Lowery's Preaching, Not Warren's, Will Illuminate Inaugural Day

[babylonsister]

Lowery's Preaching, Not Warren's, Will Illuminate Inaugural Day
posted by John Nichols on 01/17/2009 @ 10:15pm

snip//

What will be significant about Warren's remarks, however, is that they will be so insignificant.

Warren's invocation will be forgotten five minutes after it is finished.

Indeed, the only "news" that will come from his appearance at the inaugural is the controversy surrounding it -- and the protests that controversy may spark.

Far more significant, and encouraging, than his off-putting selection of Warren to deliver the invocation is Obama's choice of a genuine spiritual progressive to deliver the benediction.

It is the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery who will present the far more uplifting and meaningful religious message on Inauguration Day. And in his appealing selection of the 87-year-old Lowery, Obama has made a choice that is far more adventurous -- even, dare we say, radical -- than his unappealing designation of Warren.

Lowery was the longtime president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which he co-founded in 1957, before Obama was born, with the Revs. Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth. An essential player in the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, Lowery was sent by King to deliver the demands of the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march to Alabama's segregationist governor, George Wallace, and it was to Lowery that Wallace apologized three decades later.

Long after King and most of the other founding fathers of the civil rights movement had been buried, Lowery carried on the struggle. He led the 1982 drive to extend the federal Voting Rights Act. In 2005, when it came time to renew the act once more, Lowery famously cornered Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a memorial service for Rosa Parks to ask for maintaining voting rights protections. Why did Lowery choose so somber a setting to make his appeal to the most prominent African-American member of President Bush's Cabinet? "Because I knew she could not move," he explained.

Lowery has never hesitated to speak truth to power. In 2006, he earned national attention -- cheers from progressives, scorn from conservatives -- when he used a eulogy for his close friend Coretta Scott King to deliver a scathing denunciation of President George W. Bush's decision to invade and occupy Iraq. Bush was sitting just a few feet away as the pastor spoke in blunt biblical terms about the sin of waging a "pre-emptive" war.

more...

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/398655/lowery_s_preaching_not_warren_s_will_illuminate_inaugural_day?rel=hp_blogs_box

[Coexist]

1. I finally subscribed to The Nation

I am so glad I did.

[babylonsister]

2. I used to, but I have a hard time

reading the tiny, tiny print. I wish they'd fix that for people with eyesight challenges.

[dsc]

3. either it is only a prayer or it isn't

I love Lowrey and certainly feel he would have been a way better choice for both than having Warren do either. But you can't argue with one face that Warren is only a two minute prayer and with the other that Lowrey will be a full sermon.

[babylonsister]

5. I'm not arguing anything, nor am I determining whether

what he says will be a prayer or not, nor the length of whatever he says. I posted this in an attempt to highlight Lowery's mighty contribution, but as usual, no one seems to want to acknowledge that much because they're too busy being pissed off.

[dsc]

7. You can't have it both ways

You and others have over and over and over and over and over again told us that it is only a prayer and no big deal. If that is true as you have stated, repeated, iterated, and reiterated to us about Warren's prayer then it is equally true of Lowrey's no matter how good a person Lowrey is outside of the minutes he speaks. The very fact that we are discussing Lowrey is proof of our point. It isn't just a prayer.

[babylonsister]

10. You are full of crap.

I have personally stayed out of arguing with anyone about whatever the asshole Warren says is a prayer or not, its length, or anything to do with it. I don't care. The guy is a big creep and I don't like Obama's decision, and have said so repeatedly. Don't accuse me of something I haven't done.

Why don't you go start another Warren thread and leave this one for Lowery, which was my intent.

[mkultra]

15. actaully, the argument includes the words "two minute"

not that i support that point of view, but you should at least try to represent it correctly.

[Captain Hilts]

8. And Rickey Henderson only hit lead-off.

Warren's presence STINKS.

[leftstreet]

4. So now it's no longer JUST A TWO MINUTE PRAYER!!111!!????

[Bluebear]

12. or JUST ONE SONG!!!!!!1

[Solon]

6. Right now I'm wondering if Lowery's is even going to be shown, or heard, by anyone...

I wouldn't be surprised if he were "cut off" due to technical difficulties. Wouldn't surprise me a bit. :eyes:

[Cha]

9. Rec'd~ Good for John Nichols

bringing all this out about the Rev Lowry..I had not realized he was the one who was talking about bush and the War he got on in Iraq at Coretta King's Funeral.

[babylonsister]

11. Yes, he's been a fighter all his life. He's a wonderful man who

has made his life count. I'm glad he's going to be honored Tuesday, and I imagine he looks at this as an honor.

[firedupdem]

13. He is a great man. I am glad he is a part of the program and will

say the prayer for us going forward. I like that he doesn't bite his tongue either. He let Bush have it with him sitting right there! When you've been through what this man has you say what's on your mind.

[PurityOfEssence]

14. More Jesus, we simply MUST have more Jesus

How will the world know we're a godly government if we don't have invocations and outvocations and homilies and masses and obsequiouses and more blessings and some testifying and choirs and endorsements from the clergy and further reminders that all true Americans love the Lord? Personally, I think there just isn't enough of it. We should pray five times a day, tithe and sacrifice farm animals.