Inaugural Prayers Through History -- The Ultimate Archive

I confess to opposing the use of prayer at presidential inaugurations in the first place. It was Jesus of Nazareth who suggested people go into their "closets" and pray in private. Public prayer, of course, is appropriate in church, synagogue, mosque and in other houses of worship. However, I recognize it has become part of our "civil religion" and no words of mine will change that. All I would ask is that those who pray recognize the religious diversity of this "congregation" and not use religious formulations that may offend others. There are more varieties of religion than Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, etc. etc., including those of no faith. Why do clergy think they have the right to invoke sectarian prayers in public occasions of state? I find that insensitive.

I wrote the last post but failed to leave my name.

Inaugural prayers have been (and still are) a colossal waste of time and effort that clergy could have spent more productively. All the prayer in the world would not have made Richard Nixon into an honest man, dissuaded Bill Clinton from lechery, or endowed George W. Bush with even minimal aptitude for the presidency. If, indeed, there IS a God who listens to these windbags I'm surprised that He hasn't loosed a few well-aimed thunderbolts at their lecterns.

Your Name wrote:

"Just because a Christian denomination is not Roman Catholic, doesn't automatically make it Protestant."

That is correct...there are several varieties of Orthodox churches. But you continue with your own repeated mistakes. Everything else you stated is absolutely false. The United Church of Christ, Southern Baptists (of which Saddleback is a member congregation), and all Evangelicals are all Protestants. So are Methodists and Episcopalians - they are pretty closely related, in case you didn't know. You have been misinformed. Or uninformed.

Um, actually, by their definition evangelicals are Protestant... Yes... anything that isn't Catholic IS protestant. Catholic means universal. When Luther led the reformation it was against that "universal" church. If you are not part of that church, then you are part of the protest, and are thus Protestant. Read your church history.

Hi!
What an incredible work of research you've done here. I did the same project in December... and quickly realized what I"m sure you've found... it hadn't really been done and published in any findable way. This is Awesome. I sure wish your site had been up in December... it would have saved me tons of time. :-) Once clarification. The 1985 inauguration actually took place in two pieces. The first inauguration was a small practically private swearing in indoors because of frigid weather. The second piece of the inauguration was a make-up event where President Reagan repeated his oath of office for the public. That is the event where all the prayers were offered. The first event is quoted in the newspaper as being barely 2 minutes in length and it is called "his inauguration". I guess it's the difference between getting married at the justice of the peace and then doing a make-up ceremony for people to feel like they're a part of it. Thanks again for compiling this incredible body of research.

Blessings to you!!