{"id":338,"date":"2008-12-19T19:03:59","date_gmt":"2008-12-19T19:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/the-power-of-prayer.html"},"modified":"2008-12-19T19:03:59","modified_gmt":"2008-12-19T19:03:59","slug":"the-power-of-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/the-power-of-prayer.html","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sure, Barack Obama’s choice of Rick Warren for the inaugural prayer proves nothing more probably than that Obama is a consummate politician. Obama will do what he has to do to win over voters. And he’s probably figured out that letting Warren pray at the inauguration is a safe gesture and a symbolic way to extend an olive branch to a block of voters he has yet to win over en masse.<\/p>\n

And so Obama begins his presidency like presidents before him, placating religious conservatives, in this case the New<\/i> Right.  Leaving the rest of us to be content with symbols from the Old Left (no disrespect to Rev. Joe Lowry and Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin).<\/p>\n

I know progressive Christians are supposed to be won over by the fact that Rick Warren is allegedly the face of a kinder, gentler generation of Evangelicals. But we’re not. Warren is as against women’s equality, against gay rights, anti-choice, and anti-stem cell research as the old Right he fancies himself to replace. He has admitted that the main difference between himself and old style religious conservative James Dobson is a matter of tone.<\/p>\n

So, it’s been decided. Rick Warren’s smiling, right wing, socially conservative<\/a>, anti-gay, anti-women’s rights biblical preaching has been deemed to be not as divisive<\/a> as the blistering prophetic denunciations of American imperalism by his former pastor Jeremiah Wright. Reaching out to Warren reaps more political capital for Obama than does reaching out to Wright. The pro-gay rights man whose fiery preaching nurtured Obama into becoming the community organizer he is at heart remains a pariah, banished from the inaugural platform and the American public. The man whose anti-gay message is overshadowed by the fact that he represents the face of millions of conservative voters gets to pray for the country.  <\/p>\n

So what? It’s only a prayer. It’s not like Warren’s been invited to help set policy. Those who say this obviously know nothing about the importance of symbols, and even less about the power of prayer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sure, Barack Obama’s choice of Rick Warren for the inaugural prayer proves nothing more probably than that Obama is a consummate politician. Obama will do what he has to do to win over voters. 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Weems is a nationally-renowned theologian and an ordained elder in the African Methodist Church whose scholarly insights into modern faith, biblical texts, and the role of spirituality in everyday lives have made her a much sought after author and speaker. Dr. Weems, formerly a member of the faculty of Vanderbilt Univeristy and Spelman College, has been celebrated by Ebony Magazine as one of America's top 15 preachers. She is founder of Something Within, a consulting service providing guidance for women of faith interested in connecting with their inner wisdom as well as interested in balancing faith and work, and their values with their vocation. Dr. Weems is a popular radio and television personality, regularly providing expert commentary on religion, gender, race, and sexuality. A guest speaker for numerous national gatherings of religious, civic, and sorority organizations, local churches, community wide events, and radio and television programs, Dr. Weems is in much demand as a speaker, preacher, and workshop leader. Ebony Magazine named her one of America's top 15 Her work as a scholar and a religious thinker has led to invitations to serve as a panelist for Bill Moyer's 1995 PBS award-winning Genesis Project, for various A&E, BBC, National Public Radio, the Michael Baisden radio show, and Hallmark cable programs on topics as wide ranging as miracles in the Bible, women, violence, and spirituality, and male-female relationships. She appeared on \"FlashPoints\" with Bryant Gumbel and Gwen Ifill to discuss matters related to religion and public life. Dr. Renita Weems is the author of several widely acclaimed books on women's spirituality and wholeness: Just A Sister Away (1987) and I Asked for Intimacy (1993), Showing Mary: How Women Can Share Prayers, Wisdom, and the Blessings of God (2003), and, more recently, What Matters Most: Ten Passionate Lessons from the Song of Solomon (2004). Her special talent is in drawing life inspirational wisdom from stories in the Bible about the triumphs and failures of ordinary people. A former contributing writer to Essence Magazine back in the late 80's, she has recently renewed her relationship with Essence with an article appearing in the December 2004 issue entitled \"Sanctified and Suffering.\" Dr. Weems writes a popularly bi-monthly e-column for www.beliefnet.org which focuses on matters of love and relationships. She has been particularly active lately speaking to professional women's organizations about women's spiritual values and support systems, juggling family and work, work and love, and women finding a balance between their spiritual values and their professional aspirations. She taught from 1987-2004 on the divinity faculty at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN as a professor of Hebrew Bible. She served in 2003-2005 as the William and Camille Cosby Professor of Humanities at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Ordained an elder in the AME tradition, Dr. Weems has written about the waxing and waning of faith all believers endure on the spiritual journey. Her 1999 book Listening for God: A Minister's Journey through Silence and Doubt (Simon & Schuster) won the Religious Communicators' Council's prestigious 1999 Wilbur Award for excellence in communicating spiritual values to the secular media. She earned her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and her Master and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. Finally, Dr. Renita Weems lives in Nashville, TN with her husband and daughter. Her readers can keep up with Dr. Weems by visiting her her blog, SomethingWithin.com, which allows her to keep in touch with readers interested in exploring women's values and interested in conversations about faith, love, values, and inner wisdom, and other topics of interest to what Dr. Weems likes to call \"thinking women of faith.\"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/rweems"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}