Comments on: Benediction

By: Cynthia L.

Cynthia L. — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:37:29 +0000

Me too, john f. That line very much stood out to me. Another example of a unique twist on familiar words (swords–>plowshares being the conventional phrase). The Reverend has a very playful approach to the English language and I just love it. I don’t know if it is possible to be as playful with other languages as it is with English? (our vocabulary is larger) But when someone can clearly make their points while at the same time have this meta-level where they are doing improvisational jazz-like remixing of English itself–I’m in heaven. Awesome.

By: john f.

john f. — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:28:06 +0000

I loved the line about beating tanks into tractors.

By: bbell

bbell — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:23:40 +0000

I was initially inclined to give him a pass on openly racial comments during the prayer based on his age and his experiences in the deep south back in the day.

Then I checked his wiki site and found that he had a couple of years ago politicized a prayer at Coretta Kings funeral. So there is a pattern here of ill-timed and ill-advised comments during public prayers.

By: Hans

Hans — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:08:57 +0000

#56, I am glad I am not the only one. I was in a large conference room with co-workers and was slightly embarrased that I didn’t have enough patience for Warren’s prayer.

We should totally have him pray at Conference to keep people on their feet. I was seriously waiting for President Uctdorf to do the sustaining of the new president after the invocation. “It has been proposed that we sustain Barack Hussein Obama as the…”

By: Alison Moore Smith

Alison Moore Smith — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:04:26 +0000

Although with both prayers I felt like the ministers had the mistaken idea that they were invited to give entire speeches (and, yes, I feel like this at church sometimes, too), in general I liked the benediction. I thought it was mostly heartfelt and thoughtful.

But praying for the day to finally come when “black will not be asked to get back…and when white will embrace what is right.” was just divisive. And of course it’s racist, by definition. He’s not praying for people who haven’t embraced the right to do so. He’s praying for the day when WHITES will finally do so.

I understand that he’s lived through real, awful racism and has fought against it. But I didn’t think this was the appropriate venue. Did he miss that in a country where whites constituted 74% of the voters, a black man had just been made the leader of the free world? How much further “not back” does he want to be?

And rather than beating swords into tractors, he should have asked the swords be beaten into energy-efficient, organic, hybrid earth-tillers.

By: BobW

BobW — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:19:41 +0000

#18, Sean,

Does god appreciate irony? I hope so because a few prayers ago my wife and I bust into 5 minutes of laughter.

This is an ironic world. I think we were placed here partly to learn to laugh in difficult situations.

By: JT

JT — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:16:23 +0000

If his prayer is sincere, that is all that matters to me.

On a tangent, I noticed a couple of comments referring to “vain repetitions” that seemed to focus on the “repetition” portion of that term. I think that the key word in the term, and the focus of Jesus’s teaching, is the word “vain.” Thus, I would submit that there is nothing wrong with a “sincere” repetition, but that there is everything wrong with praying with a complete set of unique “vain” (or empty, meaningless) words or phrases – whether beautiful and eloquent or simple and mundane. (None of this is referrning to the prayers offered yesterday – just an observation.)

By: Cynthia L.

Cynthia L. — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:48:18 +0000

#64: thanks AB. :-)

By: Cynthia L.

Cynthia L. — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:44:00 +0000

Perhaps I should clarify that I don’t begrudge anyone their opinion of the prayer as a matter of taste or preference. But I think a handful of the judgments have gone beyond simple preference to show a lack of charity and cultural/historical understanding. I hope those who feel the style that puts up some roadblocks to their appreciation of it, can begin to process it starting from an acknowledgment of the Reverend’s sincerity.

By: Aaron Brown

Aaron Brown — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:34:51 +0000

Just ignore the old farts in this thread who thought the prayer was racist, Cynthia.

The prayer was excellent. Very moving. Yes, it’s possible to scrutinize the racial passages and use them as a springboard for bitching about reverse racism, and all that, but for those of us not tonedeaf to the significance of the historical moment (even those of us who’re definitely not suffering from an Obama-as-messiah complex), I thought the words were very appropriate. And I can say that even while fully aware that Lowery’s public policy preferences — regarding racial issues, etc. — may very well not be mine.