As I write this we anticipate the inauguration of Barak Obama as 44th President of the United States of America. As a moment of pure history it is hard to overstate, to over-inflate. The men who met in Philadelphia during the miserably hot summer of 1787 to write our Constitution, were almost unanimous in their disdain for the institution of slavery, but nowhere near any agreement on how to end it, and so they calibrated the personhood of a slave at 3/5ths, and left the rest for future generations to figure out. That we now have an African-American president is a testimony to the power of our values, and that we are still working towards a society that faithfully reflects those values.
God is not mentioned in the Constitution – not an oversight, but a deliberate choice. He is, however, the reason for our Declaration of Independence, which argues that our founders are taking action, ultimately, because of responsibility to God, and the unalienable rights he has self-evidently given. God is not mentioned in our Constitution, but He was in the room, and in the minds of those present. There was the famous discussion about the propriety of saying a prayer before each session. John Adams (who, like his dear friend Thomas Jefferson was serving in Europe, and not present at the Convention) said of the document, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.” George Washington, who presided over the convention, was certainly informed that the Presidential Oath of Office prescribed by the Constitution was free of any reference to God – and yet he added “So help me God” to the end of his promise to “preserve, defend and protect the Constitution of the United States.” He spoke those words holding a Bible, which he, bowing, kissed after the words were spoken.
Most (not all) presidents have followed his example – laying hands on the Bible, and adding “So help me God,” to the Constitution’s words. Franklin Pierce not only refused to invoke God’s help, but refused the presence of a Bible as well. I can’t imagine a President daring to do the same today.
President Obama will, no doubt, say those words. I know he will place his hand on the Bible, because he has famously chosen the Bible used by Lincoln at his first inaugural. Obama feels a special connection to that other, gangly, outsider from Illinois elected president. But most (not all) of us feel a special reverence for Lincoln – that’s why, at his Memorial, he sits, god-like on a throne in a temple (that word is chiseled into the stone of the edifice), keeping an eye on the nation’s capital. That’s why those items connected to him – his Bible, his eyeglasses, his wallet, and letters in his own hand are invested with such significance. He saw our nation through its darkest hour, and was martyred by a b-list actor. If his service as president weren’t enough to deify him for history, his assassination ensured he would move beyond history into the realm of myth. A few years back the Library of Congress put many of Lincoln’s personal items on display in an exhibit titled, “Sanctified by Blood.”
The Bible Obama will use was chosen on account of that “sanctification” by the hands of Lincoln. And yet that Bible was touched by other hands as well. The chief Justice of the Supreme Court that administered the Oath of Office to Abraham Lincoln was Roger B. Taney. Taney had written the majority opinion in Scott v. Sanford in 1857. The Supreme Court voted 7-2 that Dred Scott had no rights under the constitution, being a “negro,” and that “…the Negro has no rights that the white man is bound to respect, and he might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery.”
My question is this – if the hands of Lincoln somehow sanctify this Bible, wouldn’t the hands of Taney, somehow, defile it?
The Bible Obama uses for his inauguration is sanctified, as all Bibles are sanctified. The Bible contains the Word of God, and the Word of God has sanctifying force in itself (John 17.17). That sanctifying force, Jesus asserts, is not in its use as some sort of symbol, or talisman, but in its ability to produce faith.
The words which you gave to me I have given to them. They received them, and truly understood that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. John 17.8
As a citizen of this country I am proud that we are the first Western nation to elect a person of color as President. I am proud and glad that our presidents are in the habit of asking for God’s help, and making their promise on the Bible. I am proud and glad that they do this not because they are forced to do so by law – but because it is the natural and fitting thing to do as they lead this particular nation. As Christians, I hope we all know that the real power of the Word is not in its use as a symbol. The power of the Word is unleashed when it is received and believed.
