I am not a fan of Warren and didn't really care about his prayer one way or the other, but I think if one is expecting a Christian minister of any denomination who is asked to say a prayer at in inauguration for a President who also happens to be Christian to not mention Jesus is expecting too much.

Yeah. When he was asked a few weeks ago whether he's mention Jesus, one of his assistants responded with something like, "He's a Christian and will pray as a Christian."

Eh. It's probably stating the obvious, but not all Christians pray in the same way/have the same content. Like the prayer by Billy Graham that was posted earlier -- some refer to God and Jesus in broad terms. Others mention Jesus every other sentence.

So, whatev. Excessive Jesus-y-ness makes me, personally, uncomfortable, but I also wasn't surprised that a Christian pastor would include Jesus in his prayer.

(Also, I totally agree with the people who expected Warren to be a better speaker, considering that he's pastor of a 20,000-member church.)

I should clarify that I didn't find Warren to be offensive, but the heavily Christian and God-focused intro does make me feel uncomfortable and excluded. It's not a religious ceremony, and it's inappropriate. [To clarify the clarification, I'm meaning the invocation/benediction thing as part of the inaug itself, which is a different argument]. His speech on the merits, past the first dozen lines or so, was fine, if not terribly impressive.

I'll also cop to giving Lowery a lot more slack than Warren (on the religious focus, not on the racist stuff because I don't think that's what happened) because Lowery the man brings a lot different baggage for me than Warren the man, and because the speech itself was such an homage to the history of how we got here, and the people who led the way, rather than a "this is all god's doing and in god's hands and for god's purposes" kind of thing.

So we do we think any executive orders will actually come down today?

What was the point of saying Jesus in all the different languages? It seemed odd to me, but I don't really have the context to figure out what he meant by it.

He signed his cabinet into office. Does that count as an executive order? (and I'm not being facetious, I didn't know if we were counting that).

It would be so cool if he rolled up his sleeves and just started getting busy on day one.

I thought "J-word" was meant to be irreverent, not offensive. But of course, there is a fine line, always. Which side am I on if I say it sounds like the disciples got a show on Showtime?

What was the point of saying Jesus in all the different languages? It seemed odd to me, but I don't really have the context to figure out what he meant by it.

I honestly thought he was trying to make it more inclusive. And Islam does hold Jesus as an ancestral figure, same as Abraham, as far as I know, but using that to lead into the Lord's Prayer is what rubbed me the wrong way, because it's just so expressly and explicitly Christian -- as opposed to praying to god in general and just wrapping up with the "father, son, holy spirit" or similar.

I humbly apologize for the use of "J-word". Is was, as erikaj points out, meant to be irreverent. Sorry for the offense. Agnostic tin-ear.

I didn't watch Warren's speech or Lowery's. If prayer in public school is a violation of church/state separation, we shouldn't have it at Inauguration either. Period.

the Lord's Prayer is what rubbed me the wrong way, because it's just so expressly and explicitly Christian -- as opposed to praying to god in general and just wrapping up with the "father, son, holy spirit" or similar.

"Father, son, holy spirit" is also pretty explicitly Christian.