{"id":370,"date":"2009-01-16T02:24:43","date_gmt":"2009-01-16T02:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2009\/01\/so-help-obama-god.html"},"modified":"2009-01-16T02:24:43","modified_gmt":"2009-01-16T02:24:43","slug":"so-help-obama-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/01\/so-help-obama-god.html","title":{"rendered":"So Help Obama God"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another prayer controversy – and it doesn’t involve either Warren or Robinson.  <\/p>\n

Should Obama say the words “So help me God” as he is sworn in on Tuesday? Obama wants to, a group of atheists doesn’t.<\/a>  The atheist group is suing to stop it, but they also sued George W. Bush, so it is equal partisian effort. The fact is that the oath that is required by the constitution does not include the words in it.<\/a>  Does that mean Barack Obama can’t say them?  I don’t think so.  While I appreciate that many people worrry about mixing poltics and religion – this doesn’t force anyone to believe anything – just a leader, asking for God’s help. <\/p>\n

LIsa Miller from Newsweek makes this point in her article<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

What we think of, then, as the conventional religiosity of Inaugurations is conventional only by recent standards–and conventions, as Obama well knows, can change. According to an affidavit by Jeffrey Minear, chief of staff to Chief Justice John Roberts, who is the defendant in the lawsuit, Obama wants to say “so help me God”–and by all means, he should do so. The public prayers by two Christian ministers are more problematic. Today, the greatest threats to our safety come not from godless communists but from religious fundamentalists abroad. Our new president might use his Inauguration then to showcase the values that have made this country great: pluralism, moderation–and the separation of church and state. Though not as politically expedient, the better choice might be to pray in private.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I think you can show pluralism best by having prayers from many different tradtions in concert with one another, and this combats fundamentalism much more effectively than people praying in private.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another prayer controversy – and it doesn’t involve either Warren or Robinson.  Should Obama say the words “So help me God” as he is sworn in on Tuesday? Obama wants to, a group of atheists doesn’t.  The atheist group is suing to stop it, but they also sued George W. Bush, so it is equal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christians","category-election-08","category-religion-in-the-public-square"],"yoast_head":"\nSo Help Obama God - Progressive Revival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/01\/so-help-obama-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"So Help Obama God - Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Another prayer controversy – and it doesn’t involve either Warren or Robinson.  Should Obama say the words “So help me God” as he is sworn in on Tuesday? 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Paul B. Raushenbush is the moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University. .An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and institutes around the country including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, and the New America Foundation. Rev. Raushenbush has served at Seattle First Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Columbia University and as College and Young Adult Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN. He has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for Beliefnet.com. His first book, Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths (HCI) was released in the Fall of 2004. He is the editor of the 100th Anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book Christianity and the Social Crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c In the 21st Century (HarperOne). His work at Princeton includes strengthening the interfaith community on campus. He is the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. Rev. Raushenbush studied religion at Macalester College before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated with distinction.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/praushenbush"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}