"We Are One" ... ?
The Presidential Inaugural Committee released details about performers who will participate in the launch of opening celebration of the 56th Presidential Inaugural: "We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial." Think Beyonce, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor and Stevie Wonder, among many others.
More notably, however, the PIC in that statement buried a line about the very significant individual chosen to give the event's invocation -- the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, the Episopal Bishop of New Hampshire. Robinson was elected the first openly gay bishop of the Episcopal Church in June 2003. I covered that event. His election was greeted by parishioners gathered at St. Paul's Church in Concord, NH, with thunderous applause, foot stomping and tears. In the years since, however, the global church has divided over the issue.
Pres.-elect Barack Obama's selection of Robinson for the high profile prayer is no doubt aimed at quelling outrage in the gay community over Obama's decision to ask Pastor Rick Warren, who has likened homosexuality to incest and bigamy, to give the inaugural invocation.
Robinson, an early Obama backer, told the Concord Monitor that he won't use a Bible for the 1/18 event.
"While that is a holy and sacred text to me, it is not for many Americans," Robinson said. "I will be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer. This is a prayer for the whole nation."
Gay activists -- and citizens at large -- infuriated by Warren's involvement in the nation's sacred quadrennial democratic celebration will have to ask themselves if in selecting Robinson for the honor Obama's team is providing needed balance to Warren. Or is the pick simply a ploy to quiet the rumblings of a key Obama constituency?
(JENNIFER SKALKA)
INITIAL TALENT LINEUP CONFIRMED FOR "WE ARE ONE: THE OBAMA INAUGURAL CELEBRATION AT THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL," KICKING OFF INAUGURAL OPENING FESTIVITIES, PRESENTED EXCLUSIVELY BY HBO JAN. 18
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