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www.nytimes.com/2005/01/20/national/nationalspecial2/20religion.html?oref=login&oref=login
Christian Conservatives Embrace Inauguration
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: January 20, 2005
WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 - President Bush, who starts each day with prayer and Bible reading, will invoke divine blessings on the nation in his second inaugural address like every president before him. What makes his swearing-in different, however, is the enthusiasm of his Christian conservative supporters for his inaugural expressions of faith.
In keeping with tradition, President Bush plans to begin the day of his second inauguration at a private service at the St. John's Episcopal Church across the street from the White House.
But he is putting his own stamp on the event by selecting that church's pastor, the Rev. Luis Leon, to deliver the invocation at the inaugural ceremony. And he has the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, an African-American pastor of a United Methodist church in Houston who is known for Pentecostal customs like speaking in tongues, delivering the benediction.
He will be serenaded during the event by a rendition of "Let the Eagle Soar," a composition by the amateur songwriter and Attorney General John Ashcroft, that praises, "only God, no other kings." He will also hear performances by the opera singer Denyce Graves, who became famous for her renditions of "The Lord's Prayer" and "America the Beautiful," and by Wintley Phipps, a well-known gospel singer. On Friday, Mr. Bush is expected to attend a service at the National Cathedral.
All of that is by the book, said Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the Presidential Inaugural Committee. "Every American president during the inaugural has invoked God and asked for God's blessing on America," he said. What may be less familiar, though, are his triumphant Christian conservative supporters. Thousands have converged on Washington to celebrate his election, which they see in part as a victory for the public expression of faith. More than a thousand are expected to pay $50 a seat to attend an unofficial inauguration prayer service at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in the morning, the largest of several unofficial thanksgiving prayer meetings held around town.
The Rev. Rob Schenck, founder of the Washington-based Christian group Faith in Action, said his group has organized a morning prayer session for more than 150 out-of-town supporters to give thanks in large part for President Bush's "public acknowledgment of God."
"Isn't this great, guys? We won," Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, a social conservative champion, asked hundreds of guests at a black-tie "Values Victory Dinner" Tuesday night. The dinner was sponsored by the evangelical organizations Focus on the Family, Family Research Council and American Values. (An evangelical Christian impersonator of President Bush told jokes at the president's expense.)
"Maybe there is more celebratory privately sponsored activity this week in Washington than in previous years," said Gary Bauer, a former conservative Christian presidential candidate and a founder of American Values. "But I think that is in part due to an ongoing sense in the conservative Christian world that they are under attack," he said. "What is getting more pronounced every four years is the prevailing secularism among cultural and other elites."
The Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Washington-based Christian Defense Coalition, said his group planned to celebrate in part by demonstrating alongside the inaugural parade, where the group will attempt to draw chalk bodies on Pennsylvania Avenue to remind the president of aborted fetuses. The inauguration has also become a flashpoint for opponents of official expressions of religion. On the eve of the inauguration Michael A. Newdow, the atheist who previously filed suit in the Supreme Court over the phrase "under God" in the pledge of allegiance, sued unsuccessfully to block the recitation of prayer in the inaugural.
Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, called the inauguration "absolutely religiously saturated."
Christian Conservatives Embrace Inauguration
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: January 20, 2005
WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 - President Bush, who starts each day with prayer and Bible reading, will invoke divine blessings on the nation in his second inaugural address like every president before him. What makes his swearing-in different, however, is the enthusiasm of his Christian conservative supporters for his inaugural expressions of faith.
In keeping with tradition, President Bush plans to begin the day of his second inauguration at a private service at the St. John's Episcopal Church across the street from the White House.
But he is putting his own stamp on the event by selecting that church's pastor, the Rev. Luis Leon, to deliver the invocation at the inaugural ceremony. And he has the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, an African-American pastor of a United Methodist church in Houston who is known for Pentecostal customs like speaking in tongues, delivering the benediction.
He will be serenaded during the event by a rendition of "Let the Eagle Soar," a composition by the amateur songwriter and Attorney General John Ashcroft, that praises, "only God, no other kings." He will also hear performances by the opera singer Denyce Graves, who became famous for her renditions of "The Lord's Prayer" and "America the Beautiful," and by Wintley Phipps, a well-known gospel singer. On Friday, Mr. Bush is expected to attend a service at the National Cathedral.
All of that is by the book, said Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the Presidential Inaugural Committee. "Every American president during the inaugural has invoked God and asked for God's blessing on America," he said. What may be less familiar, though, are his triumphant Christian conservative supporters. Thousands have converged on Washington to celebrate his election, which they see in part as a victory for the public expression of faith. More than a thousand are expected to pay $50 a seat to attend an unofficial inauguration prayer service at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in the morning, the largest of several unofficial thanksgiving prayer meetings held around town.
The Rev. Rob Schenck, founder of the Washington-based Christian group Faith in Action, said his group has organized a morning prayer session for more than 150 out-of-town supporters to give thanks in large part for President Bush's "public acknowledgment of God."
"Isn't this great, guys? We won," Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, a social conservative champion, asked hundreds of guests at a black-tie "Values Victory Dinner" Tuesday night. The dinner was sponsored by the evangelical organizations Focus on the Family, Family Research Council and American Values. (An evangelical Christian impersonator of President Bush told jokes at the president's expense.)
"Maybe there is more celebratory privately sponsored activity this week in Washington than in previous years," said Gary Bauer, a former conservative Christian presidential candidate and a founder of American Values. "But I think that is in part due to an ongoing sense in the conservative Christian world that they are under attack," he said. "What is getting more pronounced every four years is the prevailing secularism among cultural and other elites."
The Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Washington-based Christian Defense Coalition, said his group planned to celebrate in part by demonstrating alongside the inaugural parade, where the group will attempt to draw chalk bodies on Pennsylvania Avenue to remind the president of aborted fetuses. The inauguration has also become a flashpoint for opponents of official expressions of religion. On the eve of the inauguration Michael A. Newdow, the atheist who previously filed suit in the Supreme Court over the phrase "under God" in the pledge of allegiance, sued unsuccessfully to block the recitation of prayer in the inaugural.
Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, called the inauguration "absolutely religiously saturated."