Library of Congress plans to collect sermons for inauguration

[babylonsister]

Library plans to collect sermons for inauguration

By KAMALA LANE
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Inauguration-week sermons would be videotaped to highlight Barack Obama's rise to power in an unprecedented quest by the Library of Congress to capture this transfer of power for posterity. The folks at the library's American Folklife Center are soliciting churches, synagogues, mosques and others for copies of sermons or passionate speeches that focus on the significance of the Jan. 20 inauguration of Obama as the country's first black president.

The Folklife Center is looking for both video and audio clips, all to be preserved in a public collection that includes interviews after Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"If a historian asks 'How did Americans react to Obama's inauguration,' we'll have immediate responses to this powerful event," said Dr. David A. Taylor, head of research and programs at the American Folklife Center.

The "Inauguration 2009 Sermons and Orations Project" marks the first time the library has gathered this sort of material from a U.S. presidential inauguration. Taylor says the project is especially timely - with the inauguration coming a day after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday - and as it ties into King's reputation as a great orator.

Nearly 70 percent of the 4,000 collections at the center involve the spoken word, whether it's on paper, audio or video.

more...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/INAUGURATION_SAVING_SERMONS?SITE=CONGRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. Thus tilting the country even further towards religiosity

Will it collect essays written by atheists, agnostics and apatheists and delivered to non-believers? Of course not. When future generations look at this archive, our voices will not be there.

I am not questioning the legality of such a move, nor am I denigrating the value of such an archive. I am just a little bit bitter that, yet again, atheist voices are held as having little to no value.

[babylonsister]

2. So write your own anti-religous sermon and send it in. Your

viewpoint on this historic day is as valid as anyone else's. :shrug:

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. You are right: I shall n/t