The Bananaverse

I’m a bit late to this but I want to preserve it. Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson gave the following invocation at an inaugural event. You can also see video of him delivering the prayer. I just want to preserve it because when I think about religion and all those years of church and classes and all the religion-related things I did when I was young, this was the definition of a “good” Christian.
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O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will bless us with tears – tears for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women in many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless this nation with anger – anger at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort at the easy, simplistic answers we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth about ourselves and our world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be fixed anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility, open to understanding that our own needs as a nation must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance, replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences.

Bless us with compassion and generosity, remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable.

And God, we give you thanks for your child, Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, inspire him with President Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for all people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our ship of state needs a steady, calm captain.

Give him stirring words; We will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking far too much of this one. We implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand, that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity, and peace.

Amen.
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Amen indeed. Oh, did I mention this lovely prayer came from an openly gay man? No? Sorry. I think the real question is does that even matter? What does matter is the kind of persecution and hate and violence he has experienced at the hands of “good” Christians. I thought it was a very sincere and thoughtful blessing, and it doesn’t matter that I’m not Episcopalian. Say what you will about Kevin Smith but he nailed it in Dogma:

RUFUS
He still digs humanity, but it bothers Him to see the shit that gets carried out in His name – wars, bigotry, but especially the fractioning of all the religions. He said humanity took a good idea and, like always, built a belief structure on it.

BETHANY
Having beliefs isn’t good?

RUFUS
I think it’s better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier. Life should malleable and progressive; working from idea to idea permits that. Beliefs anchor you to certain points and limit growth; new ideas can’t generate. Life becomes stagnant. That was one thing the Man hated – still life. He wanted everyone to be as enthralled with living as He was. Maybe it had something to do with knowing when He was going to die. but Christ had this vitality that I’ve never encountered in another person since.
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Yeah. That.