The Rev. Rick Warren, the megachurch pastor and author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” closed his invocation at the inauguration today by praying in the name of “Yeshua, Issa, Jesús, Jesus.”
He invoked the name of Jesus not once, but four times — first in Hebrew, then in Arabic, then in Spanish and finally in English.
In doing so, he put Jesus front and center in a way that demonstrated that he was not about to compromise his evangelical Christian traditions to please the religiously diverse audience who might hope to hear a more inclusive prayer at a presidential inauguration. But by translating it into Hebrew, Arabic and Spanish, Mr. Warren acknowledged that he was speaking to a nation of many faiths and cultures.
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The most startling acknowledgement of the nation’s religious diversity, however, came from President Obama himself in his inaugural speech.
He said, “We know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers.”
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