Rick Warren's inaugural prayer

The reaction to the megachurch pastor's invocation on Barack Obama's big day

“All that fuss for nothing,” said Mary Katherine Ham in The Weekly Standard. Evangelical pastor Rick Warren's inaugural invocation, which liberals didn't want to hear, praised America, asked God to protect President Barack Obama and his family, hailed the inauguration of the first black president as a "hinge-point of history," and suggested "Dr. King and a great crowd of witnesses are shouting in heaven."

It was big of Warren to leave “the gay-bashing at home,” said Alex Koppelman in Salon. That indeed made it hard for anyone to get mad at his prayer, which was “as stock as it gets.” But “gay-rights groups and liberals can still be mad at his presence (and understandably a little protective of separation of church and state).”

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up
Latest Videos FromThe Week