Change We Can Believe In?

Funny how ever since the announcement that Rick Warren would give the invocation at the presidential inauguration, that the buzz was how the Obama constituency was offended by the choice. Warren, an evangelical pastor, is "guilty" of supporting traditional marriage and even has the audacity to pray in the name of Jesus! No doubt Pastor Rick would say something offensive if not offend some by his very presence.

On the other end of the spectrum was Rev. Joseph Lowery who rendered the benediction. No issues there; no buzz about anyone being offended by this choice or possibly having the Reverend say something that would be offensive, right?

My opinion:

Pastor Warren delivered a prayer and did it in Jesus name. He called for God's blessings upon the President, his family, the V.P. and all elected officials. He called for God to forgive us when we fall short and brought light on the need for us to unite even in our differences.

Rev. Lowery delivered a speech disguised as a prayer and every fair minded person in the nation should be offended by what he said, regardless of skin color. Oh, there were homily-like sentences in the speech, but the meat of the message was down right racists and anti-white. Hmmmm, sounds like the flavor of the week as delivered even more venomously by the Reverend Wright, the spiritual leader to President Obama for 20 years.

Here is the part I am talking about. It starts:

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back,…

Sorry Reverend, those days ended long ago, and if not, it certainly ended when we elected the messiah President! (but I digress...)

…when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man; …

At this point I began to think "Where is this heading, and what rhymes with 'white'?" Then it came...

… and when white will embrace what is right.

Am I mistaken or did the Reverend just go all "White-Devil" on me? I guess being white means I don’t have any moral sense. And, if I’m not mistaken, I think he just put together a construction that lines up the browns, the blacks and reds and yellows on one side and the unrighteous white man on the other.

The he finished with:

That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.

The crowd loudly responded with a great "AMEN!" Not just once, but three Times to the call of AMEN from the Reverend.

Is this the "Change" we are to expect? Honestly I do not think President Obama thinks this way. But I do believe that many people of color see the election of a black man as an excuse to air their racist ideology. Racism is not limited to one people group.