By Lloyd Mackey

GALA balls and church: Those are two certitudes surrounding the inauguration of any American president.

Any analysis of the balls quickly boils down to what the First Lady is wearing and which celebrities turn up to mark the occasions.

The church side, conversely, provides much to consider with respect to the image of diverse participation.

As has been noted, often, the linkages between faith and politics are considerably muted, in Canada, compared to the pervasiveness present in American transitions of power. Frequently, in this country, the anti-faith crowd, whether intentional or otherwise, manages to intimidate both politicians and advocates of faith, into keeping their lights under bushel baskets.

David Wilkins, currently wrapping up after close to four years as the United States ambassador to Canada, put it most interestingly.

He suggested in a recent interview that he learned something when he first arrived in this country, about the Canadian media's sometime cynicism about the American faith/political interface. That was when he awoke one morning to a newspaper headline that quoted him as believing that God had called him to Canada.

Now, in the Southern Baptist Bible belt of South Carolina, where he was a veteran state politician, confidence in the Divine might be culturally acceptable.

But not in Canada, where hearing the voice of God, whether figuratively or literally, might render a politician near-delusional.

I was aware that Wilkins and his wife, Susan, were people of serious faith. Further, it was a matter of public record that Susan had regularly hosted a small Bible study in the American embassy residence, drawing together a number of her neighbours in the upper-crust Rockcliffe community.

Several times, I have requested, without success, the opportunity to interview the Wilkins for purposes of introducing them to a Christian readership. I might note, as well, that I have attempted a similar kind of interview with Brad Wall, the premier of Saskatchewan, who is on record as being a serious Christian believer of Mennonite Brethren persuasion. That request, too, has been to no avail, so far.

My sense is that there is a hesitancy to speak openly to a Christian readership on the part of some political people of faith. It comes because of the belief that a more cynical journalist might read such an article. The result would be a re-interpretation of openness to faith and Christian fellowship in a darker way, thus bringing disrepute to the gospel.

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All this is to provide a brief sketch of the faith-based manifestations in and around the Barack Obama inauguration.

For some weeks, there has been coverage in some of the American Christian media about Obama's regrets over not having a church home, since he broke with his long-time pastor, Jeremiah Wright of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

On the Sunday before his inauguration, the president-elect and his family attended Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, a key black congregation in Washington, D.C.

Then on inauguration day itself, the Obamas did what many of their First Family predecessors had done: They slipped across the street from the White House to St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church (that's Anglican in Canadianese). The pastor there is a Latino, as is a fair segment of the St. John's worshipping congregation. But the guest speaker was T.D. Jakes, the powerhouse Jesus-only-leaning Pentecostal megachurch black preacher from Texas.

In the American black community, Jakes is often considered the equivalent in influence to California's Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren, who was Obama's controversial choice to utter the inaugural invocation.

But, as it turned out, diversity of prayer leaders for the inaugural events was the order of the day. One of the vocal critics of the Warren choice was openly-gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson. But when Robinson, himself, was invited to pray at another inaugural event, Warren returned the criticism with grace, commending the then-president-elect for encouraging diversity.

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In the inaugural address itself, Obama anchored some of his points with a biblical reference. In so doing, he followed in a tradition that most new presidents have observed.

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For more details, I would recommend Christianity Today's website. It listed every possible "Christian" aspect of the Tuesday ceremony and its surrounding events. It should be up on the site for at least a few more days, and, if CT practice is followed, will be archived and easily searchable.

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Lloyd Mackey is a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa and author of Stephen Harper: The Case for Collaborative Governance (ECW Press, 2006), More Faithful Than We Think: Stories and Insights on Canadian Leaders Doing Politics Christianly (BayRidge Books, 2005) and Like Father, Like Son: Ernest Manning and Preston Manning (ECW Press, 1997). Lloyd can be reached at lmackey@canadianchristianity.com.

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January 22/2009