguration, as transcribed by CQ Transcriptions:
Let us pray.
Almighty God, our father, everything we see and everything we can’t see exists because of you alone. It all comes from you, it all belongs to you. It all exists for your glory. History is your story.
The Scripture tells us Hear, oh Israel , the Lord is our God; the Lord is one. And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.
Now today we rejoice not only in America ‘s peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time. We celebrate a hinge-point of history with the inauguration of our first African-American president of the United States .
We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequalled possibility, where the son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership.
And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in Heaven.
Give to our new president, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity. Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the Cabinet, and every one of our freely elected leaders.
Help us, oh 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.
When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us. When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone, forgive us. When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the Earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us.
And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes, even when we differ.
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. And may we never forget that one day all nations and all people will stand accountable before you.
We now commit our new president and his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.
I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus, Jesus (hay-SOOS), who taught us to pray, Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
Ante 