Obama Continues to Open Events With Public Prayers

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

President Obama's appearances today and tomorrow in California mark his first town-hall-style meetings since I wrote about him opening such events with White House-commissioned and vetted prayers. Given some of the criticism that news of the prayers provoked—mostly over the vetting process—on the left and the right, I was curious about whether the White House would keep the nascent tradition going.

According to the White House schedule for Obama's California trip, the prayers will go on, opening his appearances today in Costa Mesa and tomorrow in Los Angeles.

There's one big change on the White House schedule, however. Previous schedules gave the names, professional titles, and biographical background for the invocation givers, making it easy for me to track them down to record and post their prayers. On the schedule for California, no name or other details are provided for today's invocation giver; the name for tomorrow's invocation giver is supplied, but there's no other information about him.

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