Within a day, controversial pastor Mark Driscoll got 10,000 “likes” for his tweet (repeated on Facebook) during President Obama’s inaugural ceremony: “Praying for our President, who today will place his hand on a Bible he does not believe to take an oath to a God he likely does not know.”

An alternative view came through in a The Huffington Post report that “Obama and the other speakers …refuted the bitter polarisation that has gripped national politics by deploying the language and cadence of Scripture, of Christian anthems and national hymns:

“If you had any doubt that we are in the middle of a Fourth Great Awakening, you just missed one of the greatest inauguration speeches in American history,” Diana Butler Bass, a historian of American religion, wrote on Facebook as she watched the speech.

“The religious language and symbols of the day could also be read as a direct rejoinder to the President’s die-hard opponents, many of whom insist that he is not a Christian and that he does not believe in America’s divine mantle.”

Since the withdrawal of Pastor Louie Giglio from giving the benediction at the ceremony after his conservative sermon on homosexuality was criticised, the use of religious language in the ceremony has received a lot of attention.

Anybody offering prayer to such a diverse civic gathering will find their theology tested says, US pastor blogger Scot McKnight “Any evangelical on the platform of any Inauguration, Democrat or Republican, is being used. No one’s prayer will be acceptable to specific faiths… and if you tailor your prayer to all you shift your theology.”

Here is how participants who made it through the media storm that claimed Giglio ended their prayers:

In the name of Jesus and others- civil rights leader Myrlie Evers-Williams’ invocation: “In Jesus’ name and the name of all who are holy and right we pray. Amen.”

Just the name of God- Benediction by Episcopal Minister Luis Leon, who replaced Giglio: “Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, may God bless you all your days. All this we pray, in your most holy name, amen.

In the name of Jesus and whoever you believe in taking into account Hindu and Buddhist members of the Congress­- Rev. Luis Cortes at the post-inaugural luncheon in the Capitol: “We have all joined in this prayer in our particular god’s name, and I in the name of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. Amen and Amen.”

Just the name of God (2): Rev. Kevin O’Brien at Vice President Joe Biden’s official swearing-in: “You generous God have given us so much and we humbly offer these gifts for the good of others and for your greater glory. Amen.”

So how would you lead a diverse crowd in prayer? Or would you turn down the job?

Sources of quotes: CNN, Huffington Post, Mark Silk/Religious News Service

Image: flickr/dipfan