Inauguration Blessings

January 22, 2009

I’ve just gotten home from my third surgery. Yep. Third surgery in seven months. Fourth if you count oral surgery, which I don’t. I guess only for anesthesia. Are we done now? Have I learned the lessons I was supposed to learn from all of this? Probably not – there are always so many things to learn. But I do believe I’ve had a major breakthrough or insight. I was given the grace to have a blindspot illumined.
Short version: I cannot keep leaving my body out of all the spiritual growth. All the efforts I’ve made to come to know and walk with the Divine have been in my head and heart. Intellectual and some emotional. But we have bodies, as has been made immanently clear to me. Mine has asked politely to be included. It has whined, and then it began screaming non-stop. My response has been to shut it out even more completely. I’ve made some attempts here and there to be kinder and more inclusive; to feed it better, get more exercise, etc. And we’ve gotten along better when I’ve made those efforts. I’ve come a very long way in terms of hating its looks and being verbally abusive or mentally brutal to myself in that way. No more “ugly, fat” taunts all day long.
But I am not conscious of this vessel my soul chose for a house. I don’t listen to it, to its needs and desires. The more it hurts, the more I tune it out, the more I consider it an irrelevancy. That was wrong. I believe all these surgeries, this cascade of problems is/are the result of that shutting out. Not in a punishment or blame sort of way, just cause and effect.

I have begun to integrate my body, this temple of god, into my spiritual development plan. If I don’t, it will continue to break down and it will hold back my intellectual and psychological development. So, yoga it is, as soon as I’m able. I’ll give you some of the model Turlington’s insights later; they really struck home and inspired me.

[Lots of detail about the inauguration of President Obama]
I was surprised by Obama’s choice of Rick Warren to give the Invocation. But once again, it shows his shrewdness, his ability to look past his personal preferences and reach out to those who call themselves his enemies; to think about what would be good for the country as a whole. If he hadn’t been balanced by Joseph Lowery, I’m not sure Warren would have been good for the country, though. Rick Warren is hugely popular. Not just among the wing-nut ultra right, either, like Falwell. But all those who made his “Purpose Driven Life” a best seller, the millions of moderate, middle-road Christian consumers. My issue with him – like most – is his open anti-gay stance. He preaches intolerance rather than love. Plus the other tell-tale signs that he’s not a man who walks the talk. He’s fat, for example, and loud. His coloring suggests a life of indulgence in food and drink with no exercise – like most Americans. Expecially those with money. No self-discipline or control. Well, I simply cannot trust “men of faith” who claim to have God’s ear who have no self control. The proof of a relationship with God and a true, deep spiritual maturity that provides authority to teach and preach is in the LIFE.

Warren sits in judgment on others. He believes he has every right to – when he’s living in a glass house and has logs in his eye. . Choose your metaphor. So I was wary of his selection and what his prayer would be like. After 8 years of hate-mongering disguised (thinly) as the Lord’s word, I wasn’t sure what to expect. He did a better job than I feared. He did end with the Lord’s Prayer, which is pretty dang exclusive, but he also worked in the Shema and parts of a Muslim devotion, calling god “The Compasionate and Merciful.” He said right after that “and you are loving to everyone you have made." Which could be taken as a reference to LGBTs in that context.

He said quite a lot about our need to work together, stop fighting, and restore justice, freedom and equality. But the way he did it reflects the problem I see in much of mainstream American Christianity; even while trying to lay down the law, set the tone or stage for Obama’s sober message; even while attempting to call our attention to our failings and need for change, he said, “When we focus on ourselves, when we fight with each other, when we forget you, forgive us. When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity are ours alone, forgive us. When we . . . . forgive us.” These are all excellent things to point out that we are guilty of. But what about repentance? What about sincerely turning away from what we know to be wrong? In addition to forgiveness, how about some help in changing the behavior? None of that was even hinted at, which just leaves this feeling of, “Okay, this is great. In this religion you do what you want, indulge in a bout of remorse (which feels good) ask for forgiveness, and go back to doing what you want.

Maybe I’m the only one who heard the prayer this way. But I don’t think so, judging from the behavior of the vast majority who identify as Christian. And the studies into what Americans actually belive about God support this. He’s much more like Santa Claus than Yahweh, and c’mon, is Santa really going to put coal in a cute little child’s stocking?

Reverend Lowery’s Benediction had all the elements missing from Warren’s. Maybe I’m being a spiritual snob, but as I was saying to J (my sister), if you cannot trust your inner voice to recognize who is truly plugged into the Divine and Absolute Spirit, then you cannot trust anyone, and you are lost.
Lowery doesn’t have to try. He doesn’t have to seem tolerant, to appear loving, to make it look like he knows what God wants to hear from us. He is in utter comfort and familiarity when he opens his mouth and speaks hard, difficult truths. But is equally certain when he calls on God’s help when we try to change. It doesn’t hurt that his voice is lyrical. Listen:
“And while we have sown the seeds of greed – the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.” See that clear difference? Not just “Oops, forgiveness please? Thanks, bye.”
And he wasn’t near done. He went on naming the things we needed help with – choosing love over hate, inclusion over exclusion, tolerance over intolerance, holding on to the spirit of fellowship. “We go now to walk together as children, pledging that we won’t get weary in the difficult days ahead . . .” And my favorite:
“Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.”
So amazingly cool. I’m crying again. I just can’t get over how far we’ve come.