Monday, January 19, 2009

HBO decided we didn't need to see or hear Bishop Gene Robinson's invocation

"Bless us with tears -- for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.


"Bless us with anger -- at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people."


This is a passage from the first openly gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson's invocation at yesterday's inaugural festivities. I am printing it here because apparently HBO decided it wasn't worthy of broadcast, so only those in attendance got to hear the prayer.

I'm not sure whose decision it was not to broadcast the Bishop's invocation, but I'd say that person would have to have been living in a cave not to see what a blunder this decision was. And make no mistake, this was a big mistake.

Obama's inclusion of Bishop Gene Robinson in the inauguration festivities was salve on the many open wounds created in the GLBT community when Rick Warren was chosen to deliver the invocation on inauguration day. By making the decision not to broadcast this part of yesterday's activities, HBO threw salt in those wounds.

And how much you wanna bet we get to hear every bloviating word of Rick Warren's invocation on HBO?

So for those who would like to read the entire text of Bishop Gene Robinson's invocation, it can be read here and a fairly decent audio recording can be found here. Share

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

In other news, Rick Warren has praised Obama's decision to involve Bishop Robinson in the festivities. And based on the reactions left in comments, it would appear that some of his fellow conservative Christians have decided to turn on him for it.

-- Jarred.

Seething Mom said...

Oh my Jarred, you have a way of making one look at both sides of this issue.

I suppose in times like this, with divisions so deep, it really is a "damned if you do, and damned if you don't" situation.

I hadn't heard or read about Rick Warren's praise of Obama's decision to involve Bishop Robinson, but it makes me feel as though there might indeed be something good that can come out of this whole debacle after all. I mean it was only a matter of weeks ago that Rick Warren was comparing gay marriage to incest, polygamy, and pedophilia.

But the whole mess sure does make me wish we hadn't blurred the lines between church and state so much. {sigh}