Remember the name Sharon Watkins. Reverend Sharon E. Watkins to be exact. She's the woman President-Elect Barack Obama has chosen to give the sermon at the big national prayer service the day after the Inauguration. The nation will be watching.
More below from The New York Times:
Ms. Watkins, the first woman ever selected to lead the service, is the president and general minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a small, liberal-leaning Protestant denomination with 3,754 congregations and about 690,000 members in the United States and Canada. Ms. Watkins was elected to the post in 2005, the first woman ever chosen to lead a mainline Protestant denomination.
But Ms. Watkins is not well known nationally. She came to the attention of Mr. Obama at a meeting he held during the campaign last summer to introduce himself to a politically and theologically diverse group of ministers. At that closed-door meeting, some of the conservative ministers bluntly questioned Mr. Obama on certain issues. Ms. Watkins was asked to give the closing prayer.
"Sharon was able to conclude in a way that tied everyone together," said the Rev. Joshua DuBois, director of religious affairs for the Presidential Inaugural Committee, who was at the meeting. "It left folks on a buoyant note, with a degree of hope and optimism that we could find some common ground."
The prayer service will be held on Jan. 21 at the Washington National Cathedral.
Linda Douglass, the chief spokeswoman for the inaugural committee, said the choice of Ms. Watkins was not an attempt to mollify critics of Mr. Obama's decision to have the Rev. Rick Warren give the invocation at the inauguration. The choice of Mr. Warren, a prominent evangelical pastor from California who opposes same-sex marriage, caused an uproar among some of Mr. Obama's supporters.
"She was chosen before the inaugural program was even announced," Ms. Douglass said of Ms. Watkins. "Her appeal is that she delivers a message of unity and inclusivity and tolerance and hope - and those are all central themes we've heard from the president-elect."
Ms. Watkins has spoken out against torture and the war in Iraq, but as church president she has not taken a position on same-sex marriage. Like many mainline Protestant churches, the Disciples is not unified on the issue. As a congregational church, each church in the denomination is free to set its own policies.
More here.
What we are seeing from Obama here should not be surprising. He has constantly preached (excuse the pun) the idea that he wants to be a President for ALL Americans and when it comes to faith, he seems willing to welcome and entertain thoughts from all across the spectrum.
There is a danger politically here for Obama. By trying to reach out to all sides, he runs the risk of alienating and offending both sides as well. The Rick Warren pick is a perfect illustration.
Yet with danger comes opportunity. Obama is in the unique place of potentially being able to bring conservative and liberal pastors together to find common good and potentially put some of the past harshness and divisiveness aside.
All of this brings up a larger discussion about the primary role of the Church. Liberal congregations tend to put less focus on winning souls for Christ. Conservative churches see that as their primary mission. This has always been a major divide. What is Obama's role here exactly and should he even invest any political capital in all of this?
Obama made faith an important part of his candidacy. Will it be central to his presidency as well? If he thinks getting Republicans and Democrats together on an issue is tough, that's nothing compared to the Church divide in this country.
One more thought: liberal groups and homosexual activists made a big deal over the Rick Warren invocation choice but Reverend Watkins will be given a much bigger platform with her sermon. She's going to have a captivated audience for 15 minutes or so in a sermon setting. Warren will not. Would liberal groups want Warren speaking for 15 minutes or 2 minutes?
Comments?