(UNDATED) To help document Barack Obama’s inauguration, the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress wants religious congregations to send sermons about the nation’s first black president.
The “Inauguration 2009 Sermons and Orations Project” wants audio and video recordings of talks delivered between Jan. 16 and Jan. 25 so they can be preserved for posterity.
I wonder how many women’s voices they’ll collect.
They certainly won’t get feminine input from Catholic churches. Women can’t preach formally at a Catholic Mass, and it’s pretty much the same in many other churches. In too many cases, Christian pulpits are predominantly male bastions. So are Orthodox synagogues and Islamic mosques.
Archivists also want speeches given at humanist congregations and other secular gatherings, so there’s a chance more women will be participating in those venues. Still, I bet that when all is said and catalogued, the split is four men’s entries for every woman’s.
So how exactly will this collection be reflective of what the country thinks of Obama’s inauguration? Does the Library not see the irony in collecting mostly male commentary about a member of a “minority” group gaining status and power?
Of course, it’s not their fault. There are painfully few sermons by women anywhere.
There are plenty of sermons about women, mostly for their funerals or executions. The latter is represented by such stirring titles as Cotton Mather’s “A Sorrowful Spectacle in Two Sermons Occasioned by a Just Sentence of Death on a Miserable Woman for the Murder of a Spurious Offspring . . . with Some Remarkable Things Relating to the Criminal, Proper for all to be Informed of.” There’s nothing quite like male New England Puritans preaching about women.
No matter. Beyond the scope of the official collection, women will write their own sermons of sorts. Feminine commentary will be spoken in convents and women’s groups, or overheard on street corners, or printed in blogs and newspaper columns.
That so very few women will preach from official pulpits underscores the reason for the excitement about our 44th president. He’s new, he’s young, he’s smart, and he’s still pretty much unexpected. In an era of disgraceful financiers and disgraced politicians, Obama carries hope with him on his train ride to the capital.
He’s already told us several times that this is not the economic season for us to party hearty. Still, we can’t help but gulp at the thought of his welcome at the Lincoln Memorial. I mean, gee whiz, we really elected this guy!
While the United States inaugurates Obama on Jan. 20, Christian churches will remember St. Fabian, a third-century martyr who ran afoul of a Roman emperor. Fabian rose to prominence unexpectedly. They say a dove landed on his head while they were electing a pope. He got the job and he was good at it.
We hope the same for Barack Obama. Women and men everywhere, speaking before a congregation or in the privacy of their homes, can join in hope that a dove of peace and inspiration will watch over Barack Obama, and all of us.
Congratulations, Mr. President.
(Phyllis Zagano is a Fulbright Fellow in religious studies at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland, and is a senior research associate-in-residence at Hofstra University.)
KRE/DSB END ZAGANO
