Anyone watching the swearing in?
Tuning in to the swearing in of NYS’s new Gov?
Rated:
There’s been a disturbing amount of religious pageantry. They had a rabbi and now a priest speaking. Hardly a sampling of all religions in this country. Anyone else offended?
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No not at all.
But why does religion have a place in an official ceremony like that? I know it happens all the time, but it just struck me as so odd.
I also didn’t get why half of the speeches were just introductions. Everyone in the room was introduced at one point or another.
I missed the swearing in, but I certainly take your point Gned.
I look at it like this – I don’t think it can be about making sure every faith is represented, but that the faith or faiths that personally matter to the person being sworn in are represented. It’s impossible for someone coming into office to cover off on the faith of every person in their constituency. Even if they could somehow represent every faith, there is still all of us with no faith, to whom a promise based solely on faith would be meaningless. We can’t expect the governor to promise our god he’ll take his duty seriously, just his own. So if he felt the priest and the rabbi were the people he needed there to do that, then right on. But if it was an attempt to make a gesture to the religious community by bringing only two major faiths to the table, then I do think it slights everybody else. In that case I imagine I’d personally feel more disappointed than offended. But I won’t pretend to know why he made the decision he made.