No Praying at Obama's Inauguration

Atheists don't want any praying at the swearing-in of Barack Obama as president of the United States.

From the Washington Post:

A group of atheists, led by a California man known for challenging the use of the words "under God" in recitals of the Pledge of Allegiance at public schools, filed a lawsuit yesterday to bar prayer and references to God at the swearing-in of President-elect Barack Obama.

Michael A. Newdow, 17 other individuals and 10 groups representing atheists sued Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., several officials in charge of inaugural festivities, the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery and megachurch pastor Rick Warren. They filed the complaint in U.S. District Court.

Newdow failed in similar lawsuits to remove prayer from President Bush's swearing-in ceremonies in 2001 and 2005.

Roberts will administer the oath of office to Obama at the Jan. 20 ceremony. Warren and Lowery are scheduled to deliver the invocation and benediction, respectively.

Newdow and others also argue that the phrase "so help me God," used consistently in inaugural oaths since the swearing-in of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, should be stricken, saying it is not part of the oath as specified in the Constitution.

Bob Ritter, staff attorney for the American Humanist Association and counsel for the suit, said in an interview that the group could win "as long as the judges uphold the Constitution."

"We think the law is on our side," he said.

Ritter said the lawsuit targets the oath, the invocation and the benediction.

According to the lawsuit, the opening and ending prayers "are completely exclusionary, showing absolute disrespect to Plaintiffs and others of similar religious views, who explicitly reject the purely religious claims that will be endorsed, i.e., (a) there exists a God, and (b) the United States government should pay homage to that God."

...Scott Walter, executive director of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, called the lawsuit a "publicity stunt" in a statement yesterday. The Becket Fund promotes free expression of religion and has opposed Newdow's Pledge of Allegiance efforts.

"Newdow's lawsuit over the inauguration is a lot like the streaker at the Super Bowl: a pale, self-absorbed distraction. And anybody who looks at it carefully can see there's not much there," Walter said.

Here's more, from WorldNetDaily:

Atheists are planning to crash the inauguration invocation, claiming the government is choosing between "believers" and "those who don't believe" and imposing religion on atheists and agnostics.

Michael Newdow, a California attorney who pushed a case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in an unsuccessful effort to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, is joining Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, in a lawsuit to stop the Presidential Inaugural Committee's sponsorship of prayer on Jan. 20.

Their 34-page grievance, filed Monday in Washington, D.C., District Court, names Supreme Court Justice John G. Roberts Jr., officials in charge of inaugural activities, Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, pastor Rick Warren and others as defendants. It also aims to prohibit Roberts from using the phrase "So help me God" in the traditional oath of office, Fox News reports.

"We're hoping to stop prayer and religious rituals at governmental functions, especially at the inauguration," Barker said. "The inauguration is not a religious event. It is a secular event of a secular country that includes all Americans, including those of us who are not Christians, including those of us who are not believers."

It's ridiculous to suggest that religion is being imposed on anyone because there is prayer or references to God at the inauguration.

Barker is right. The inauguration is not a religious event. So? That doesn't mean there should be censorship and all references to God disallowed.

A prayer doesn't constitute the establishment of a state religion. We are granted the freedom to practice our religious beliefs and express ourselves.

No one is forcing Obama to say "So help me God" at his swearing-in. No one is forcing Obama to include prayers at any point in the inauguration.

It's his choice. It's a free country. This little dance by the atheists is silly. If Obama didn't believe in God, I doubt that he would speak of God at his inauguration. But he does believe.

Atheists will likely have their God-less, prayer-free inauguration once an atheist is elected president. Until then, they need to respect the rights of others and show some tolerance.

Personally, I will be doing a lot of praying when Obama is inaugurated.

God help us.