Lost in all the hubbub surrounding Rick Warren, it should be noted that the Reverend Lowery will wrap up the day with a message. I wasn’t familiar with him until someone posted a link to his eulogy of Coretta Scott King. I admit that I didn’t watch the event when it occurred, but a website posted the YouTube video of Rev. Lowery and I wanted to share it.
When I was in high school, we were forced to read “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, a sermon by one of the earliest celebrity pastors in the Colonies, Jonathan Edwards. I must admit, it is a powerful image. But it lacks the lyrical quality of this address. Listening to Rev. Lowery reminds me of a great Blues performance. It’s a unique style of preaching that was never present in the white, middle class Southern Baptist churches I grew up in. It was badly aped by preachers in the Charismatic churches I later found, again mostly dominated by white, middle-class followers. I’m glad we have something like YouTube to share these moments because these voices are often lost in American culture.
Whatever you think of the President-elect’s choice for the invocation, he picked a damn good preacher to wrap things up.
Tags: Blues, Inauguration 2009, Poetry, Politics, Religion