The Presidential Inauguration

So America has a new president! I stayed on in Rocklin and went with Janet to watch the inauguration at Bayside church. They had arranged for the ceremony to be shown on the three massive projection screens in the church, followed by a short time of prayer for Obama and his government, which I thought was a very good way for the church to mark the occasion. (And, it was good to be indoors on another rather beautiful, sunny, relatively warm Californian winter's day, rather than braving the below-freezing temperatures and windy weather in Washington!) The ceremony was fairly brief, and I thought Obama's speech was good (acknowledging the hard work that has to be done to address some of the problems the US faces, although he was rather more critical of Bush's presidency than I thought was necessary or appropriate for the occasion).

A number of people have asked what it is like being here at this time (undoubtedly historic, whatever you think of the politics and politicians in the US). My response has been that there are very high expectations of change and, quite frankly, miracles (particularly with regard to addressing the current economic challenges). My pragmatic nature suggests that there is likely to be very little change (for all their brave speeches, politicians typically have less power to effect the sweeping changes that they promise their electorate during an election than they claim, or perhaps even think). Still, if Obama's challenge to look further than one's own situation and serve the needs of others and of the country is taken up it can only be a good thing for the country.

In this regard, on Sunday evening I watched a talk by Dr. Del Tackett of Focus on the Family, which dealt with the founding of America and the Biblical foundations of this nation. It was quite striking how, without exception, the "founding fathers" spoke about the importance of building the nation on a strong moral foundation, itself built on their Christian faith. In many ways, I think the US has lost touch with its foundations and that has had a deep impact on their society. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few years.