Below is the text of the invocation by Bishop Gene Robinson, the openly gay Anglican bishop, at the Lincoln Memorial on Monday. The HBO broadcast began five minutes into the concert, after the invocation by the bishop, which was intended to placate the gay community after the controversial selection of Rick Warren, a notoriously anti-gay rights pastor, to perform the invocation at the inauguration.
The entire premise of the Obama campaign that created such synergy and enthusiasm was that we are not just white or black or Asian, "...we are not red states or blue states... we are the United States. We are one people." Ironically, the theme of the concert was "We Are One."
Whether the invocation was deliberately or inadvertently excluded, it deserves to be read and shared:
"O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will bless us with
tears - tears for a world in which over a billion people exist on less
than a dollar a day, where young women in many lands are beaten and
raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from
malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.
Bless this nation with anger -
anger at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and
immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and
transgender people.
Bless us with discomfort at the easy,
simplistic answers we've preferred to hear from our politicians,
instead of the truth about ourselves and our world, which we need to
face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.
Bless
us with patience and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be
fixed anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a
human being, not a messiah.
Bless us with humility, open to understanding that our own needs as a nation must always be balanced with those of the world.
Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance, replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences.
Bless
us with compassion and generosity, remembering that every religion's
God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable.
And God, we give you thanks for your child, Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.
Give
him wisdom beyond his years, inspire him with President Lincoln's
reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy's ability to enlist our
best efforts, and Dr. King's dream of a nation for all people. Give him
a quiet heart, for our ship of state needs a steady, calm captain.
Give
him stirring words; We will need to be inspired and motivated to make
the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges
ahead.
Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that
under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but
the United States.
Help him remember his own oppression as a
minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might
seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.
Give
him strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember
that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his
daughters' childhoods.
And please, God, keep him safe. We know
we ask too much of our presidents, and we're asking far too much of
this one. We implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold
him in the palm of your hand, that he might do the work we have called
him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that
in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity,
prosperity, and peace. Amen."