Congratulations one more time to those for whom Barack Obama’s election resonates for a variety of reasons. And thank you to the outgoing president for keeping this country safe since September 11th, 2001, for advancing the concept of a culture of life during his two terms of office and for being — as Barack Obama himself has correctly observed — a good man.

Democracy is indeed a wonderful thing, and it continues. Today was the last day that Barack Obama, now our president, could get by on rhetoric. Tomorrow his presidential decisions will start piling up, and it will be informative to see what some of his first ones are. His speech today was adequate, but it is the exceptional inaugural speech that echoes through the ages, and I don’t personally think that today’s was one of those. His focus on the seriousness of the difficulties that face the country and his administration continued the theme he’s hammered since he won the election, and continues the tactic of setting the bar low, so that his administration can claim credit for any slight improvement that occurs. Some say that he is also nurturing a sense of crisis in order that legislators — and the voters to whom they answer — will give him what he wants without too much struggle. A crisis provides an opportunity to grab and to wield additional power, and of-course he comes into office with arguably unprecedented power, thanks to the bailout money and measures that have already been put into effect during the outgoing administration.

But surely the days of talking down the economy have to end today too. Certainly, it is not terribly presidential to talk down the economy. When the president talks down the economy, there are consequences; there are investments that are not made, consumer spending that doesn’t get spent, businesses not started, jobs which are lost. Even the time Barack Obama has spent talking down the economy these last couple of months has exacted a cost. And his gloomy prognosis this afternoon may well have had something to do with what was the worst performance for the Dow Industrial Average of any inauguration day in history. Talk is cheap, they say, but sometimes it’s very expensive too.

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Since I’ve written already about inaugural prayers, I suppose I oughta comment on the ones heard today. Rick Warren prayed like the evangelical Christian he is, and I for one give him kudos for that. If Obama had wanted a Unitarian, he could have picked one. For Bishop Gene Robinson, this clearly would have been one of those horrifying “aggressively Christian” inaugural prayers, ending as it did with a reference to Jesus and with the full recitation of the Lord’s Prayer. There was certainly no question as to whom Warren was praying: “The Scripture tells us ‘Hear, oh Israel, the Lord is our God; the Lord is one.’” So in this case perhaps there was Someone who knew He was being asked to listen. Warren’s prayer was right in the Judeo-Christian tradition, surely, with the emphasis on Christian. In other words, a lot like America.

The Rev. Joseph Lowery delivered a prayer that in many respects flowed right out of that same tradition. Unlike Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, he was not afraid to quote or to echo Hebrew and Christian Scripture. Yet, there was that part near the end, which seemed at first amusing, but then finally terribly inappropriate, when he prayed for the day “when brown can stick around — (laughter) — when yellow will be mellow — (laughter) — when the red man can get ahead, man — (laughter) — and when white will embrace what is right.” When white will embrace what is right? He stood on that stage with President Barack Obama, elected by white people as well as the various other colors to be president of the United States. It was not a day to implicitly condemn “white people” for their flaws. Not that it is ever a good day to differentiate between and to judge people on the basis of their skin color, as he unequivocally did with those words. I guess President Obama didn’t much notice, but we can give him a pass on it. After all, he heard a lot of that kind of thing in the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

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The times have changed, without question, and they are going to keep on a-changin’. In what way exactly, it remains to be seen.

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