[Dialogue] 1/24/13, Spong: Inauguration Day 2013

Thu Jan 24 07:46:55 PST 2013

     HOMEPAGE        MY PROFILE        ESSAY ARCHIVE       MESSAGE BOARDS       CALENDAR

	Inauguration Day 2013
	Inauguration day in America is a time of transition, the proper moment to articulate the hopes and dreams of the future. These things are more vivid if the one to be inaugurated is just beginning his or her presidency, but even when it is the beginning of a second term for a sitting president, it is still a time to take stock, to look at the issues that will confront this leader and to glimpse with anticipation what the future might mean. I suspect that is doubly so as the nation marks the second term of its first African-American president. The whole inauguration weekend was for me a solemn time of renewed convictions about the strength of our nation. I walked through this weekend in an unusual way, which I would like to share with my readers.

	This year’s inaugural weekend was framed between the 150th anniversary of the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln on January 1st, 1863, and the celebration of Martin Luther King’s birthday on January 21st. President Lincoln prepared this proclamation long before he issued it, but waited for the tide of the civil war to turn in the Union’s favor before making it public. The President’s proclamation and executive power needs to be carried on the wings of a strong political tide in order to be effective. The emancipation of the slaves thus depended upon the recognition that the Union forces would be victorious. Following their success in the Battle of Antietam, Mr. Lincoln decided that January 1st, 1863, was the time to make this defining proclamation official. It was thus our reality in 2013 both to note and to celebrate the fact that 150 years and 20 days later, one who bore a racial identity with the slave people, had been twice elected to head this nation. That is the stuff of human dreams. Without Martin Luther King’s work, the presidency of Barack Obama would also not have been possible. For the inauguration of this African-American president to occur on the birthday of the civil rights leader was an incredible serendipity.

	The weekend began for me and my wife, Christine, at a gala, a black-tie dinner at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, held to honor and to support the university’s library. That library has, during the years of both my episcopacy and my retirement, been my place of research and study. There I have written some of my books. The administration and faculty of Drew University have welcomed me into their midst and have extended to me the use of that library in remarkable ways. The guests at this library gala were welcomed to the evening personally at the door by the President of Drew, Dr. Vivian A. Bull, and the evening began with a lecture by Dr. David S. Reynolds, the Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His title for this event was: “Mightier than the Sword: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Battle for America.” In his presentation Dr. Reynolds took his audience deeply into the work and impact of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s life-changing novel that was published in 1852. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was destined to sell more copies than any other book in the United States, except the Bible, in the entire 19th century. This book was also turned into a number of plays that were performed countless times over the last half of the 19th century and well into the 20th century. The estimates are that more people saw the play than read the book. Uncle Tom’s Cabin put a face on the cruelty of slavery that nothing else had ever done before. It galvanized the abolitionist movement and in all probability made the civil war inevitable.

	This book, not surprisingly, was also resisted deeply in parts of the South. Laws were passed in Southern States banning the book, forbidding its sale and distribution and even making it a crime to possess a copy. One person was actually convicted of this crime and was sentenced to ten years in prison. It was not the first time, nor would it be the last, when the guarantees of the Constitution regarding the freedom of speech and expression would be trampled beneath the power of a virulent and fearful prejudice. Racism dies hard. When Dr. Reynolds was asked if he saw anything similar to this negative response to Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the political arena of today, he pointed to the recent use of the language of “States Rights,” including the claim to the right to nullify federal laws with which the states disagreed, such as the Affordable Care Act and the proposed requirements of a universal background check when purchasing a gun, the banning of assault rifles and their large capacity magazines. At the same time, he pointed to the blatant attempt in the last election to suppress minority votes. It appears that the emotions that led this nation into civil war are still abroad. This evening and this discussion was for us a poignant beginning to the inauguration weekend.

	On Sunday morning we went to our wonderful parish church, St. Peter’s, Morristown, NJ, where our worship was organized around the observance of the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. The adult class focused on the writings of II Isaiah (chapters 40-55) where the prophet portrays the messianic vocation of the Jewish people under the symbol of the one called “the Servant” or “the Suffering Servant.” That book portrayed the role of “the Servant” to be that of the oppressed and powerless members of our society not trying to get even, but accepting and thus transforming and even draining the anger and hostility of the oppressors and the enslavers. The class compared the “power” of an Adolph Hitler or a Napoleon Bonaparte, with the “power” displayed by a Mahatma Gandhi, a Nelson Mandela or a Martin Luther King, Jr., and asked the question whose “power” was it that ultimately changed the world?

	When we went to worship we found the Emancipation Proclamation printed on the front of our bulletins. We sang Harry Emerson Fosdick’s great hymn “God of Grace and God of Glory,” which asks for the strength and courage necessary for “the living of these days.” We also sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic, We Shall Overcome and Lift Every Voice and Sing, which describes very powerfully what slaves had to endure from their “masters.” The Bible readings for that day included the charge given to Moses in the book of Exodus “to go down to Egypt and to set my people free.” The choir sang Negro spirituals like Ride on, King Jesus, and we were treated to one of the most powerful sermons I have ever heard from our rector, the Reverend Janet Broderick, on the lessons learned from the non-violent teachings of Dr. King. All of those things flowed together to prepare me for inauguration day.

	When that ceremony began the opening prayer was delivered by Myrlie Evers, the widow of Medgar Evers, a black civil rights leader who was murdered in Mississippi in 1963. The inaugural poem was written and read by Richard Blanco, the gay son of immigrant parents. The benediction was delivered by the Rev. Dr. Luis Leon, a Cuban immigrant, who serves at St. John’s Episcopal Church, across the street from the White House. A diverse nation was on display. For those of us who had lived through those days of transition there was great joy.

	The climax of the inaugural ceremony was the address from our newly installed president. It focused primarily on domestic affairs, as the world faded into the background with its ten years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan and even the worldwide economic collapse that greeted his first term. It was a moving speech both in content and in symbol. An African-American president began his second term by quoting Martin Luther King, Jr., by referring to “Stonewall,” the place where the gay rights movement had begun, by emphasizing the oneness of the people who populate this land, made up, as he said, of those with different skin colors, different genders and different sexual orientations. He called our nation’s leaders not to solve the problems of the ages, but to address the issues “of this day.” He singled out the plight of women who still suffer from vast economic disparities. His critics would later call it a “left-wing” agenda. I call it a “moral vision” for our nation rooted in the values of our American past.

	As we listened throughout the day, signs of the birth of a new political sensitivity were apparent. Senator Schumer of New York introduced his Republican co-chair of the Inaugural Committee, Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, as “my colleague and my friend.” Former President Jimmy Carter reported on former President George H.W. Bush’s health, revealing both a recent telephone call and a longer time friendship. The wife of Republican majority leader, Eric Cantor, had served with Senator Schumer’s wife in picking and tasting the menu for the inaugural luncheon. Small signs, yes, but every long journey starts with a single, small step.

	When the day was over, the nation settled down to wait for action. I believe we will receive it. My reasons for optimism are these: A far more comfortable and confident president is in the White House, a Senate with an increased Democratic majority has lost its most extreme negative voices to either retirement or to resignation, the House has a decreased Republican majority led by a leader, who now shows signs of being fed up with his far right vocal minority. I expect him, not to surrender his principles, but to seek common ground for the nation’s well-being. All of them see an aroused electorate, weary of political posturing, yearning to see pragmatic action, not continued brinkmanship. Half a step forward is better than no step or even a step backward. Perhaps inauguration day harbors good things to come.
	~John Shelby Spong
	Read the essay online here.

	Question & Answer
	Charles Bond from Rockford, Michigan, writes:

	Question:
	I understand and support that “you do not think of God theistically,” i.e. what could be called the God of the Old Testament. But, as I have read, the study of theology is based on accepting the fact that a transcendent reality called God truly exists, i.e. there is a God existing outside the material universe, but having an influence or some sort of presence on earth. Do you believe in this concept of a transcendent God and, if so, do the experiences of the disciples and apostles that you attribute to them being transformed into their world-conquering evangelism represent an example of God’s actions here on earth through the mind invasions that produced their seeing an image of Jesus? These concepts seem to me to be a necessary part of including in any “New Christianity.” What do you think?
	Answer:
	Dear Charles,
	Thank you for your letter. It reveals, however, the constant problem we have in trying to develop a working concept of God. Does God exist? Existence is a human category, describing a human perspective. Can God be bound with that kind of vocabulary?
	Transcendent is another human word that I use, but it is not a word that applies to God. It applies to our experience, to a human awareness that there is something real beyond our ability to know or even to perceive.
	What we must do is to recognize that we human beings can in the last analysis say nothing about God; all we can describe is our human experience and in that experience, we assert that we believe that we touch “otherness,” transcendence, and the word we have used to identify that experience is “GOD.” Are we simply being deluded? I do not think so. Is there something real that calls us beyond the limits of the human? I believe there is. That is as far as I can go in discussing God. It is not satisfactory to those for whom God is part of their personal security system. It is, however, enough for me because whatever I experience God to be drives me deeper into the commitment to live fully, love wastefully and to be all that I can be.
	The disciples clearly had an experience of Jesus following his death that convinced them that death could not contain his life and that they could see a God presence in him that was beyond any human boundary. That was resurrection. When they tried to explain it, we got stories of graves that were empty and visions that inspired.
	The New Christianity will have to see language and theology, creeds and doctrines as pointers to truth not vessels in which truth is somehow captured.
	~John Shelby Spong

	Announcements
	A Note from Progressive Christianity.org
	We are pleased to inform our readers that John Shelby Spong's book Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World has been named one of the ten best religious books published in 2011, by Lee Harmon, a well-known religious blogger (The Dubious Disciple). Harmon called Bishop's Spong's book: "A thoroughly enjoyable journey through the Bible, detailing each book's origin and historical setting.  Possibly Spong's best."
	Progressive Christianity.org, Bishop Spong's online publisher, would like to note that this book was a series of columns during the years 2009 and 2010, before it was turned into a Harper-Collins book, so our subscribers got to read the content of this best-selling volume long before the reading public. These essays can be found in the essay archive. 

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