Word: pastorally
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This was the day's catechism and call to arms. The Obamas began the morning with prayer at St. John's Episcopal Church, where Dallas pastor Bishop T.D. Jakes offered a warning as well as a blessing: "You cannot change what you will not confront," he said. "This is a moment of confrontation in this country ... The problems are mighty and the solutions are not simple, and everywhere you turn there will be a critic waiting to attack every decision that you make. But you are all fired up, sir, and you are ready to go. And this nation goes...
...straight presidential Inauguration, rabbis won't have a place on the dais. And the Jewish faith isn't the only religious tradition that continues to be snubbed. Since 1985, only Evangelical Protestants have played a part in the swearing-in ceremony. That will continue again this year when megachurch pastor Warren delivers the invocation and the Rev. Joseph Lowery, an African-American Evangelical, offers the benediction. At a time when the United States is more religiously diverse than at any other point in its history, and Obama's entire campaign was built on the notion of a newfound inclusiveness...
...Christians, but particularly for Jews who had gotten used to having a place on the dais, the development was deeply disturbing. After all, traditionally, the religious roster at presidential swearing ins looked something like the set-up to an old joke: "A priest, a pastor and a rabbi walk into an Inauguration ..." Rabbis prayed at a majority of Inaugurations that took place between 1949 and 1985, as did Catholic priests...
Each of Roosevelt's next two Inaugurations featured a Protestant minister and a Catholic priest. Then in 1949, Rabbi Samuel Thurman from Harry Truman's home state of Missouri joined a Baptist pastor and Catholic priest to deliver a prayer at the Inauguration. This was right around the time when sociologist Will Herberg was working on a book called Protestant, Catholic, Jew, arguing that the three religious traditions had separately shaped mid-20th-century America. It seemed both natural and fair, especially in the wake of the Holocaust and the founding of the State of Israel, to make sure that...
...more complicated. In an effort to contain the interfaith gathering on the Inaugural dais, Jimmy Carter limited the religious slots at his 1977 swearing in to two clergymen, provoking protests from both Jewish and Greek Orthodox groups. Ronald Reagan narrowed the list even further in 1981, bringing his personal pastor from California to deliver both the invocation and benediction. That move prompted fierce criticism from religious circles, and in 1985 the Inauguration once again included Protestant, Catholic and Jewish religious leaders...