"Say Amen!"

Rick Warren was a lousy speaker, just skilled base, forgetting the content.

That gives him a sensitivity to secularists that is rare in politics.
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You know, that is effin' nonsense You have no way of knowing this, no way of knowing which politicians pay lip service to this while retaining a personal atheist or agnostic status. And, in fact, in my experience, people who have the educational attainment of most politicians are much more likely to be "secular."
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And moreeffin'over, the US IS a secular country. There is no established religion. Established religion is expressly banned.

Yeah, trifecta. He was awful, wasn't he?

I was listening to him wondering how he built up such a large congregation with such craptastic delivery skills. Perhaps he had an off day. It was also creepy the way he said Sasha and Malia's names.

Being a non-believer myself, I certainly did notice his acknowledgement of a group that usually gets little but scorn. Bush Sr said years ago that he didn't consider atheists to be either real citizens or patriotic. Atheists are usually considered the lowest of the low. I saw a poll not to long ago where more Americans would vote for a Muslim or a gay than an atheist. There's nothing wrong with belonging to any of those three, but it would have been nice to have finished ahead of SOME group. Of course, they could have mentioned pedophiles and crack dealers in their survey. Then again, I'd really hate to rate lower than them too. Oh well, at least my curse that he beget an idiot son seems to have worked.

Loved the "no faith" shout-out. Now, I'd like to hear more people call what happened with Flight 1594 not a "miracle" but a triumph of engineering, training, intelligence, and willpower.

Not to pick on a quibble, but "secularism" is not the same as non-belief. Secularism means respecting the proper division between religion and politics. In this country, all religious folks should be secularists.
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That said, I was startled this morning to hear myself included as a citizen in good standing, part of "Real America" as it were.

re: AS

But it is interesting that Rick Warren led off with the Jewish Shema prayer.

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Why ? Christianity is, after all, just a radical off-shot of Judiasm. And especially with regards to Evangelicals and the use of Old Testament material.

To me it seemed much of the day's message was this: if you want to define yourself predominantly as a "person of faith," fine, just don't let it get in the way of getting things done.

Obama's shout-out to "non-believers" was, as far as I can tell, the first such acknowledgment in an Inaugural address.
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And, sadly, I doubt they will appreciate it.
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Most secularists, as far as I can tell, tend to be self-righteous blowhards who insist on demanding "proof" and "evidence" for everything, as if there were video cameras during Genesis or the the Passion.
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Sorry, secularists, it's not CSI Jerusalem. Just be happy Obama considers this land to be your land.

As we have observed over the last couple of years BHO has pretty strong strategic ability.
Inviting Warren and Lowery illustrated how pedestrian Warren is AND threw the right a bone.
Two boxes checked.

"grew up in a secular home"
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Amy, do you have a particular problem with acknowledging that his grandparents were members of a Unitarian church, that his mother attend a Unitarian youth group as a teenager and that Obama attended Sunday School at a Unitarian church? I mean, really now! Many UU's are secular humanists (and many are not) but that's no reason to erase or ignore the fact that Unitarian Universalism is an actual denomination. Understanding this background makes his approach to faith much more comprehensible.

Rick who? Amy don't they teach fact checking at Harvard Divinity School? See number 12.

I demand proof of nothing. If a person gets comfort or solace from believing in a higher power, that's fine by me. I don't believe and the only thing I really want is to be considered as much of a citizen and patriot as those who believe in talking snakes. As for "Just be happy Obama considerers this land to be your land", isn't that about as condescending and self-righteous as you accuse secularists of being? Blowhards come in all shapes and sizes.

Precious moment?

I managed to spare 2 minutes to catch the following moment in history:
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I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear ...

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{Why were we so worked up over John Kennedy being a Catholic? Then it came to pass. Lo! The world didn't end! And god didn't strike America dead! Now, I look at the portraits - the parade of our nation's presidents, past and current. There is one named Barack Hussein. What a day.}

@ pourmecoffee: If you want to thank someone, try this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Albert_Link

Warren ended up being a disappointment as far as impact goes, leaving any hint of controversy far from the pomp and circumstance that followed. Does his flat invocation allow the gay activists to let Obama off the hook?

http://www.political-buzz.com/

Sqr1, secularity was the foundation upon which the Mayflower pilgrims built their government. In those days, the concern was to keep the King/government out of their religious beliefs/customs. Over time secularism has evolved to ensure that religious beliefs don't muddle up our laws that are "for (all of) the people."

"Just be happy Obama considers this land to be your land."
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An alternate, less idiotic, way of putting that might be "Just be happy Obama considers the Constitution"

@ Andy - Thanks for the link. I thought this was interesting, too.

I'll echo Pourme et al. In fact it came as quite a pleasant surprise to be acknowledged as a non-believer. The majority view seems to be that we atheists are either fictitious, or closet devil-worshipers. As opposed to, say, people who embrace ethics because it makes our lives and world better, rather than because somebody told us we'll burn if we don't.
And by the way this helps me sympathize with gays, who were not specifically welcomed.
I look forward to the day when administering an oath to defend our Constitution doesn't require 20 minutes of Christian sermonizing. I mean, among other things, wasn't it horrifically boring?!?!!

Every part of the ceremony was beautiful until Rev. Lowry used a prayer to divide the races and then scold the white race. Obama has been all about inclusiveness and togetherness and adding a racist dig was very unfortunate.

I do believe Flight 1594 was guided by the hand of God. Too bad about that mother of three that was run over by the ambulance on its way to the scene. Guess His hand had a cramp at that point...

What steams me is the way that atheists and open-ended believers are lumped together. I look at the infinite reach of the universe and the intelligence that thought it all up and I don't see the writers or watchers of How I Met Your Mother sharing eternal spiritual bliss in His presence after they're worm food. Same for the Bible. It's just not good enough. It's not big enough. Funny how most religions, when faced with a greater reality than theie stories cover, simply ignore the existence of anything outside the realm of blue sky and daisies (like black holes, relativity, and life all over the cosmos).

I find pure atheism just as nutty. "Got earth beneath my feet, what more do I need to understand? It's just there...".

Ha-the poor down trodden "white race", rainbow?
Scolding by asking for the day when "white will embrace what is right"?

I didn't know a woman was run over by the ambulance. That saddens me. I believe in a loving God, but I also believe this world is marred by sin. People have choices, and we sometimes make the wrong choice. Those decisions have consequences. Bad stuff happens. Suffering occurs.