On Tue, January 20, 2009 2:12 pm, Kevin Callahan wrote: >> I was not very pleased with his specific reference to Jesus. > > I felt the same ... > parts of his speech were fine - > all the parts not referencing God and Jesus
I agree, I had hoped he would stick to purely non-specific language, and for the first half or so he avoided the specific mention of his God. To be fair, he couched his mention of Jesus in personal terms, rather than making the typical broad assumption that everyone else agrees: "I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus, who taught us to pray:" Again, I'm not religious and would be quite happy to have skipped this altogether, but overall I felt he gave a quick, decent, humble invocation... it could have been much worse. I could have done without the Lord's Prayer too, but don't find it offensive either. The majority of the speech I enjoyed as much as I could (these parts, which was the majority of it): Now, today, we rejoice not only in Americas peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time. We celebrate a hingepoint 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 unequaled 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, 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. 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. _______________________________________________ OSX-Nutters mailing list | [email protected] http://lists.tit-wank.com/mailman/listinfo/osx-nutters List hosted at http://cat5.org/
