Word: warren
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Inauguration audiences on Tuesday will hear the new President deliver the most anticipated Inaugural Address since John F. Kennedy. They'll hear the Queen of Soul sing and Yo-Yo Ma play. They'll listen to hear if Rick Warren gets preachy when he prays. But there's one thing they won't hear: Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha'olam...
...presidential Inauguration, rabbis won't have a place on the dais. And the Jewish faith isn't the only religious tradition that continues to be snubbed. Since 1985, only Evangelical Protestants have played a part in the swearing-in ceremony. That will continue again this year when megachurch pastor Warren delivers the invocation and the Rev. Joseph Lowery, an African-American Evangelical, offers the benediction. At a time when the United States is more religiously diverse than at any other point in its history, and Obama's entire campaign was built on the notion of a newfound inclusiveness and multiculturalism...
...fact remains, though, that the major speaking slots for religious figures will be filled this year by Protestant Christians. It's possible that Obama aides got so tied up in a search for ideological diversity - Warren is a theologically conservative Evangelical, Lowery a feisty political liberal, Robinson the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church and Watkins the first woman given such a prominent religious spot in an Inauguration ceremony - that they gave up on a goal of ecumenism. It's also likely that at a time when politicians use the phrase "church, synagogue or mosque" and both Hanukkah...
...Many believe the Obama campaign was naive about Warren's political agenda heading into the Saddleback forum. "They hadn't done their research on Warren," says one progressive religious figure. "Obama wasn't prepared for the Saddleback thing at all, and Warren bushwhacked him." Likewise, Obama's senior staff was not aware of Warren's most recent controversial comments - including his comparison of homosexuality to incest and his belief that the President of Iran should be assassinated - when they signed off on his selection for the Inauguration...
...When Obama asked Warren to take part in the Inauguration, he thought he would get Pastor Rick. And on Tuesday Warren will undoubtedly deliver a blandly optimistic - if explicitly Christian - prayer of the sort that has made him popular with the tens of millions of Americans who have purchased his books. But the uproar that has accompanied his selection suggests that Obama would do well to get to know the other Rick Warren, particularly if his Administration intends to continue an ongoing relationship with the pastor...