A NOD TO GOD

I once was in a military assignment where I had to pray the invocation at all these graduation ceremonies. It was tradition, just as it is at the President's inauguration. (I am surprised that some ACLU type hasn't already sued to stop it). I use to call these invocations, nods to God. I kept them short with something like, "Dear God, thank you for all our opportunities. Bless us in our future endeavors. Amen." One Chaplain said it was way too short. I promised to lengthen it. I never did. My view has not permeated many of those who pray on the National scene and I doubt it will the president elect's choice of Rick Warren doing the invocation at his inauguration.

On the Newshour the other night, they crowned Warren as America's pastor. Made me smile. I don't particularly like him because I am mostly jealous. The guy or someone around him is a marketing genius. He took an average book and turned it into an industry. I know a good bit about it as I followed the success of the book through this organization I'm in, Publishing Marketing Asso. And, a friend who is the epitome of the Christian right kept me informed: he marketed The Purpose Driven Life to Christian bookstores at huge discounts who then became agents in marketing the book to churches as a study guide. The Churches leaped on it and moved the book toward bigger and bigger numbers to the best seller list at the NY Times that started the cycle again. A marketing genius. And, the guy got Obama and John McCain to his forum. Amazing. I didn't think it was a good idea for Obama then because he was pandering to a lot of zealots, plus separation of church and state issues. But, it is politics.

I think it was a bad move to have named him. There were better choices. It would have been easy to name one of the Chiefs of Chaplains of the various services. And, I admit, slap, slap, that I don't like goatees. And, obviously, Warren is not hanging out at a gym very often.

America's pastor. I don't think so. If he really wanted to make an impact, he should bow out is my view. This could be his note to the President elect. "Thank you for the great honor in asking me to give the invocation at your inauguration. But, in light of the controversy and at this point in history in our country, we must do all we can to be united and not divisive. And, I have asked myself, 'What would Jesus do?' It is clear. Thank you again. You can be assured of my personal prayers and good will."

Will he do it. No, these guys have egos the size of 18 wheelers. And, unfortunately, they have not been reading the New Testament with regularity. What about the idea that Jesus conveyed constantly, "he who would be first, let him be last." Or, "let the least among you become the greatest."

Email Responses to "Do Over" comments

I so agree with the comments on the Airborne Press website. Thank you for this. But the sad part is there are still a lot of diehard Republicans in the state of Georgia and I think it's going to be hard to get the people out to vote as they did in the General Election. Today I've had robocalls from Bill Clinton, Max Cleland and Michelle Obama, which impressed me, but how many others? The ads have been running for weeks now and some of Saxby Chambliss's are pretty ugly. He's a slimeball who rode in on Bush's tail, and I fear he still has a lot of support. Hard to believe, but as you say, people never cease to surprise. Tomorrow LTG(R) Claudia Kennedy will be at Savannah Dem hdqtrs to talk to phone bankers, volunteers, etc. and then give a speech in one of the squares in support of Martin. Should help some and Savannah's a strong military town, but Atlanta has many more, and lots of big business, votes. We shall see. sf

ELECTION IS OVER AND THE ABOVE COMMENTS PROVED PROPHETIC

Thanks for your candid comments. When the election looked like it was a tossup, my oldest daughter, whom I constantly had to say: "Take a deep breath," discussed somewhat tongue in cheek, what to do if the same old policies of the last eight years became future reality.

Honestly, I thought long and hard but never told her, what if John McCain won and we were facing another four years of George W. Where could we go, move? Ireland, maybe?. I wasn't all that serious. Fortunately, it worked out but now honestly, I think if I were you, I would think it might be time to get out of Dodge. I am partially kidding but I can hardly believe the majority of Georgians.To think they would go with the same old tired views when the economy is in the reverse, people are losing their jobs, recession is no longer even spinned; yet, they believe this elusive keeping a balance of power in Washington. What is it with these people. What planet are they on? I guess we need to be hopeful that there is only one Georgia.

I do feel sorry for those like yourself who are open minded. The flip side of the coin, however, is that maybe my brother who is a loyal Democrat and been involved in elective politics for a long time, is right: if a black is not in the race, African Americans will not vote. It sounds racist but in Georgia, it surely seems to be true. They simply didn't vote. I'm not sure even if an Obama visit would have helped. The Democrats did all they could, I think.

I truly am sorry for Georgians like yourself. Not that you need it, but to think that by a resounding majority, Georgians put back into office a man who maligned a triple amputee from the Vietnam war, on his first victory and rode back on his second term with Sarah Palen. This is pretty sad in my view.