Forget that bozo, that cheap hack, Rick Warren.
Watch a master at work as the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery closed the inaugural ceremony with a benediction that soared with beauty, inspiration and a nod to the work of his good friend Dr. Martin Luther King.
http://www.youtube.com/...
In the days before, Rev. Lowery told the Nation, "I’ve been told you can see a portion of the memorial and I believe that in my mind’s eye I shall see Martin Luther King shedding tears of joy."
From the New Republic: "This is obviously Obama's day, but the moment I'll most remember from the Inauguration is Joseph Lowery slowly walking up to the dais--looking so old and bent that I worried he might not make it there--and then delivering a benediction that was lyrical, funny, and, by the sheer fact that he was delivering it, the most powerful symbol of just how far we as a country have come. Unbelievable.
--Jason Zengerle"
He was a preacher in the 50s at the beginning of the civil rights movement:
"It was a moral imperative of the faith I believe in that God had made all the nations and people of one blood and loved all his children equally," he said.
He helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Dr. King, marched with King, knew Rosa Parks and worked on the Montgomery bus boycott. He nearly died on the road with Dr. King when Lowery's hotel room was blown up, but he'd decided at the last minute to go home instead of spend the night.
And he has a sense of humor: "For white folks in the south to vote for a black man as president is drastic. This is revolutionary. The Democrats didn’t do it. God did it. Nobody else could have got these white folks to vote for a negro named Barack Obama."
Above taken from an interview here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/... from the Times of London
Lowery, remember, was the preacher at Coretta Scott King's funeral in 2006 who made that little worm-baby Bush squirm, a man who knows how to speak the truth to power:
"We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew, and we know, that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more, but no more for the poor," he said then.
Critics charged that the remarks were out of place at a funeral. Lowery defended them as relevant to Mrs. King’s life.
Amen, Rev. Lowery.
I'm looking for a transcript and will post as soon as I find one. Or maybe I'll just do my own...
Working on it now.
Okay, got half done and someone online produced a transcript:
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou who has brought us thus far along the way, thou who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path, we pray, lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee, lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee. Shadowed beneath thy hand may we forever stand -- true to thee, O God, and true to our native land.
We truly give thanks for the glorious experience we've shared this day. We pray now, O Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant, Barack Obama, the 44th president of these United States, his family and his administration. He has come to this high office at a low moment in the national and, indeed, the global fiscal climate. But because we know you got the whole world in your hand, we pray for not only our nation, but for the community of nations. Our faith does not shrink, though pressed by the flood of mortal ills.
For we know that, Lord, you're able and you're willing to work through faithful leadership to restore stability, mend our brokenness, heal our wounds and deliver us from the exploitation of the poor or the least of these and from favoritism toward the rich, the elite of these.
We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th president, to inspire our nation to believe that, yes, we can work together to achieve a more perfect union. And while we have sown the seeds of greed -- the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.
And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.
And as we leave this mountaintop, help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of our family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques, or wherever we seek your will.
Bless President Barack, First Lady Michelle. Look over our little, angelic Sasha and Malia.
We go now to walk together, children, pledging that we won't get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone, with your hands of power and your heart of love.
Help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid; when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.
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 back, when brown can stick around -- (laughter) -- when yellow will be mellow -- (laughter) -- when the red man can get ahead, man -- (laughter) -- and when white will embrace what is right.
Let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen.
AUDIENCE: Amen!
REV. LOWERY: Say amen --
AUDIENCE: Amen!
REV. LOWERY: -- and amen.
AUDIENCE: Amen! (Cheers, applause.)