Rick Warren's Invocation: Final Take

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

I've got a story up on usnews.com about Rick Warren's invocation yesterday. Here's the gist: 

In the face of widespread speculation about whether he would invoke Jesus's name or take a more ecumenical approach, Warren's roughly five-minute prayer included allusions to Judaism and Islam but ended in a recitation of the Lord's Prayer, the most widely shared prayer among Christianity's divergent traditions and denominations.

"Help us, oh God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race or religion or blood but by our commitment to freedom and justice for all," Warren said in an appearance that seemed designed to reinforce his image as a unifying, post-Christian-right figure rather than as a divisive culture warrior. Warren opposes gay marriage and abortion rights but is also active with causes more popular with the left, like combating global warming and fighting poverty.

"Most of what he said would be unobjectionable to most Americans," says John Green, senior fellow in religion and American politics at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. "He didn't mention any social issues, even indirectly. It was pretty standard invocation stuff."

In an interview after the invocation, Warren spokesman Larry Ross said that he didn't know whether the pastor was responding directly to the controversy over his selection but that "he wanted to encourage both unity and inclusiveness."

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