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Some prayers and sermons are given more news value than others. For example, the fact that HBO did not broadcast Bishop V. Gene Robinson’s prayer on Sunday made a rather significant news ripple. However, a CNN interview with Colin Powell received priority over the mealtime prayer of Rear Admiral Barry C. Black (Ret.), U.S. Senate Chaplain, before Tuesday’s rather significant congressional luncheon with President Obama.
Can there be anyone who has not read or heard about the stirring ideals of racial reconciliation made concrete in the inauguration of Barack Obama, the son of a white mother and a black father?
Let people say whatever they wish about Rick Warren’s invocation. I loved CNN’s shot of church women shedding tears as Warren invoked Martin Luther King Jr., and others in the great cloud of witnesses, shouting with joy in heaven.
One of the more interesting articles I’ve read on Obama’s religious views — and one that would have been welcome during the campaign — was Eli Saslow’s piece in the Washington Post on Sunday titled “Obama’s Path to Faith Was Eclectic.”
Did I miss the poll on the status of the other ordained participants in this festival of public-discourse?
Home Box Office omitted Bishop Gene Robinson’s invocation in its coverage of the “We Are One” pre-Inauguration concert on Sunday. Assorted bloggers, including TV critic Aaron Barnhart of The Kansas City Star and nka of TPM Café, are speculating about whether this omission amounted to censorship, and who should be blamed for it. Barnhart proposes the odd theory, as one of three possibilities, that the Obama campaign “never intended for Robinson to be seen on national TV.”
