With God on Our Side

Obama’s inauguration was inspiring, yes. The media, as usual, did its absolute best to make it more so, and quite unnecessarily, I’d say. For as most of us know, Mr. Obama is a genuinely inspiring and charismatic man. And the near-landslide election of an African American to the American presidency is incredible enough; we hardly need Tom Brocaw’s unctuous slathering to remind us of its uniqueness. But when the ass-kissing and the fashion shows and the unfounded comparisons with Lincoln were finally over, I came away with a slightly foul taste in my mouth: the taste of religion being stuffed down my throat. Last I heard, this government’s strength lay in keeping church and state at a distance, yet this inauguration was so full of preachers, prayers, and pious pleas to the Christian god that I began to wonder whether those time-honored 1st amendment strictures had been cast into the fiery pit. George Bush’s belief that he enjoyed a direct line to his maker was responsible for some of the most reprehensible policy decisions in recent history. One would hope that Obama, in spite of his sincere belief in a personal higher power, would keep it between him and his god, instead of requiring the rest of us to join in. Yes, he called for unity among the world’s most contentious religions, and, yes, we need all the help we can get, but where’s the unity in a script that features two Protestant clergymen (one a homophobe), a musical petition to the Christian god to protect American liberty, a mass recital of the Lord’s Prayer (the best known prayer in all Christendom), and, so help me God, an oath sworn on the Christian Bible?