Are absolutely worthless, but some people like to give them anyway. Like Bishop Gene Robinson of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, the first openly gay bishop ordained in that denomination, who President-Elect Obama asked to deliver an invocation at one of the inaugural events.
Bishop Robinson said he had been reading inaugural prayers through history and was “horrified” at how “specifically and aggressively Christian they were.”
“I am very clear,” he said, “that this will not be a Christian prayer, and I won’t be quoting Scripture or anything like that. The texts that I hold as sacred are not sacred texts for all Americans, and I want all people to feel that this is their prayer.”
Bishop Robinson said he might address the prayer to “the God of our many understandings,” language that he said he learned from the 12-step program he attended for his alcohol addiction.
If that is what was wanted or desired Obama could have just invited somebody from the Baha’I faith. Melinda over at Stand to Reason calls this for what it is – silly.
This is silly pluralism to try to express all ideas at once that really then doesn’t express any of them. In an attempt to avoid offending anyone, you still can offend since then no one’s idea of God is represented. The tradition of asking different members of the clergy to lead public invocations is to have different views represented in different individuals. Pluralism is tolerance as each person expresses their religious belief, not giving up any coherent idea of God and religion.
This God of “our many understandings” is a god which represents no one. I wonder how he is going to cover the atheists?