And this is Rick Warren??

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

And so, today, this is Rick Warren who will lead the prayer for Obama??

Does Obama know this is Rick Warren?

Does Rick Warren know this is Obama?

Has one of them changed?

Is this just a political sign toward evangelicals? If so, isn't that risky to comfort evangelicals in their views during a so important ceremony, which engages the whole nation?

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

And so, today, this is Rick Warren who will lead the prayer for Obama??

Does Obama know this is Rick Warren?

Does Rick Warren know this is Obama?

Has one of them changed?

Is this just a political sign toward evangelicals? If so, isn't that risky to comfort evangelicals in their views during a so important ceremony, which engages the whole nation?

Obama is President of Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants, Catholics, Unitarians, Mormons, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and the non-religious.  Obama's picking Rick Warren was a conscious decision to include Evangelicals in the larger, ongoing national conversation, and be inclusive.  Hopefully we'll have a government that respects the religious and philosophical views of all people.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

And so, today, this is Rick Warren who will lead the prayer for Obama??

Does Obama know this is Rick Warren?

Does Rick Warren know this is Obama?

Has one of them changed?

Is this just a political sign toward evangelicals? If so, isn't that risky to comfort evangelicals in their views during a so important ceremony, which engages the whole nation?

Obama is President of Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants, Catholics, Unitarians, Mormons, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and the non-religious.  Obama's picking Rick Warren was a conscious decision to include Evangelicals in the larger, ongoing national conversation, and be inclusive.  Hopefully we'll have a government that respects the religious and philosophical views of all people.

Sure, but maybe he wasn't forced to take such a leader, with such strong views on such or such things, especially for such a ceremony, which is the one of the nation, and not the one of a part of a nation which has very engaged choices.

Outside of Rick Warren, I watched the Inauguration at TV, and, maybe it's my French part (we've a very secular culture), but I've been marked by the fact that, in the ceremony, the power of the US is shown as so close of the Christian religion.

I tend to think that the fact that this has been, maybe for the 1st time, watched worldwide, would, first, go in the sens that a lot of people in the world would identify more and more US as a "Christian nation", and second, for all those who watched it because they like Obama, it could have been a good tribune for Christianism.

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

Outside of Rick Warren, I watched the Inauguration at TV, and, maybe it's my French part (we've a very secular culture), but I've been marked by the fact that, in the ceremony, the power of the US is shown as so close of the Christian religion.

The US has always been an odd hybrid of a Christian and secular nation.  The culture is overwhelmingly Christian, but the state, for very specific reasons, is defined as purely secular.  The founding fathers were both Christians and secular Deists, united in their belief in limiting the power of the state over our affairs and especially over our faiths. 

WWII unified us as a culture, and the Communist scare in the immediate aftermath of the war galvanized us against what we saw as a secular threat to the body politic.  THAT was when you had "under God" added to the Pledge of Allegiance, and when devotion specifically to Christianity became the yardstick of "Americanism."

In the 1970s-1980s, "Communism," was replaced with the new bogeyman of "Secular Humanism," but it was the Cold War and the threat of annihilation in the 1950s that really tied together Christianity with Americanism.  Now that the existential threats have faded, and our chief national enemy is driven by religious extremism (albeit of the Muslim variety) it may be that secularism slowly comes back into favor and we will return to something more resembling the secular republic envisioned by Jefferson and Madison.

[aaaa2222]

I was kind of annoyed with the two prayers being led during the ceremonies. Being an Atheist, I don't really think the government should force that upon us in a federal ceremony. Swearing in on the Bible is OK, though, as people may choose their book of choice. (Or none at all, presumably)

[Eraserhead]

I liked the elderly black guy at the end. All of that talk about blacks, browns, yellows, reds and whites was amusing, even Obama started laughing.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

I thought Warren was great, especially when he slipped the Shema into the prayer.  The rhyme during the benediction was pretty cool, too.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Outside of Rick Warren, I watched the Inauguration at TV, and, maybe it's my French part (we've a very secular culture), but I've been marked by the fact that, in the ceremony, the power of the US is shown as so close of the Christian religion.

The US has always been an odd hybrid of a Christian and secular nation.  The culture is overwhelmingly Christian, but the state, for very specific reasons, is defined as purely secular.  The founding fathers were both Christians and secular Deists, united in their belief in limiting the power of the state over our affairs and especially over our faiths. 

WWII unified us as a culture, and the Communist scare in the immediate aftermath of the war galvanized us against what we saw as a secular threat to the body politic.  THAT was when you had "under God" added to the Pledge of Allegiance, and when devotion specifically to Christianity became the yardstick of "Americanism."

In the 1970s-1980s, "Communism," was replaced with the new bogeyman of "Secular Humanism," but it was the Cold War and the threat of annihilation in the 1950s that really tied together Christianity with Americanism.  Now that the existential threats have faded, and our chief national enemy is driven by religious extremism (albeit of the Muslim variety) it may be that secularism slowly comes back into favor and we will return to something more resembling the secular republic envisioned by Jefferson and Madison.

Yes, yes, I was a bit aware of this US very old relationship with Christianity, thanks for precisions you gave concerning the evolution of this.

What I especially wanted to highlight here, it is the fact that it had been shown worldwide, and that when people worldwide watch it, they don't try to understand how it could have worked or how it really works concerning this in the US, most of people watch this and think: "Wow, the power is really tied to Christianity there".

And, given this, I think you're really optimistic when you think that secularity is back at an epoch where religions more and more try to challenge each others, at an epoch where more and more people, who have less and less hope in politics, refugee themselves in religion, at an epoch where the speed of the media and the strength of the TV images make that things are more and more caricatured.

At this epoch, I think that this worldwide ceremony can really make think in minds of lot of people that US is a "Christian nation", with all the caricatures and innuendos you can imagine. And for some it can comfort them to be with the religion of the stronger, and for others it can comfort them in their will of challenge of the US, because they think they have the true religion which is not Christianity.

I don't say that this ceremony does all of this, I just say that, given the importance of this (I wonder if people who live in US are aware of the importance of this abroad), it could be an element which goes in that trend of "world challenges between religions"...

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

I was kind of annoyed with the two prayers being led during the ceremonies. Being an Atheist, I don't really think the government should force that upon us in a federal ceremony. Swearing in on the Bible is OK, though, as people may choose their book of choice. (Or none at all, presumably)

You can even choose to affirm rather than swear.

[justfollowingtheelections]

I was kind of annoyed with the two prayers being led during the ceremonies. Being an Atheist, I don't really think the government should force that upon us in a federal ceremony. Swearing in on the Bible is OK, though, as people may choose their book of choice. (Or none at all, presumably)

Same here, which is why I chose not to watch the inauguration (I'm agnostic btw).

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

I was kind of annoyed with the two prayers being led during the ceremonies. Being an Atheist, I don't really think the government should force that upon us in a federal ceremony. Swearing in on the Bible is OK, though, as people may choose their book of choice. (Or none at all, presumably)

Same here, which is why I chose not to watch the inauguration (I'm agnostic btw).

I'm an agnostic Christian, in that I don't regard the existence of a transcendent God to be an empirically knowable proposition, but I believe in Jesus with my heart, which does not rely on the empirical.

[Keystone Phil]

I'm an agnostic Christian

Oh. I'm a Jewish Catholic. Nice to meet you.

[paul718]

WWII unified us as a culture, and the Communist scare in the immediate aftermath of the war galvanized us against what we saw as a secular threat to the body politic.  THAT was when you had "under God" added to the Pledge of Allegiance, and when devotion specifically to Christianity became the yardstick of "Americanism."

Also, add in Eisenhower establishing "In God We Trust" as the national motto. 

I liked the elderly black guy at the end. All of that talk about blacks, browns, yellows, reds and whites was amusing, even Obama started laughing.

Ignorant, silly, and unnecessary. 

I'm an agnostic Christian

Oh. I'm a Jewish Catholic. Nice to meet you.

hahahaha

[Jake]

Warren is filth, but his prayer was very good.

[justfollowingtheelections]

I'm an agnostic Christian

Oh. I'm a Jewish Catholic. Nice to meet you.

lol

[The Mikado]

I thought it was all right.  I even said the Lord's Prayer with everyone.  Let the guy have his moment.  I liked the "Yeshua, Isa, Jesus, Jesus" thing.  I also liked it that he was visibly terrified.  (I'm not sure how well that came across on TV)  Humanized the man...speaking to two million people in person and X number of people on TV is a terrifying experience.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

I thought it was all right.  I even said the Lord's Prayer with everyone.  Let the guy have his moment.  I liked the "Yeshua, Isa, Jesus, Jesus" thing.  I also liked it that he was visibly terrified.  (I'm not sure how well that came across on TV)  Humanized the man...speaking to two million people in person and X number of people on TV is a terrifying experience.

Oh no! Too bad! Maybe he'll get teaches of that experience...