Thanks for the invocations CR
I found this
firstthings.com
I don't remember the visceral reaction to any of the invocations of the past. Seems to me people with strong feelings against Bush are looking for reasons to dislike him. IMHO
Interesting reading <g>
It is worth remembering that the practice of inaugural prayer was reinstituted, after a lapse
of 144 years, by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In the last quarter century, from the
Republican Richard Nixon in 1969 to the Democratic Bill Clinton in 1993, the evangelist
Billy Graham has often played a prominent role at inauguration services. Clinton's
inauguration was no less religious than that of his immediate predecessors. He began the
day at an early morning prayer service at an A.M.E. Church, laid his hand on the Bible as
he took the oath, quoted scripture in his inaugural address, and invited Graham to deliver
the invocation and benediction. The American religious-political symbols of Bible, oath,
prayer, benediction, and evangelist, all of them together suggesting the theme of America
as a holy, (Judeo?) Christian nation, were present. |
