My Report From the Inaugural Will Have to Wait.
I just got back, and it is going to be a bit more typing than the usual (even longer than usual) blog. And I am going to try to make it a proper piece of writing. I will actually open up Word and type it with the concurrent spelling and syntax filters in force.
Beyond that? A quick taste? Over the past couple days I have thought of the Bob Marley song,"400 Years." Naturally my thought was that yup, things have very much changed now, as of a little after noon, yesterday.
Oh and here is my one complaint about the event (not the security, which seemed draconian, as far as the excesses of the flow of pedestrian traffic is concerned); Rick Warren. Reciting the whole of "The Lord's Prayer?" Now for the record, I have said that many times in my life, and I do not mind saying them in Church. Hell, I did not even mind it at my local town's 9/11 memorial ceremony (we also had a rabbi there, so there were at least multiple theologies in force.) But at that particular inauguration -- the first inauguration that counts as a major break from racial/ethnic sameness, and where the theme of the diversity of the USA was finally really being an issue, and celebrated? Pastor Warren's use of the binding, core prayer of Christianity, instead of sticking with the usual sort of self-authored Sect Neutral sort of thing was just obnoxious.
This is why I use the lower case c for describing christians so often. Not that they are the only religion who does this thing. They all do it. But since in the USA 66% of the population is some flavor of Christian, they are the biggest meaning most frequent and numerous offenders of the kind of obnoxious religious behavior that I will call, for the purposes of this post, My God is Better Than Your God Syndrome.
It was in poor taste, and was hostile to not only all who were not self-described Christians, but also to Christians who truly believe in a non-coercive, non denominational approach to invocations of The Almighty, in the Public Sphere. Make no mistake (and look to my most recent previous post to see why), but I am not sorry for saying that. And this is from someone who is not really into religious stuff, but really is not hostile to it, in theory. I am mostly if only hostile to hostile invocations of religious dogma and practices.
This is why I am against Prayer in school. It seems that no one who is all for that really wants the other sect's prayers forced on anyone. They only want their own prayers thrust on others.
Sickening, that. Anyway . . .
Beyond that? A quick taste? Over the past couple days I have thought of the Bob Marley song,"400 Years." Naturally my thought was that yup, things have very much changed now, as of a little after noon, yesterday.
Oh and here is my one complaint about the event (not the security, which seemed draconian, as far as the excesses of the flow of pedestrian traffic is concerned); Rick Warren. Reciting the whole of "The Lord's Prayer?" Now for the record, I have said that many times in my life, and I do not mind saying them in Church. Hell, I did not even mind it at my local town's 9/11 memorial ceremony (we also had a rabbi there, so there were at least multiple theologies in force.) But at that particular inauguration -- the first inauguration that counts as a major break from racial/ethnic sameness, and where the theme of the diversity of the USA was finally really being an issue, and celebrated? Pastor Warren's use of the binding, core prayer of Christianity, instead of sticking with the usual sort of self-authored Sect Neutral sort of thing was just obnoxious.
This is why I use the lower case c for describing christians so often. Not that they are the only religion who does this thing. They all do it. But since in the USA 66% of the population is some flavor of Christian, they are the biggest meaning most frequent and numerous offenders of the kind of obnoxious religious behavior that I will call, for the purposes of this post, My God is Better Than Your God Syndrome.
It was in poor taste, and was hostile to not only all who were not self-described Christians, but also to Christians who truly believe in a non-coercive, non denominational approach to invocations of The Almighty, in the Public Sphere. Make no mistake (and look to my most recent previous post to see why), but I am not sorry for saying that. And this is from someone who is not really into religious stuff, but really is not hostile to it, in theory. I am mostly if only hostile to hostile invocations of religious dogma and practices.
This is why I am against Prayer in school. It seems that no one who is all for that really wants the other sect's prayers forced on anyone. They only want their own prayers thrust on others.
Sickening, that. Anyway . . .
posted by Abstentus at 5:46 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home