In his inaugural address, President Barack Obama made a point of proclaiming:
"[the United States's] patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth." [link]
This morning, at the Washington National Cathedral, the Inaugural Prayer Service extended Obama's message of spiritual pluralism by including participants from a variety of different religious traditions. Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America, and Uma Mysorekar, president of the Hindu Temple Society of North America, were two of the six participants to give responsive prayers during the service.
SAJAforum readers may recall Mysorekar from her appearance on The Colbert Report and her efforts to have Diwali placed on New York City's official "parking holiday" calendar. Mattson, who is a professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary, is "the first woman, the first nonimmigrant and the first Muslim convert" to be elected as ISNA's president.
The video of the service is available here, and the text of both Mattson's and Mysorekar's responsive prayers appears in the official program for the service:
THE PRAYERS
Following each petition, the people make the response printed in bold.
* * *Dr. Ingrid Mattson
President, Islamic Society of North America and Director of Center for Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations, Hartford SeminaryOn this day of new beginnings, with hearts lifted high in hope, may we be a people at peace among ourselves and a blessing to other nations. We pray to you, O God, saying
Keep this nation under your care,
And guide us in the way of justice and truth.* * *
Dr. Uma Mysorekar
Hindu Temple Society of North America, Queens, New York
May the Justices of the Supreme Court and the Judges and Officers of all our Courts be moved by the passion of true justice that they render judgment with insight and integrity, that human rights may be secured, and that liberty may flourish.Keep this nation under your care,
And guide us in the way of justice and truth. [link]
Sharon E. Watkins, the first woman to deliver the sermon at an Inaugural Prayer Service, also sounded inclusive notes, invoking Muslim scholars and quoting Gandhi in her sermon:
At our time of new beginning, focused on renewing America’s promise—yet at a time of great crisis—which fast do we choose? Which “wolf” do we feed? What of America’s promise do we honor?
Recently Muslim scholars from around the world released a document, known as "A Common Word Between Us." It proposes a common basis for building a world at peace. That common basis? Love of God and love of neighbor! What we just read in the Gospel of Matthew!
So how do we go about loving God? Well, according to Isaiah, summed up by Jesus, affirmed by a worldwide community of Muslim scholars and many others, it is by facing hard times with a generous spirit: by reaching out toward each other rather than turning our backs on each other. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, "people can be so poor that the only way they see God is in a piece of bread." [link]
As for Obama's inaugural address itself, Sepia Mutiny's Anna John felt a "surge of emotion" upon hearing him specifically mention Hindus in his description of America's diversity:
After spending close to three decades either being mistaken for a Hindu by those who were unaware of the existence of Christianity in India or gently reminding my peers that to conflate “Desi” or “Indian” with “Hindu” was wrong, I was shaking because I felt recognized and included — and all because of the thoughtful, enlightened inclusion of a faith of which I am not a member, in one of the most important Inaugural addresses in our entire history....
I may not be Hindu, but nearly everyone whom I meet assumes that I am, and perception is a powerful thing. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans were seen as potential saboteurs; other Asians took to wearing buttons which declared “Chinese” or “Not from Nippon”. My point is not to endorse craven yet understandable tactics but to point to how powerful “perception” is.
You are what you look like. And to the vast majority of the world, I look Hindu. I’m not ashamed of that at all. Today, I felt celebrated for it. I felt included, even though my actual faith was mentioned first, in a group which was organized by a man magnanimous, courageous and heedful enough to include “non-believers”.
This was extraordinary. [link]
Earlier on SAJAforum:
