c. 1997 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ From an interfaith prayer service symbolizing racial and political reconciliation to an inaugural address calling for a new spirit of community, President Bill Clinton embroidered his second inauguration ceremonies Monday (Jan. 20) with stitches of religious and moral sentiment.”Each and every one of us in our own way must assume personal responsibility not only for ourselves and our families, but for our neighbors and our nation,”the president said in a 20-minute address delivered from the steps of the U.S. Capitol moments after Chief Justice William Rehnquist swore him in for a second four-year term.”Our greatest responsibility is to embrace a new spirit of community for a new century,”Clinton said in a speech that invoked both the”American dream”of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the commitment to life of the late Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin.”For any one of us to succeed, we must succeed as one America,”he said.

Before the formal inaugural ceremony, Clinton, a Southern Baptist, joined some 1,500 worshipers from the nation’s rainbow of faiths at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church for the National Prayer Service, the first official event of the beginning of Clinton’s second term.

The 2 1/4-hour service featured prayers for the president, Scripture readings from Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim leaders, and meditations from clergy representing Catholic and Protestant faiths.

Despite the differences in liturgical traditions and styles, the Pentecostal fervor of Mickey Mangun and the Messiah Singers from an Alexandria, La., church, set the tone, stirring all the worshipers _ the clergy on the dais and laity in the pews alike.”It is clear, when we all come together, we’re finally Pentecostal,”joked the Rev. Jesse Jackson, president of the Washington-based National Rainbow Coalition.

On a more serious note, Jackson reminded the congregation of King’s vision of a nation with improved race relations and justice for the poor. Inauguration Day this year fell on the same day as the national holiday marking the slain civil rights leader’s birthday.”Dr. King’s challenge: Imagine beyond the status quo, dream bigger than your circumstance,”Jackson said.”Let us see the conjunction of the inauguration and Dr. King’s birthday as a call to conscience, a call to character.” It was a day for charity toward political opponents _ from Clinton and other dignitaries to the small bands of protesters along the parade route. And it was a day in which there were strong calls for political and racial reconciliation.

Evangelist Tony Campolo, president of the St. Davids, Pa.-based Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, helped establish the theme at the morning prayer service, calling for an end to political rancor.”Oh, how we need to become forgivers across party lines, across religious lines, across national lines,”he said.”America is tired of the politics of bile. America is tired (of) partisan acrimony. America is looking for a new day when people come together and let their sins be blotted out … and remembered no more.” Evangelist Billy Graham, participating in his eighth presidential inaugural, echoed the reconciliation theme at the swearing-in ceremony with an invocation urging that”this be a time of coming together to help us deal with the problems we face. Oh Lord, help us to be reconciled first to you and secondly to each other.” In his inaugural address, Clinton, too, urged political politeness.”The American people returned to office a president of one party and a Congress of another,”he said.”Surely, they did not do this to advance the politics of petty bickering and extreme partisanship they plainly deplore.” At the morning prayer service Jackson prayed for a range of political and religious concerns. He prayed for the family of entertainer Bill Cosby, whose son Ennis was slain Thursday (Jan. 16); for former Sen. Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts, who died Saturday (Jan. 18); and for the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, the general secretary of the National Council of Churches, who suffered heart-related pains from angina at the start of the prayer service. Campbell was taken to a Washington hospital where she was treated and released later in the day.

The service also gave a window into the private spirituality of the president, when the Rev. Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., spoke of his monthly meetings with Clinton for prayer.”Most of all, I celebrate the development of your heart, your increasing desire to know God and to live for him, and the inevitable byproduct, which has been a deepening love for the people that you lead,”Hybels said of Clinton.

Clergy on the dais, who had a clear view of Clinton in the church’s front row, remarked on the president’s interest in the service.”The president was highly moved and stimulated by the service,”said Presiding Bishop Chandler David Owens of the Church of God in Christ.

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Participants from a variety of faiths were pleased with the service’s range of religious perspectives.”This was very uplifting, especially to see people belonging to many different traditions coming together and expressing their solidarity with the president,”said Rajwant Singh, executive director of the Sikh Center in Potomac, Md.

Janice Moorman, a member of the Pentecostals of Alexandria, the Alexandria, La., church of the Messiah singers, said the evangelical fervor of the service represents the spirituality of the president.”I think that’s part of Bill Clinton. I think it’s his personality,”said Moorman.”Now that it’s his second term, he feels more freedom to express that.” During the service, a half-dozen protesters led by the Rev. Mel White, justice minister of the predominantly gay Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, stood outside to urge Clinton to support homosexual rights and increased funding for AIDS research.

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In addition to the Metropolitan AME service, some 1,400 packed a Washington hotel ballroom for an unofficial inaugural prayer breakfast at which reconciliation and inclusiveness also were the themes.

Speaking at the breakfast, former Sen. Larry Pressler, a conservative Republican from South Dakota, said the inaugural was”a day to put aside political differences and pray for the president and vice president.” The nondenominational Christian breakfast also took on a decidedly Pentecostal flavor when the event’s organizer, the Rev. Ruth Heflin, an independent minister from Ashland, Va., said the Holy Spirit was present at the gathering to heal the nation and the physical ailments of unnamed audience members.

While some expressed their faith in large gatherings, others with strong religious sentiments spent the day protesting abortion.

On the north slope of the Washington Monument, 3,300 small white crosses _ representing the number of abortions that occur daily in the United States _ were pounded into the frozen ground by about 50 high school and college students, who began their work at 5:30 a.m.

A banner labeled the display”The Children of Hillary’s Village”_ a play on Hillary Clinton’s book,”It Takes A Village.” Anti-abortion protesters _ who Sunday won court permission to demonstrate _ also hoisted about 25 large signs showing graphic photos of aborted fetuses as Clinton passed along the inaugural parade route.”We’re here to challenge Clinton’s radical pro-abortion agenda and his failure to protect our greatest resource _ our children,”said the Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, an evangelical Presbyterian from Frederick, Va., who heads the Christian Defense Coalition.

Secret Service officials, made jumpy by recent bomb blasts at abortion clinics in Atlanta and Tulsa, Okla., met with Mahoney Sunday night to get his assurance that Monday’s protest would be peaceful.

Ironically, Mahoney’s group was situated along a stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue that faced the Lesbian and Gay Band of America. Normally, said Mahoney, he would confront such a group as sinners.

But Monday, reflecting the day’s spirit of reconciliation as much as the presence of police keeping close watch, Mahoney said he welcomed the band’s proximity.”That’s how it should be on Inauguration Day,”he said.”Everyone should be able to have their say, no matter what their position.”

MJP END RNS