If you’d prefer to focus on the two steps forward, go here.

—– Obama Raises Profile Of Prayer (Michelle Boorstein/The Washington Post; March 10)

WASHINGTON: Prayer has become more common at presidential appearances under the Obama administration, including at nonreligious events such as stimulus rallies. The White House is acting in a deliberately inclusive, interfaith way that seems to limit opposition.

Church-state experts say the policy, which President Obama also followed while campaigning, does not appear to be illegal because the White House tells people who lead the prayers to be nonsectarian. But some raised concerns about prayers being scripted or reviewed in advance.

People who helped plan public events for former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton say they did not routinely organize prayers before non-religious events. Historians note that there is no clear record of prayers before presidential appearances, but they could not remember prayers being said as routinely as they are now.

The policy, first reported in U.S. News & World Report, appears to continue a new White House approach to religion: invite piety and spirituality at every opportunity, but with a new emphasis on interfaith participants and atheists. Obama mentioned “non-believers” in his inauguration speech and, even as he unveiled his faith-based office to religious conservatives at the National Prayer Breakfast, he noted that he did not consider faith-based social service programs inherently superior to secular ones.

“To me, it’s entirely a new frontier of religious politics,” said University of Washington communications professor David Domke, who has written about presidential rhetoric and religion. “Prayer will be different than what we’ve experienced since Reagan, with a much more substantial interfaith element.”

White House officials said Obama’s prayer policy is not a dramatic departure from previous presidents’ habits or from his days as a candidate.

“Invocations have been standard practice for us since the beginning of the presidential campaign,” said spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki. “We view it as a brief time of reflection before an event.”

Prayers have been said before Obama appearances at rallies for the stimulus program, for example, in Florida, Indiana and Illinois.

However, Maureen Shea, who was religious liaison for much of Clinton’s tenure, said she does not “remember there being invocations before presentation of a policy or a presidential address.”

Bill Wichterman, who worked in the liaison office under Bush, said he was “not aware of any White House planning for prayers at official events, other than the National Day of Prayer.”

He said he also was unaware of the White House providing guidance to people leading prayers.

Church-state experts say that Bush did not strongly oppose sectarian prayer at his public appearances, and that even if the prayers were less frequent, they were more overtly Christian. The prayers were not orchestrated by the White House but by event organizers, they said.

There have been few complaints about the Obama policy. Americans United for the Separation of Church and State has expressed legal concerns about the government reviewing prayer language.

“The larger danger isn’t for the Obama administration, it’s that the prayer becomes so vacuous,” said Randall Balmer, a professor of American religious history at Barnard College and an editor of the evangelical magazine Christianity Today. “That, to me as a person of faith, is a larger worry.”

Actually, AU seems to have objected to these prayers much more vigorously than The Washington Post apparently cares to acknowledge:

—– Praying For The Stimulus Package? White House Needs To Drop Invocations At Rallies (Sandhya Bathija/Americans United For Separation Of Church And State; Feb 26)

Earlier this week, Dan Gilgoff at U.S. News and World Report reported that President Barack Obama has started a new tradition at some of his presidential events.

On some occasions, at least, it seems Obama’s opening act will be a prayer vetted by the White House.

According to the U.S. News blog, White House staff contacted local clergy to open the two town hall meetings that Obama held to sell his economic stimulus package and another rally to unveil his mortgage bailout plan.

Gilgoff told the story of Ryan Culp of Elkhart, Ind., who turned down a request by Obama to deliver a prayer during the presidential campaign because he is a conservative Republican and, Culp said, “didn’t want to be perceived to be a supporter of a Democratic campaign.” Culp was asked again now that Obama is in office and this time obliged.

The day before Culp was to give the prayer, he was required to call an aide at the White House and recite the prayer for approval. The aide told him the prayer was “beautiful.”

For the Fort Myers, Fla., town hall meeting, the White House vetted a prayer by James Bing, pastor of the Friendship Baptist Church, and in Phoenix, an administrator for the Tohono O’odham Nation delivered a prayer before Obama took the stage.

The events were televised nationally, but the prayers were not. They seem to have been conducted under the radar with the invocations being delivered before the president arrived and before cameras started rolling.

But regardless of who is hearing the prayers – whether it is the hundreds of people showing up at the rally or the millions watching on TV – it’s the same Constitution. And our Constitution’s promise is to keep church and state separate.

As Gilgoff points out, “Though invocations have long been commonplace at presidential inaugurations and certain events like graduations or religious services at which presidents are guests, the practice of commissioning and vetting prayers for presidential rallies is unprecedented in modern history.”

There is a reason for that. Neither the president nor any other government official can prefer religion over non-religion, or one religious belief over others. These prayers exclude non-believers and could make many attending the rally feel uncomfortable or as if they do not belong.

Obama crossed the line by allowing these prayers. As AU Executive Director Barry Lynn said, “The only thing worse than having these prayers in the first place is to have them vetted, because it entangles the White House in core theological matters.”

The White House’s only comment regarding this prayer routine was that it was standard procedure during Obama’s campaign. Perhaps so, but this is a new day. Obama is president of all Americans. Rallies to promote the stimulus package or any other public policy matter are not religious events. Now that Obama has taken the oath of office, it’s time for him to live up to his rhetoric of inclusion and drop exclusionary prayers at public events.

Here’s one passage from the original US News & World Report article that I think bears repeating:

“If a similar thing had been done by President Bush’s White House, I guarantee you there would have been a lot of people crying foul,” says Bill Wichterman, deputy director of the Office of Public Liaison under President George W. Bush. “Democrats can do this with immunity, but when Republicans do it, it becomes controversial.”

If anything, I’m inclined to hold Democrats to higher standards than I do Republicans – not lesser ones.

Their continuing tendency to promote the same old religious bullshit leaves me continuing to look forward to the day when a thoroughly rational third party emerges in this country….