An Atheist's Perspective on the Inauguration: Enough With all the God Stuff

By Greta Christina, Greta Christina's Blog. Posted January 23, 2009.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee;

Lest, our heart drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee

Shadowed beneath Thy hand,

May we forever stand

True to thee, O God, and true to our native land."

and:

"We pray now, oh Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant Barack Obama, the 44th president of these United States..."

and:

"We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th President..."

and:

"Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques, or wherever we seek your will."

So again, we have the message: It's God who directs us towards goodness. It's really bad to "forget" that. We -- as a country -- should stand true to God.

(Yes, I know that those words are from "Lift Every Voice and Sing," the song considered to be the Negro National Anthem, with an important and powerful history in the African American community and the civil rights movement. I get the value and meaning of using this song in the inaugural ceremony. But there are plenty of other lyrics from this song that don't frame the United States as a Christian nation, and that don't chastise non-believers for their non-belief.)

Plus we have the unsettling notion that Obama is God's servant. Sorry, but no. Obama is our servant. Yours, mine, ours. He is the public servant of the people of the United States of America. It is to us, and to the Constitution, that he owes his allegiance. Not to God.

And plus we have the very unsettling message that "we" includes people who go to churches, temples, and mosques, people who seek God's will in an assortment of places... but "we" does not include people who don't seek God's will at all. "We the people" does not include people who don't believe in God.

And then. Most importantly. From Obama's own Inaugural address:

"...the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness."

and:

"This is the source of our confidence -- the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny."

and:

"...and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations."

No.

No, no, no.

The promise of equality and freedom and opportunity was not given to me by God. My confidence is not given to me by God. God's grace is not upon me.

No.

Finally, of course, the enormous elephant in the room:

We have the very fact that this inauguration was opened and closed with a prayer. The fact that Sunday's inaugural concert was opened with a prayer. The fact that the oath of office was sworn on a Bible, and concluded -- unrequired by the Constitution -- with the words, "So help me God." The fact of the insistent repetition of the phrases "God bless you" and "God bless the United States." The fact that God was all over this inauguration like a cheap suit; the examples I've cited here, while the most egregious, were really just a drop in the bucket.

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Read more of Greta Christina at her blog.

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