Inauguration Day, History in the Making...

Once again we are observing another inauguration, the 44th president of the United States has been sworn in with a public inauguration on Martin Luther King Day.  Wow.  How symbolic is THAT??  I never thought in my lifetime I would see an African American President be sworn in once, much less for a second term...then on top of that to be sworn in on MLK Day.  Amazing!  I can only imagine what Dr. King would have thought of all of this.  He believed that this would happen within 40 years.  He BELIEVED that??  He was right!!  What a historic moment! 

President Barack Obama will use two bibles, one belonging to Abraham Lincoln and one belonging to Martin Luther King Jr.  As symbolic as this is, I find it interesting that the use of a bible is not a requirement but merely a tradition.  Two presidents chose not to use the bible in their inauguration... John Quincy Adams and Theodore Roosevelt.  It is uncertain why Roosevelt chose not to, however Adams made it clear as to why he chose differently.  President John Quincy Adams, a religious man, chose to use instead a U.S. book of laws.  He said that he, "wanted to demonstrate that he recognized a barrier between church and state and that his loyalty was to our nation's laws above all else." (www.cnn.com)  I LOVE this!!!  I am a huge supporter in the separation of church and state.  Many of my church friends will not agree, but I feel that you cannot run a country based on the beliefs of ONE religion, Christianity.  The Christian faith may be my faith of choice, however, it is divided in several denominations with different views and ideas.  Which faith would lead a nation?  That is a question you have to ask.  Romney was Mormon.  Would a Mormon lead the country the same as a Baptist?  I think not.  Not that one is right and one is wrong, they are just different.  The founding fathers were mostly Unitarian or Deists.  They were not the old southern Baptists that many would like to picture.  The church also forgets one important point, everything is a two way street.  If the church can be meshed in government, then government can be meshed in the church.  That is how it works.  So be careful what you wish for...just sayin...

With that little soapbox moment behind me, I look toward the next four years with hope.  Hope that we can come together as a nation to deal with the issues of our time.  Hope for a less violent environment.  Hope for a better economy where the average man can actually save a little as opposed to just getting by.  Hope for a president with much on his shoulders.  Hope.