Word: prayerful
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
This is why it was inappropriate for a minister--or a rabbi or a priest--to deliver a prayer at the inauguration. A speech would have been acceptable, but this was not a speech: Gomes was called on to represent religion, which (whether the contents of the prayer were specifically Protestant or not) means that "religion" and "Protestantism" are still officially equated...
...this ceremony, perhaps the most important in this generation of Harvard students and faculty, one religion was made the norm and the rest were supposed to fall under the heading of "diversity." Gomes's very efforts to make it more universal only prove my point. If a non-denominational prayer was desired, why pick a minister to deliver it? Simply put, because Harvard believes that this one religion is uniquely qualified to represent or speak for all others...
...fact, it is not qualified, neither in theory nor in actual practice. Even the less specifically Christian sections of the prayer revealed Christian assumptions about how to pray on behalf of other religions...
...SOLUTIONS to this dilemma come to mind. One is, of course, to omit the whole thing. However, the idea of an opening prayer seems to me to be still valuable because it reminds us of transcendent values that the University and our education are meant to sustain...
...other solution might be to have an opening prayer by someone who is not an official representative of any religion. This prayer should refer to the Puritans' original conception of Harvard as an "earthly encampment of the City of God," as Gomes's prayer eloquently...