Leave The Invocations For The Churches

By Allen Bacon, Editor, The Daily Bosco

I've been thinking a lot lately about the upcoming inauguration...in particular the invocation or prayer.

There has been a lot of conversation about the selection of Rick Warren to lead the invocation on Jan. 20. And he may or may not be the best selection.

The point is that our country was based on the right to freedom of religion. Not all of us follow the same belief system as Rick Warren. He can't posssibly speak or give a prayer for all of us.

So either you have all the religious groups represented at the inauguration ceremony or you have none of the groups. It's as simple as that.

Have a moment of silence, so you can say a prayer...or not say a prayer in the way you see fit, have some poetry ready by Maya Angelo or one of our other great poets, have President Obama give a speech...and that's it. Or better yet, let everybody go back to their respective churches...and then say a prayer.

President Elect Obama is no different than all his predecessors in this respect. He's a smart politician. Warren is not chosen so much for his beliefs...he's the Billy Graham of our era. He's the most popular preacher of this generation and a lot of people buy into his "Purpose-driven" message. You want the majority of the people in America on your side?...Get the most popular preacher in your camp and the sheep will follow.

And a side note on Rick Warren. He needs to stop speaking out of both sides of his mouth. You can't say that you love the Gay community and then go to the safe confines of Christian radio and lump the Gay community in with pedophiles and wife abusers as he did. That's horribly wrong. But you know what...he's no different than most Americans and religious leaders. That's how they interpret scripture. So that's not surprising.

We need to get together and have common ground in this country. This is not the way to do it.