{"id":583,"date":"2008-12-21T19:03:59","date_gmt":"2008-12-21T19:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/12\/how-christian-will-rick-warren.html"},"modified":"2008-12-21T19:03:59","modified_gmt":"2008-12-21T19:03:59","slug":"how-christian-will-rick-warren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/12\/how-christian-will-rick-warren.html","title":{"rendered":"How Christian Will Rick Warren’s Prayer Be?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that Rick Warren has been selected to deliver the invocation (and a firestorm has ensued), there’s another important question: what kind<\/em> of prayer will he deliver?
\nBilly Graham, who has done quite a few of these, would usually close “in the name” of the Prince of Peace or some other allusion to Jesus.
\nIn 2001, his son, Franklin Graham, took a different approach, asking the listeners to “acknowledge You alone as our Lord, our Savior and Redeemer. We pray this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
\nMany people (myself included) believed that an official prayer, calling on the American people to acknowledge Jesus alone as “our Lord” violated the First Amendment and the spirit of religious pluralism.
\nGiven the controversy over Warren’s remarks on gay marriage, an exclusivist prayer at this inaugural would be particularly inappropriate.
\nTwo other models were presented at the Democratic National Convention. Evangelical preacher Donald Miller said, “In Jesus name I<\/em> pray”<\/a>, with an emphasis on the “I.” That way he was able to be true to his faith while recognizing that others in the audience would not be praying in Jesus’s name.
\nJoel Hunter, another evangelical pastor, tried a novel technique of asking the crowd to fill in the blank<\/a> at the appropriate moment with the nameof whatever diety they pray to. I thought it was a pretty innovative approach but probably a bit chatty for an inaugural prayer.
\nWarren needs to stay true to his faith. But he also needs to offer inspiration and spiritual wisdom to all Americans, not just Christians.
\nAdapted from the Wall Street Journal.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that Rick Warren has been selected to deliver the invocation (and a firestorm has ensued), there’s another important question: what kind of prayer will he deliver? Billy Graham, who has done quite a few of these, would usually close “in the name” of the Prince of Peace or some other allusion to Jesus. In…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Christian Will Rick Warren's Prayer Be? - Steven Waldman<\/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\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/12\/how-christian-will-rick-warren.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Christian Will Rick Warren's Prayer Be? - Steven Waldman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Now that Rick Warren has been selected to deliver the invocation (and a firestorm has ensued), there’s another important question: what kind of prayer will he deliver? 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