Obama team takes blame for Robinson slight

My understanding is that the microphone was not on and that the gathered crowd id not hear the prayer either. HBO should add the prayer to their on-line web-cast of the concert. Surely there must be video of it and it would not require much to add it in.

It's not enough to just show it on the mall. The invocation needs to be broadcast nationally, as it was originally supposed to have been.

frankly we should all be more concerned with the abundance of cardboard marble that was put all over the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I was horrified by the cheesy set design. Does anyone even listen to the invocation?

Poetic justice??

Broadcast the prayer nationally. It was supposed to be broadcast nationally.

I'm sure they will have fixed the problem by the time Rick Warren speaks though!
Anyone else find it sadly funny that HBO followed the broadcast with the premiere of Big Love.
Polygamy's OK...Gay Christians can't be seen or heard.

This apology does not explain why the prayer was offered before PEOTUS and VPEOTUS were even on the stage. Why was this done? It is easy to see why HBO thought it was extraneous. The original plan was flawed ....once again. We have a lot to celebrate but we are yet to be "One" when these "oversights" keep happening to the same community.

This was a profound disappointment.

I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to hear Bishop Gene Robinson's invocation. His perspective; his struggle; his personal pain can be clearly heard and I believe that it should be heard by all who will take the time to listen.

Why waste the airspace? I'm sure there are far more important things to show - like Rick Warrens prayer.

Broadcasting it on Tuesday along the National Mall, when all our attention is on the other inaugural events, is not enough. HBO and the major networks need to put the invocation into their news coverage--mentioning both the oversight by the Obama team and by themselves. There is no doubt that whatever the presidential team did, the media made no effort to include his prayer in their coverage of the day. This is true for the news coverage I read both online (comcast) and in the SF Chronicle (same news feed as far as I could see) as well as TV coverage.

So, the "inaugural committee" can just as easily fail to have Warren's speech telecast on Tuesday, can't they?

Sorry but your excuses just don't cut it. I have a relative who's thinking of not watching the swearing in ceremonies thanks to the treatment of Bishop Robinson. And, no, she is NOT gay.
We watched for a long time before it dawned on us - a group of 16 celebrating Obama's history making events - that he wasn't part of the program and were more than disappointed to learn via the internet, after the fact, that HBO started taping after the invocation. Shame on you, shame on you, oh yeah, shame on you.

I was on the mall with the tens of thousands of people. We did NOT hear it. The loudspeakers were turned off. The teletrons were on. We could see him but not hear him. They had been doing sound checks all morning, while we watched and waited...the sound had worked perfectly all morning, and perfectly right ofter Bishop Robinson's blessing. Only those seated in the VIP area could hear with local microphones (it's on You-Tube).
Airing it on the mall at the Inauguration, does not get it to the people who were watching from home. Nor does it change the fact that Bishop Robinson was silenced on a most momentous occasion. Shame.

They had the opportunity to include it in the rebroadcast if they had usable audio and video. They edited it, and took out the sequence with the bald eagles named Challenger and Mr. Lincoln. I had hoped they would have edited the invocation into that rebroadcast, but they did not.

Also, they never told us who the choirs and many of the bands were. We were left guessing.

When will people learn to leave Religion out of politics ?? Didn't the founders decided that it should be separated from governing.
The worst attrocities in History have been and continue to be commited in the name of Religion.
Faith is personal.

If they were the words of a bishop and not an activist, I would support their re-publication. The microphone issue might have been a blessing to all.

OF COURSE THEY R RESPONSIBLE. YET MUCH GOES UNEXPLAINED AS 2 HOW AND Y IT HAPPENED. AT WORST IT WAS INTENTIONAL THAT HE WAS SCHEDULED 5mins b4 scheduled airtime ON HBO; AT BEST, INSENSITIVE, AND AN INDIFFERENCE TO THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INVOCATION and REV. ROBINSONS' OWN HISTORICAL RISE. EITHER WAY, IT WAS CLEAR OBAMA COULDN'T C FIT 2 B TAKE HIS SEAT UNTIL REV. ROBINSON SPOKE. U CAN'T SAY HE WASN'T AWARE OF THE SCHEDULE OR THE CHOREORGRAPHED ENTRANCES AND DEPARTURES.

Once again...gay folks are tossed under the bus. I want to see it aired and not just on HBO. The Obama people need to start getting this right.

HBO should be boycotted, their services canceled by cable customers, should they not rectify this situation and replay it.

Why don't they let Robinson re-do it at the inauguration?
(Yeah-- right!)

This was a terrible mistake and one can't help but question the reason or motive. Many of us waiting to hear the invocation were confused when it didn't appear on the HBO show. Was he sick? Did it not happen? I could have done without so many actors and with a real person of consequence, as in Rev. Gene Robinson. I am very disappointed in the Obama/HBO group that slighted this important part of the event. When did it happen? Was it after the Obamas and Bidens were seated? If so, then it was edited out, and that seems somewhat deliberate.

The invocation to the "god of many understandings" needs to be broadcast nationally? Unitarian blather? Why bother?

The prayer was heard on the mall (I was there). Apparently, HBO is going to broadcast it, despite the initial mix-up.

This is a really sad start to aan admistration that is claiming to be transparent and accountable. This is a sham. I believe that the bishop was never going to televised and what wasn't the microphone working for the crowd in the mall? This was not an oversight or mistake. I am quickly losing my faith in this new presidentcy.

I believe God, in his mercy was trying to tell Gene Robinson something, that Robinson's lack of understanding is a corrupter of innocents, sinful and would not be allowed. I for one am glad that only the scant few at the front heard that divisive, hateful invection, and the rest, including those at home, were spared.

Well, obviously the microphone did work!
I am not entirely sure that this omission warrants a re-broadcast to make it right. I am curious as to why M. Stribling believes it needs to be nationally televised. It is already much talked about and heavily hit on the Internet? I doubt that it was some sort of injustice.

I was at the concert, viewing from a jumbotron to the left of the mall. During the prayer, the sound was very low, and our section got very quiet and reverent; there was sound but we all had to be very quiet to hear it.. To our right, the folks lined up near the relfecting pool were chanting: "we can't hear!" and "turn it up!" through about half of the prayer. Finally the sound was turned up. At first I was upset that the people on the mall could be so disrespectful as to make so much noise and disrupt the prayer, but now that it seems to have been a deliberate act rather than a wiring mistake, I'm glad they protested.

HBO is adding the invocation to all future broadcasts of the "We Are One" event starting (today?) tomorrow.

I strongly agree. HBO needs to add the prayer to its future re-broadcasts of the "We Are One" concert, and to whatever DVD edition it sells of the event.

HBO also needs to put the prayer up on its website as part of the concert, and - as a gesture of reconciliation and amendment - up on YouTube as well. The version put up by the reporter from Christianity Today is a blessing, since it's the only record we currently have of the invocation, but surely HBO had cameras better-placed than she did.

ARE WE ONE ?

seems to me civil and human rights have a way to go yet , how very disapointing , Genes prayer should have been heard all over the world

Please get Gen Robinson's Invocation aired, with advance notice. May of us in Texas were looking forward to it. Thank you.

The invocation should be broadcast nationally - with advance notice.

As a supporter of gay rights but also as an Episcopalian who has seen her Church torn apart by Gene Robinson and Katerine Jefferts Schori, I am deeply saddened by any mention of Robinson. He has been arrogant in his invitation for anyone who doesn't like his appointment to merely leave the Church they were baptized in, raised in, married in, and would have been buried in. He and Schori have broken many many hearts.

This was obviously an intentional hick-up and is a slap in the face for all GLBT persons who so enthusiastically supported and voted for Obama.

False doctrine and not following the bible (Romans 1:27) is reason enough not to hear a word of it!!! I feel there may have been a higher power keeping it off the broadcast.

God answers prayers. He loves all people and hate sin. Sin separates us from Him having a real relationship with Him.

This is a intentional betrayal of all gay Americans and people worldwide. As a gay Singaporean I was looking forward to but did not hear a word of the broadcast during the inauguration, on the screens or otherwise. WE NEED REAL CHANGE!

Type your comment here..
Talk is cheap!! Everything now is EX POST FACTO.
Reading comments on other sites is so like reading Rants and Raves on Palm Spring's Craig's List and the Desert sun; rife with Warren type hatred.
Don't "Gimme that old time religion!"

Isn't Obama about inclusion? This is your first opportunity to counter the homophobic bigotry of Rick Warren and rebroadcast this before he speaks.

Apology not accepted. Bishop Robinson was scheduled for 2:25 and the televised proceedings were scheduled to begin at 2:30. HBO says that the Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) had Robinson scheduled for the "pre-show". It was not a mistake, and I do not accept the apology. Am a straight supporter of gay rights.

I wrote this letter this morning. We all need to write.

I am so hurt and so angry by what you have done concerning Bishop Robinson's
invocation. You state you are for inclusion. Right now with all the
celebration going on all around me I feel EXcluded. What you have done is
not exactly a good deed. This whole debacle shows me how you truly feel
about homosexuality.

Can you possibly believe in civil rights for some, but not for those others
you don't understand? Are you just another straight man in the White House?
Please help me understand. When I heard the interview with Bishop Robinson
on NPR yesterday. I couldn't believe it. I actually cried. I feel so
betrayed. I am 60 years old and I got snookered by a politician?

I read that HBO not broadcasting the invocation was a mistake on your part.
Explain to be how this "mistake" happened when the schedule clearly stated
that Bishop Robinson was to speak at 2:25 and the broadcast was to begin at
2:30. I also read that half the crowd that had gathered around the Lincoln
Memorial and could see Bishop Robinson give his prayer couldn't hear him. "A
malfunction in at least one massive speaker tower on the south side of the
memorial left tightly-packed crowds on pins and needles chanting
thunderously, 'We can't hear. We can't hear."

I don’t believe that any of these "mistakes" will happened today When the
invocation is given at the inauguration.

I know you and your staff are extremely busy with more important matters
then my feelings, but I would really appreciate it if someone responded.

How fascinating that - even with the call for unity - people here choose to take the path of hate in direct opposition of what their religion(s) calls them to do.

I did not watch the "event of the lifetime" because people who should have been included were not. A prayer by a holy person is mysteriously ommitted but a prayer from another holy person who chooses to use the bible to advance predjudice and hate is broadcast for all to hear.

We will be "United States" when we learn to do what all religions teach - to love and not hate - to be a voice for good and right - to learn NOT to condemn what we do not understand - or CHOOSE not to understand.

Until then - no one person - no president will be able to overcome our narrowminded thoughts and actions.

There SHOULD be MUCH to celebrate tonight, but until everyone is welcomed to the party - it's not a party. Obama's speech sounded wonderful, but his words are empty until all are included.

Myabe Rick Warren's homophobic 'moles' caused the problems. Much better scenerio than God silencing Gene Robinson. If God wanted to silence him, it probably would have been done already! Just stop all the hatred and name calling. We can be better than that.

I have to wonder how many homosexuals or gay-rights supporters out there would be complaining about not being able to hear Rick Warren and how his Christian rights were being deliberately suppressed. We speak of "One", but the truth is that what most of want is their idea of "One", for their behavior, race, religion, or ideals to be accepted and not that of others. All people have biases and prejudices ingrained in us by the society in which we live, those who deny it are lying to themselves. Tolerance is just that, tolerating another person! Jesus never taught us to tolerate one another he taught us to love our enemies, yet the vast majority can barely tolerate one another let alone love one another.

The more things CHANGE, the more they stay the same...

Because one believes what the Bible says and chooses to stand up for his beliefs does not make one homophobic nor a bigot. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and thankfully we live in a country where we have the right to express our opinions and beliefs openly. If you want fully equal ground, lets round up all of the Christians and homosexuals and send them off to one of the many Muslin countries where they can both be put to death for practicing their beliefs, that should even things out a bit. Personally, I believe what the Bible says: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

How perfect!

I was so excited. Recognition as an American, inclusion in patriotic events, acknowledgment of ones love for country is not something felt often by bisexual, Unitarian/Pagan, liberal, housewives get to feel. His prayer really meant a lot to me, and I hate how hopeless I feel now. Today was suppose to be a victory for those of us who get forgotten. You people may not agree with me on religion, politics or sexuality, but I am a part of this country too. It's not ok to shove us off like this. GLBT people, non-christians, we are quickly approaching the time to take to the streets and protest like the suffragettes. Nothing violent, but do not remain discriminated against and silent. I'll meet you there.

Really bad excuse. Rather insulting. Totally transparent. Obama knows that image means everything. First, setting up Robinson was rather disingenuous after the insult of Rick Warren. To say, as the Obama team did, that they did not realize so many would take offense says one of two things: either they are totally out of touch with the Gay community or are utterly insensitive to the obvious insult. I doubt either is true. Barack Obama is NO dunderhead. He knows EXACTLY what he is doing and all things are vetted out before hand. This one needed little vetting for it's a no-brainer. Who could not know Warren would offend - that was deliberate unkindness. Not broadcasting Robinson was insult on injurey.
The message: 'Don't get too uputy and watch out for the backlash.'

"Oh God of our many understandings"
"We pray that you will bless us with TEARS..., ANGER..., DISCOMFORT..."

He, that is God, may just give us what we prayed for.

Strike 2 by the Obama team as it relates to our community. I am still optimistic but don't think that because he simply says gay during his speeches it makes him our hero yet. Especially with blunders like this and no national apology and a replay of the portion that was missed. While they may show it on HBO website or other sites, what about the closed minded individuals who don't use the internet? Very interesting that this one aspect of the event was the only "oops" that was made, but the bigot Warren was able to do his endless pious prayer the following day. Thanks Obama!