Yewande Odusote's comment on the wall of the Facebook Group dedicated to watching the inauguration live on CNN and Facebook was one of over 121,000 comments.
She is one of over 1.2m people who have joined this group - and this group is just dedicated to this particular means of watching the event.
Whilst this is astounding, leading on from my following post - together with the slew of articles dedicated to analysing the world problems Obama will have to tackle when he gets into the White House - I'm interested in the role that theistic obedience will play.
Yewande invites 'God' to bless the new President and to direct him down the right road.
Abraham Lincoln said: 'I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right, but it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and his nation may be on the Lord's side'.
Both of these are in stark contrast to Bush's egotistical insistence that what he is doing is happily what God would have wanted.
And Obama, in his inaugural speech just now, pledged to 'restore science to its rightful place' - a thinly-veiled attacked on the rise of Creationism I feel sure - takes a more rational take still. He spoke of 'interest and mutual respect' for the Muslim world.
He showed that America does not have a right to be right, that the Christian God is not always on its side, and is suggestive of the fact that science should not be subserviant to science.
From a religious point of view - let alone all the other points of view that can and will be taken on this address - this marks a step back down the road of humility, lined with green shoots of humanism.
No comments:
Post a Comment