Barack Obama is my president, too

Eight years ago today, having stood in the cold and wind outside the Capitol and heard George W. Bush take the oath of office as our 43rd president, I walked down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Canadian embassy, from which- courtesy of a couple who worked at the embassy and were neighbors of the college buddy with whom Denise and I were staying- we would be able to view the inaugural parade in warmth and relative comfort.

There were demonstrators who were unwilling to accept the result of the election, and who claimed on no particularly convincing basis that it had been stolen. Most of them still make that ill-founded claim today; hatred is a powerful emotion, and neither time nor reason easily displace it. But the divisions in our country were, then as now, a fact of life. I accepted their presence with regret.

But as I walked up Pennsylvania Avenue, I passed one girl- an African-American, as it happened- who was wearing a button which disturbed me profoundly. It still does. It read

George W. Bush is NOT My President!

Yes, he was. He was the president of all of us, whether we agreed with him or voted for him or not. But for eight years, half of our country refused to accept that fact.

Today, we have a new president. I did not vote for him. Those of us who believe that all living members of our species are persons created in the image of God, and whose lives are sacred, have serious disagreements with President Obama. Many of us have serious disagreements with him on other matters as well. It will not do to downplay the seriousness of those disagreements.

But today is not the day to dwell on them. Today is a day to pray for our new president, and to pledge him our support in the years ahead, insofar as our consciences will permit. None of us can afford for him to fail. And given the seriousness of the task he faces, he will need our prayers and support.

The text of Mr. Obama's inaugural address can be found here. Only one line- the one about "returning science to its rightful place-" raises anxiety within me, because some use that sort of rhetoric to justify the exclusion of our conscience and values from our consideration of issues involving science. I choose to assume that Mr. Obama did not mean that, and will not join the chorus of those advocating a soulless, post-modern utilitarianism as our mindset in dealing with such matters.

In any event, one thing is clear: for the past sixteen years, our nation has been divided not simply by the content of our consciences, but by the smallness of our souls. We have seen each other not merely as people with whom we disagree, but as the enemy. Our new president set himself against that sort of thinking during last year's campaign. No reasonable person of any political persuasion can disagree that we need to rediscover the art of disagreeing agreeably. Democracy will not long survive its continuing loss.

At a moment when America's place in the world seems precarious, when the economy is in its worst condition since the Great Depression, and when we continue to be threatened not only by our own internal divisions but by the power of militant hatred abroad, we need to be clear about one thing: while we may not have voted for Barack Obama, we still need to pray for him. While we may disagree with him about many things, we need to lower the temperature of our dissent, and support him when and where we can.

Let me say this as clearly and unambiguously as I can: Barack Obama is my president. He is the president of all of us. He cannot fail without all of us failing. He deserves our good will- and, insofar as it is conscientiously possible for us to give it, our support.

God be with you, Mr. President. I do not promise that I will always agree with you, and I do not promise that I will not oppose you in some matters. But I do promise to pray for you- and to remember that, even though I didn't vote for you, you are my president, too.