Rick Warren Transcript and Thoughts
Jan 20th, 2009 by admin
Rick Warren’s prayer at the Inauguration:
Almighty God, our Father:
Everything we see, and everything we can’t see, exists because of you alone.
It all comes from you, it all belongs to you, it all exists for your glory.
History is your story.
The Scripture tells us, “Hear, O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is one.” And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.
Now today we rejoice not only in America’s peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time, we celebrate a hinge point of history with the inauguration of our first African American president of the United States.
We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where a son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership. And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in heaven.
Give to our new president, Barack Obama,
the wisdom to lead us with humility,
the courage to lead us with integrity,
the compassion to lead us with generosity.
Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the Cabinet, and every one of our freely elected leaders.
Help us, O God, to remember that we are Americans–united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all.
When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you–forgive us.
When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone–forgive us.
When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve–forgive us.
And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes—even when we differ.
Help us to share, to serve, and to seek the common good of all.
May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy, and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet.
And may we never forget that one day, all nations–and all people–will stand accountable before you.
We now commit our new president and his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.
I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life—Yeshua, ‘Isa, Jesus [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus—who taught us to pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,
for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
There are no women in this prayer, except the women and girls who, according to Warren’s belief system, belong to President Obama. Warren’s prayer is thoroughly and completely male in its references, in its sentiments and in the way it portrays the divine– as a Father who made everything there is all by himself in order to glorify himself. And it is male in the way Warren subsumes the lives of Michelle, Sasha and Malia Obama into Barack Obama’s life. This is the only place for women in Warren’s world.
Unlike Gene Robinson’s prayer, shot through with references to women and girls, other than Obama’s immediate family members, here there are references only to men. For Warren and men who think like him, believe like him, all women and girls, whether leaders, co-creatrixes, the mother of Jesus, family members, are erased, made to be invisible, subsumed within the language of the patriarchal dream.
But Warren has everything covered. This is the brilliance of patriarchal religious movements. He asks his Father to forgive him and all of the men referenced in his prayer when they focus on themselves, for example. It sounds lovely– doesn’t it?
Evangelical men, in my experience — for all their apparent devotion to and defenses of wives and families and the traditional family as an institution — are, for the most part, emotionally homosexual. Their closest emotional attachments, longings and bonds are towards and with men, father figures, potential buddies and the God they envision as male. Women and girls are useful to these men in many ways, but especially as a means to the end of gaining the acceptance, admiration of, friendships with, other men. Male friends or no, no matter what, though, they can always feel comforted in the knowledge that they worship a God who looks like them and who, no matter what, stands willing to forgive them. If they make it all about themselves, for example, and as here, erase the lives of women and girls, all the way to destroying the lives of women and girls, well, hey. God will forgive. They asked. And whatever happened, it must have been God’s will. Women should learn to be good with that.
I hoped (but did not expect) a tiny point of light, some mention of a woman, any woman, maybe a nod or gesture in the direction of women, other than the women who in Warren’s mind belong to President Obama. But no. For Warren, as for men like him, in the larger scheme of things, women really are invisible. Same as it ever was. It’s time for me to stop hoping or expecting that wll ever to change.
Heart
Evangelical men, in my experience — for all their apparent devotion to and defenses of wives and families and the traditional family as an institution — are, for the most part, emotionally homosexual.
Heart, yeah, and not just evangelical men - ALL men. Jewish, Islamic, flavour-of-the-month-religion, they all are.
This is why liberal feminism will never work.
Yes, Mary Sunshine, this is EXACTLY why liberal feminism is a complete and utter fantasy that some women believe will work. But like shifting deck chairs on the Titanic, it’s still the same ship, and it’s still the same iceberg.
With all the never ending attacks on even liberal feminism (this to scare the heck out of straight women naturally), it’s amazing any feminism makes it out into the world as it is.
I did like the insight that evangelical men, ” are for the most part, emotionally homosexual.” They use women as props, but really it’s about male power all the time. All the major male god worshiping patriarchal cults worldwide. The more homo-social they are, the more woman hating they become, but this is just a matter of degree.
“emotionally homosexual…..”
I must still be in the fog that happens in a brain wash, a fine patararcharical mist surrounding my brain, because as I read the words,
snip/”When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you–forgive us.
When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone–forgive us.
When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve–forgive us./endsnip
I thought to myself, “not my belief system, but how humbling and nice of Warren to admit his and his religion’s failings”
Even while thinking that, there still was this niggling feeling that something was wrong with the above, but I couldn’t put my feeling on it.
Then, I read your commentary Heart, and his “emotional homosexual” comment and now I have to ponder some more on the Warren invocation, and why, even though I want to be generous, expansive for Warren’s sake and for the bigger sake of uniting a divided country, I can’t exactly put into words why I just can’t, and your commentary may be the words I can’t find.
I have to think on this some more. Which means, awesome post Heart. Thank you.
Yeah, anunmarrieddaughter. That prayer, like all of patriarchal evangelicalism and fundamentalism (they are different) is rife with excuses ahead of time for all manner of abuse of women.
You know, I think it’s fine for men to be emotional homosexuals forming their primary attachments and intimacies with other men (or trying to, expending immense amounts of energies toward that end). But if that’s who they are, they should own it as opposed to, say, being lesbophobes and homophobes. They should own it, out themselves and kiss their heterosexual privilege goodbye (even if it is only emotional homosexuality that doesn’t include being sexual with other men). What they shouldn’t do is what they do: commandeer the bodies of women in order to shore up their credibility as real men with other men. What they shouldn’t do is pretend they love and care for women when really, they don’t, because they do not know how to even view women as fully human. What they also shouldn’t do is blame their subordination of women, their mistreatment of women, and their ongoing dehumanizing of women, on God.
Hmmm. I agree with your instinct there, Heart, WRT “if that’s what you’re doing, own it already!”
But I do think emotionally homosocial men — gay, straight, bi, or closeted — are entrenching male supremacy. There isn’t a theory of being male-centric, men-oriented, that’s anything like being woman-centered is for lesbian feminists. Why should men prefer to connect to men emotionally and socially (as opposed to sexually and romantically)? For support in a hostile world? Nah.
funnie, yeah, I think men being man-centered is the default and an important glue that holds the male supremacist world together, definitely!
I would make a distinction, though, between being homosocial and emotionally homosexual. I think there are plenty of men who are not homosocial; they actually prefer to hang out with women and are therefore heterosocial. But they are nevertheless emotionally homosexual, in that their primary emotional attachments (or the ones they are wanting or seeking, which is more often the case) are with or towards men. It’s an itch they can’t scratch with these guys; having a woman partner never satisfies it (even if they enjoy having sex with her, etc.) and I think quite often it factors in to the way men mistreat their partners. Having what amounts to a female best friend forever (if that’s how it works out) is embarrassing to these guys; they are ashamed of it. They want their best friend forever to be male and they want their female partner to stay in her place (as their fiefdom; they’re the earth and she’s the moon and she better not ever forget it).
Heart:
Your comment # 6
Brilliant !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
^5
Well, OK, but using that definition of emotionally homosexual doesn’t sound like you think such a state of affairs is just fine, then. :p
I think we agree, but that I’m just not catching your meaning very well.
funnie, yeah, when I said I thought it was fine, I meant something more like, whatever, do whatever you’re going to do but don’t force women to be part of that and then call it love or romance or marriage or partnership or something like that. In the overall scheme of things it isn’t “fine” at all, you’re right!
I think in a system in which men are still the “real people,” the default humans, it makes sense that they *would* want to be connected most intimately with one another, as opposed to having especially their sole intimate connections with women, given that we are substandard, less than them, not the “real” people. Something like, women are affirmed in our womanhood (in a sexist society like ours) when men want us as intimates or want us at all, for that matter. I don’t think it’s any different for men. Being wanted or appreciated intimately by a man affirms a man in his masculinity, makes him part of the club, in a way that being wanted by a woman doesn’t and can’t. Having or possessing a woman gives a man credibility as a man, but being intimately connected with her or being wanted by her do not.
Don’t worry about not catching my meaning very well. I’m just in the process of making it right now so I’m catching it as I make it myself!
Thanks, Mary!
re: para #2 — yes, exactly that!
You see this a lot in the world of work, especially in highly, openly competitive atmospheres like law. I was a court reporter in the late 70s (one of those persons who records everything that is said in various kinds of legal proceedings on a stenograph machine). I saw this all the time and often thought about it and found it odd and surprising, but I was in my 20s then and couldn’t make sense of it the way I can now. There is this camaraderie thing that happens, this back and forth among men, often in between their fighting and jousting matches (whatever those might look like) that looks for all the world like that breathless, endorphin-fueled thing we normally identify as chemistry or romantic attraction. They do this sort of mating dance without the actual mating. Women are for that. But women are not allowed into the particular camarederie I’m talking about, ever, even if they are (apparently) peers and colleagues to the men.
You see this, too, wherever men are allowed to participate in feminist discussions or on progressive/liberal listservs. They will either fight to the finish with each other or send mating calls to one another, and those mating calls will always include dissing women, either openly or subtly.
So far as evangelicalism and fundamentalism go, honestly, the whole thing is a mating ritual among men in certain ways, with bodily, physical sex the one forbidden thing. That’s what women are for.
oh, I am dying with rueful laughter over here.
courtesy facebook, I’ve reconnected with some people I had previously abandoned more as part and parcel of a life I didn’t want any connections to, than for their own personal sake, and it’s brought me back in touch with that “old world,” by proxy…and I’ve been marveling over *just* that.
E.g. someone very nice died unexpectedly and young, and on his memorial site, Dude #1 *used his wife’s facebook account despite having one of his own* to write a memory of the deceased man that read as follows:
“I’ll never forget Dead Guy; my wife and I are meeting up with Dude #2 and his wife for the memorial service. Some of my best memories are when me and Dead Guy and Dude #2 did (this that and the other).”
I mean — the women didn’t even merit names, even though the one’s identity was being used for this reminiscence — and even though both of those women were in the picture and PRESENT during the memories recalled…aaaaaaah! WTF!
I remember that kind of “my wife” disappearance always bugging me, but they never sounded so socially CLUELESS when it was all I heard. I was just agog at how insane and self-aggrandizing and prowess-enforcing it all sounds, now. Heh. Good times.
Hearing this prayer made me uncomfortable. Now I have figured out why. Thank you for this brilliant anaylsis, Heart.
[...] was a glaring difference between the invocation and benediction that some of the “big boy” liberal bloggers (come on, David, fine for [...]
To me, I cringe at the thought of any man giving a public prayer ever! I’m always on guard against their worship the male as god mentality that so many women aren’t even aware of. These prayers are designed to bost the male ego, and degrade women.
That’s the plan and it works like a charm. Every time a woman hears “father” and “god” this reinforces male supremacy. It poisons and turns men into jackasses, so they become the slobs of patriarchy a la Warren. Mary Daly exposed all of this decades ago, and yet women still haven’t heard of her. I recommend her books to every woman who really wants mental freedom from patriarchy.
Men won’t understand her books and will remain clueless, they may be dumb but they are crafty to paraphrase Sonia Johnson.