This year’s Blog Against Theocracy — a project encouraging weblogs to post over Easter weekend in support of Freedom of Religion and the Establishment Clause in the U.S. Constitution (see our prior post) — serendipitously came up on my radar screen right after I had listened to the swearing in of New York’s new Governor, David A. Paterson, last Monday, March 18th. Indeed, after shaking my head over remarks made in the preliminary invocations, I was feeling grateful for our new Governor’s low-keyed reference to the Divinity in his inaugural speech. BAT08 provides a good excuse for trying to explain my discomfort hearing the religious invocations that preceded Paterson’s swearing-in.
Gov. Paterson taking the oath of office.
The ceremony last Monday was opened with two religious invocations — offered by the Rev. Msgr. Wallace Harris, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Church in Paterson’s home community of Harlem, and by Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz of Agudath Israel of America, Brooklyn. You can read the text of Rabbi Lefkowitz’s Invocation for Governor David Paterson at the Yeshiva World website. I have tried repeatedly, but have not been able to find the text of Msgr. Harris’ invocation; that is unfortunate, as his words were the more troubling, and I would like to be able to quote him directly (and invoke perhaps in readers the same squeamishness that I felt).
[larger, or in color; SE Corner, Church & State Sts., Schenectady, NY. photo by David Giacalone 2008]
There’s no way that I can (or want to) get into the legal issues raised by having official public, governmental meetings open with a prayer. Despite believing they are inappropriate in a pluralistic society with an Establishment Clause in its Constitution (and a passel of deists among its Founding Fathers), I cannot envision our having a Supreme Court any time soon that would ban them. See the many postings on invocation issues and lawsuits, at Prof. Howard M. Friedman’s Religious Clause weblog; and this recent article by Michigan News on prayer practices before public meetings in Michigan, for proof there is plenty of discussion and disagreement over the opening of public governmental meetings with prayer or other forms of religious invocation.
Out of respect for the belief of others, I’m willing to sit politely through a short prayer at the start of a special public event without complaining (but probably not without rolling my eyes). However, both of the Paterson inaugural invocations went a bit too far in a nation that came along long after the Divine Right of Kings was put to rest, and that was never into the Mandate of Heaven notion. [pause for a related smile] Each invocation seemed especially quaint to me, as I do not believe in a divine being that intervenes in human affairs — much less in one working behind the scenes to bring chosen people into high political office.
For example, Rabbi Lefkowitz told the assembled dignitaries and the public:
“It is not by chance, nor is it by circumstance that we are here today. It is by G-d’s Divine design.”
Although I’m pleased to hear that Paterson “sees the image of G-d in each and every person,” and honor the Rabbi’s plea for divine inspiration and assistance for the new governor, I simply do not believe that God got David Paterson on the ticket as lieutenant governor two years ago, and then tempted Eliot Spitzer to quench his sexual desires with expensive call girls, in order to make David A. Paterson the Governor of the State of New York.
The Rev. Msgr. Wallace Harris went even further (and I wish I had his text). He appeared to see David Paterson’s elevation to the position of Governor as some kind of payback, act of liberation, and divine score-settling, on behalf of black Americans, to make up for the years of slavery and Jim Crowe and state-sanctioned segregation. Thanking God for making amends, without first asking the all-powerful king-maker to justify allowing the initial Constitution to embrace slavery, and all the resulting centuries of ugly consequences, seems like one-sided pandering, and simply makes me wonder:
What the hell took you so long, God?
I’d much rather believe that God leaves these things for voters and the public and their leaders to handle, than to think He’s quite so arbitrary, capricious, dilatory and irresponsible in the stewardship of our Governmental affairs (not to mention the management of FEMA, the weather and other so-called “Acts of God”).
For me, the problem with expecting God to make things right and to intervene to see justice done, and to bring chosen leaders to the fore now and then, simply makes it too easy for we human beings to act less responsibly and to look the other way at injustice (with the excuse that it must be part of some mysterious divine plan). And, telling our leaders that God put them into authority can only lead them to into many excesses and hubris. Our Founding Fathers knew the people needed to be in charge, and that they are the source of power and responsibility. We should keep it that way.
However, having been rather taken aback by the invocations, I must say that I was much relieved by David Paterson’s inaugural address. He never once thanked the Lord for putting him into his new job. There was no suggestion that he felt some sort of divine gubernatorial fate was on his side thrusting him forward and making him Governor. Instead, he repeatedly stressed how much we New Yorkers have in common, despite differences in race, religion, wealth, etc., and how much work “we” must all do together. Here’s Paterson’s sole reference to the Lord in his lengthy speech — it comes at the very end:
“God bless you all for coming today, and God bless the great State of New York.”
That much invoking of divine assistance, even I can applaud (by taking the blessing metaphorically). And, I hope other elected leaders take a cue from Gov. Paterson. We don’t have to wrap ourself up publicly in the robes of the Divinity to do “His” work. And, we don’t have to start every public meeting (no matter how much venal politics and maneuvering will follow) with a formulistic prayer, merely because the courts will let us, and some might theists demand it.
p.s.
after confession baseball
father shows us
how to throw a spitter…………………… by Ed Markowski
Check out BAT08 – Blog Against Theocracy 2008 to see what an army of webloggers are saying about Freedom of Religion.