It was encouraging to hear so many Biblical passages and mentions of Jesus Christ in the prayers at President Donald Trump’s Inauguration.
This inauguration set a record for having six different prayer leaders (Timothy Dolan, Samuel Rodriguez, Paula White, Franklin Graham, Marvin Hier, and Wayne T. Jackson). They were a diverse group: theologically (Catholic, evangelical, pentecostal, and Jewish), ethnically (white, black, hispanic) and in gender (male and female … only the second time a female has led a presidential inauguration prayer). Despite these differences, we can rejoice that all of them quoted the Bible and four of them mentioned Jesus.
America is a wonderfully diverse nation, but our prosperous heritage and our greatest cultural values are inseparably rooted in the Bible and Judeo-Christian ethics, and so our future success and perhaps even our survival depends on maintaining this connection. Moreover, if our leaders truly seek to humbly honor the true and living God and his son Jesus Christ, perhaps He will have mercy on America’s offenses against Him, heal the deep divisions that divide our populace, and bless our future. As Psalm 33:12a says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD.”
Accordingly, prayers like this, followed by penitent and faithful action, may be our only hope.
Frank Erb 