TO THE GOD OF OUR MANY UNDERSTANDINGS...Gay Bishop offers prayer to a god of his own creation

Psalm 50:21-22 
21 These things you have done, and I have been silent;
you thought that I was just like you.
But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.

22 "Mark this, then, you who forget God,
lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!

Isaiah 5:20-21 
20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and shrewd in their own sight!
A Prayer for the Nation and Our Next President, Barack ObamaBy The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New HampshireOpening Inaugural EventLincoln Memorial, Washington, DCJanuary 18, 2009
"Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God's blessing upon our nation and our next president.O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic "answers" we've preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be "fixed" anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion's God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln's reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy's ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King's dream of a nation for ALL the people.Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters' childhoods.And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we're asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.AMEN.(May I encourage you, please pray earnestly for Bishop Robinson that the true God of the Bible would grant him godly sorrow leading to repentance from sin, genuine saving faith to believe, and the grace to confess and know Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.)