I wrote last week about the historical significance of Myrlie Ever-Williams delivering the invocation at President Obama’s Second Inauguration. In our open thread, I mentioned loving it. Here it is: America, we are here, our nation’s Capitol on this January the 21st 2013, the inauguration of our 45th [editor’s note, should be 44th] president Barack Obama. We come at this time to ask blessings upon our leaders, the president, vice president, members of Congress, all elected and appointed officials of... Read more

I originally wrote the following for BCC back on January 18, 2010. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of my very favorite figures in the history of American politics and social thought. I have always had a special respect for the civil rights movement, even during my days as a conservative. But King himself holds a special place in my thinking today. I think this is largely because King represented a form of left- leaning liberalism that died in American... Read more

Our next installment in our inaugural prayer series comes from Hellmut Lotz. He is a political scientist and campaign consultant living in Germany.  He also lived in Utah and Maryland for a total of 17 years. Here is Hellmut’s prayer for today’s Inauguration: Bless us with the humility to accept logic and evidence. Bless us with the generosity to cooperate with one another. Bless us with the courage to defend the rights of the few and the unpopular. And bless... Read more

I have not seen The Book of Mormon: The Musical. To be honest, I have not seen any musicals that are not at a local high school or community college.   Often while wondering about musicals about sacred texts, I have wondered a few times about the possibilities of a musical version of my favorite book…the book that is the focus of my academic work….the book which changed my life.   As it turns out, that musical is already in... Read more

The first prayer in our inaugural prayer series comes from Eric Nielson. Eric is an mechanical engineer and he lives in the Midwest. I want to thank him for not only getting us started, but also for writing a thoughtful prayer. He is introduces himself as follows: My name is Eric Nielson. I am a lifelong faithful Latter-day Saint. My political views are quite conservative and I would consider myself far right. Yet, I am not confident that my political... Read more

With all of the focus on the inaugural prayers, I wanted to invite all of you to consider what you might say if you were an inaugural prayer speaker. I would also invite you to share your prayer with us here at Faith-Promoting Rumor and Patheos. Email me your prayer at [email protected]. I will start sharing the prayers as they start coming in and through Inauguration Day on Monday. We want prayers from those of all faiths and religions. Non-believers... Read more

The invocation at President Obama’s Second Inauguration will be delivered by civil rights hero Myrlie Eger-Williams. The benediction is going to be offered by…well…we do not know, yet. Rev. Louie Giglio was scheduled to deliver the benediction, but because of controversy of his past comments about homosexuality he withdrew from the program. This has raised some important questions: 1. Is the large segment of society which believes that homosexuality is a sin being ostracized from the public square? 2. Who... Read more

The Obama inauguration team has announced that Myrlie Evers-Williams will be delivering the invocation at the public swearing-in of the President on January 21. Evers-Williams is the former chairwoman of the NAACP. She is also the widow of Medgar Evers, the civil rights leader who was gunned down in front of their home in Mississippi in 1963. (I am including a brief video of her talking about their work below). While the choice of Evers-Williams is historical because of who... Read more