Muslim woman, rabbis to pray at inaugural service

[struggle4progress]

... The Inauguration Committee has only released one clergy name so far for the Jan. 21 National Prayer Service that caps the inauguration. The Rev. Sharon Watkins, the first woman president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a Protestant group, will deliver the sermon.

The Associated Press has learned additional details.

A prayer will be offered at the National Cathedral by Ingrid Mattson, the first woman president of the Islamic Society of North America, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information. The Islamic Society is the largest U.S. Muslim group ...

Three rabbis, representing the three major branches of American Judaism, will also say a prayer at the service, according to officials familiar with the plans. The Jewish clergy are Reform Rabbi David Saperstein, Conservative Rabbi Jerome Epstein and Orthodox Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, sources said ...

chdiocese.http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-01-15-Inauguralservice-Religion_N.htm?csp=34

[JuniperLea]

1. I want to burn an offering on a pagan alter...

This is getting silly. You can't possibly include all, so I think all should go. Be gone!

[struggle4progress]

3. I don't think much in the way of burnt offerings is being scheduled

[JuniperLea]

6. Yeah, Pagans are always ignored...

[spoony]

16. How were you able to find an image of an altar

without being able to spell it? :P And what are all those pagans doing at an LDS site?

[greyl]

17. lol! Burnt. nt

[Ian David]

2. The Obama Administration is starting to look more and more like Babylon 5, every day, in a GOOD way.

The Parliament of Dreams
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"The Parliament of Dreams" is an episode from the first season of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5.

<snip>

Jeffrey Sinclair meets an old flame, Catherine Sakai, and rekindles their on-off romantic relationship, before hosting a celebration of Earth religion in which he introduces the major station personnel to a line of people, all of different faiths - the line extends some distance all the way to the final credits.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Parliament_of_Dreams

Also:
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/005.html


Video clip from Parliament of Dreams -- Babylon 5 Earth Religions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXPaGCRngWw


B5 the Series: Declaration of Principles w/o subtitles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8oBhQgSBjg


The Universe speaks in many languages, but only one voice. The language is not Narn, or Human, or Centauri, or Gaim or Minbari.

It speaks in the language of hope; It speaks in the language of trust; It speaks in the language of strength, and the language of compassion.

It is the language of the heart and the language of the soul.

But always, it is the same voice.

It is the voice of our ancestors, speaking through us, And the voice of our inheritors, waiting to be born.

It is the small, still voice that says: We are one. No matter the blood; No matter the skin; No matter the world; No matter the star; We are one.

No matter the pain; No matter the darkness; No matter the loss; No matter the fear; We are one.

Here, gathered together in common cause. we agree to recognize this singular truth, and this singular rule: That we must be kind to one another, because each voice enriches us and ennobles us, and each voice lost diminishes us.

We are the voice of the Universe, the soul of creation, the fire that will light the way to a better future.

We are one.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%27Kar#Declaration_of_Principles





http://wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/63901/Declaration_of_Principles_of_The_Interstallar_Alliance,_by_G%27kar

[laconicsax]

4. Maybe Obama's just covering all his bases just in case.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqJpZOljjG8

[struggle4progress]

5. Maybe it's just a genuine effort at inclusion

[laconicsax]

9. He's included a whopping 2% larger portion of the population while excluding 12-15%

Christians: ~75% of the US population.
Jews: ~1% of the US population.
Muslims: ~1% of the US population.
Non-religious Americans: 12-15% of the population depending on the survey.

Who voted for Obama? (http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#val=USP00p2)
Obama got roughly 48% of the Christian vote (combined Protestant and Catholic) and 75% of the non-religious vote.

Let me say that again--75% of non-religious voters voted for Obama. On election day and the non-religious made up 12%. Out of a total 131 million voters, that's 15.7 million non-religious voters. 75% of 15.7 million is nearly 12 million votes (11.8).

All Obama has to do to include non-religious voters is to stop reaching out to religious voters. There's no requirement that there be two prayers at the Inauguration ceremony, no requirement that he be sworn in on a Bible (the text of which prohibits swearing oaths), no requirement that he says 'so help me god,' and no requirement that Obama attend the National Prayer Service the next day. By choosing to have two prayers at the Inauguration ceremony, to be sworn in on a Bible (the text of which prohibits swearing oaths), to add 'so help me god,' and not just attending the National Prayer Service, but organizing it, Obama is sending the message to non-religious voters that we are not welcome.

[struggle4progress]

10. Anyone interested in politics learns to ignore some things they regard as nonsense

People, of course, disagree about what constitutes nonsense

I'm sure you can learn to ignore whatever you regard as nonsense

[laconicsax]

11. Maybe someday I'll learn to ignore the nonsense of posters telling me that my concerns are nonsense

In the mean time, I'll just sit down and shut up.

[struggle4progress]

12. If you're going to be sitting down anyway, maybe you could to learn to read

Or, if you already know how to read, maybe you could practice not misrepresenting what other people write

Another good thing, which you might want to practice, is principled argument: if you really aren't inclined to take the gospels seriously, for example, then it's ridiculous for you to express outrage that Obama might swear an oath, though the gospels say one should not

[laconicsax]

15. Speaking of not misrepresenting what other people write.

I write a response outlining how non-religious voters voted overwhelmingly to support Obama, that Obama's choices alienate that group, and you take seven words in parentheses to be my main point? Parentheses are used to contain qualifying or explanatory remarks while leaving the sentence unaffected, that is to say that by removing a parenthetical aside, the sentence would remain intact and retain its full meaning.

By choosing to have two prayers at the Inauguration ceremony, to be sworn in on a Bible (the text of which prohibits swearing oaths), to add 'so help me god,' and not just attending the National Prayer Service, but organizing it, Obama is sending the message to non-religious voters that we are not welcome.

The above sentence has the exact same meaning as the following sentence:

By choosing to have two prayers at the Inauguration ceremony, to be sworn in on a Bible, to add 'so help me god,' and not just attending the National Prayer Service, but organizing it, Obama is sending the message to non-religious voters that we are not welcome.

Clearly, my remarks about the Biblical prohibition on swearing oaths were nothing more than incidental and a far cry from expressing "outrage that Obama might swear an oath, though the gospels say one should not." But it seems that you have an agenda of dismissing concerns of unnecessary government entanglement with religion and if it best suits you to distort the words of those concerned for you to do so adequately, then I wish you well.

[cosmik debris]

14. I'm glad I read that header

It gave me a reason to ignore the rest of your posts.

:)

[EvolveOrConvolve]

18. You know what, you can bite me

This "nonsense" you tell us to ignore has caused the world a lot of pain, violence, and death over the last 8 years. I don't want to see another 8 years where fantasy and mysticism are allowed to play a large part in how the U.S. is governed, and I WON'T SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP. It's offensive to hear that, especially coming from a Democrat.

I regard your post as nonsense, and note that I didn't ignore it.

[JerseygirlCT]

7. From all I've heard, Ingrid is pretty cool. Well liked by her

colleagues.

[struggle4progress]

8. Here's her discussion of her experience of Islam:

Finding the Prophet in his People
... When I was married in Pakistan, my husband and I, as refugee workers, did not have much money. Returning to the refugee camp a few days after my wedding, the Afghan women eagerly asked to see the dresses and gold bracelets, rings and necklaces my husband must have presented to me, as is customary throughout the Muslim world. I showed them my simple gold ring and told them we had borrowed a dress for the wedding. The women's faces fell and they looked at me with profound sadness and sympathy. The next week, sitting in a tent in that dusty hot camp, the same women-women who had been driven out of their homes and lands, women who had lost their husbands and children, women who had sold their own personal belongings to buy food for their families-presented me with a wedding outfit. Bright blue satin pants stitched with gold embroidery, a red velveteen dress decorated with colorful pom-poms and a matching blue scarf trimmed with what I could only think of as a lampshade fringe. It was the most extraordinary gift I have ever received ...
http://www.feath.com/story/findingtheprophet.htm

and here's an interesting interview

Common Ground Lobby Talk: A Conversation with Ingrid Mattson
http://streams.wpsx.psu.edu/A_Conversation01182.html

[moobu2]

13. Is this the same god Bush prayed to every day?