# What happened to the Presidential Inauguration? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 20, 2005, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740 "2005-01-20T16:40:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/21 "2005-01-20T18:09:32Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > This is the appropriate standard for a pluralistic society? No, it ain’t. > > –Cliffy Yes, it is – in conjunction with the legal standard, to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/22 "2005-01-20T18:10:13Z")
I copied and pasted into Word. I found 3 instances of “God” and 27 of “freedom”. ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/23 "2005-01-20T18:12:54Z")
Life would be so much easier if the minority knew they should just sit down and shut up, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/24 "2005-01-20T18:15:11Z")
> [@lno](#): > > Life would be so much easier if the minority knew they should just sit down and shut up, apparently. Hiya, strawman. Who said that? ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/25 "2005-01-20T18:20:26Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Jesus wouldn’t run for President. His Kingdom was never of this world. So a direct one-to-one comparison of what Bush did in his capacities as chief executive is absolutely inapposite. Nonsense; Christians are called to imitate Jesus and be mindful of Him in all that they do. Bush’s conduct directly contradicts that. > [@](#): > > I wish Bush had a different opinion on the death penalty, to be sure, and I agree that his support for the death penalty is not Christ-like. BUT - I am convinced that Mr. Bush, in good faith, BELIEVES it to be. In other words, reasonable people may disagree on these sorts of points without it becoming blasphemous to invoke Jesus’ name. Way too easy. By that standard, one can excuse any abominable conduct done in God’s name by believers. Hell, the 9/11 hijackers sincerely BELIEVED that they were doing God’s will–do we give them a pass and refuse to condemn their behavior? Reasonable people can disagree, but it sounds very much like you are unwilling to call Bush on the contrast between his overt religiosity and his conduct in office. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/26 "2005-01-20T18:21:19Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Except it wasn’t literally every other word. Hyperbole’s okay if it’s Zell Miller using it, though, isn’t it? Twit. Bush is a public official of a government which, as one of its fundamental principles, does not recognize any particular religion - and for very good reasons, as you know. An inauguration speech is a public function of that public official, as part of his duties as such. It is not a private expression of faith, as you must have known when you posted that smug bit of drivel claiming that’s all it is. > [@](#): > > Did the use of ‘God’ in these ceremonies cross the Constitutional line into prohibited Establishment territory? And from a popular standpoint - did the use of ‘God’ and these ceremonies offend a majority of the American voters? An odd statement from one who purports to take the law and the Constitution seriously. Not an odd statement at all from a reflexive Bush/GOP partisan, however. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/27 "2005-01-20T18:22:17Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I copied and pasted into Word. I found 3 instances of “God” and 27 of “freedom”. Better still – of those direct mentions (to be fair, there were other indirect mentions as well), one was in the context of Americans believe something _not_ because we believe that we are a nation chosen by God and another one was a direct quote from Lincoln. And anyone who is gonna object to quoting Lincoln might as well move to Iran right now. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/28 "2005-01-20T18:22:57Z")
**Rick** , while I respect your talent for semantic hairsplitting and cold, black and white logic, I think he should leave the god stuff out. He comes off no better then some wacky mullah when he’s spouting that bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/29 "2005-01-20T18:23:43Z")
> [@manhattan](#): > > Better still – of those direct mentions (to be fair, there were other indirect mentions as well), one was in the context of Americans believe something _not_ because we believe that we are a nation chosen by God and another one was a direct quote from Lincoln. And anyone who is gonna object to quoting Lincoln might as well move to Iran right now. Move to Iran now, beat the rush. ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/30 "2005-01-20T18:23:50Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Hiya, strawman. > > Who said that? If someone had, I would think I would have used the quote functionality. I interpreted your statement “And from a popular standpoint - did the use of ‘God’ and these ceremonies offend a majority of the American voters?” and the attitude conveyed in this thread to mean “The majority of people don’t care, so you have no grounds to complain.” Consider it how it appears to this humble reader. In unrelated news, John Kerry’s [acceptance speech](http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2004_0729.html) to the 2004 Democratic Convention mentioned God _five_ times, fully 60% more than George Bush did today. My outrage knows no bounds. Rest assured that I am registering my disapproval throughout the internets. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/31 "2005-01-20T18:24:46Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > Nonsense; Christians are called to imitate Jesus and be mindful of Him in all that they do. Bush’s conduct directly contradicts that. Nonsense yourself. No politican could be Christian under that standard. > [@](#): > > Way too easy. By that standard, one can excuse any abominable conduct done in God’s name by believers. Hell, the 9/11 hijackers sincerely BELIEVED that they were doing God’s will–do we give them a pass and refuse to condemn their behavior? Reasonable people can disagree, but it sounds very much like you are unwilling to call Bush on the contrast between his overt religiosity and his conduct in office. No. I said reasonable people. The hijackers may have sincerely believed, but their belief was objectively unreasonable. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/32 "2005-01-20T18:27:45Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Yes, it is – in conjunction with the legal standard, to be sure. So if he could have taken the speech in two different directions, one, a more religious one, which got "Hallelujah"s and "praise the lord"s from the people who already support him, and left the other 48% of America (well, not all of it, but you know what I mean) feeling excluded, and a less religious one which made it clear that he represents all of the citizens of this great land, not just the religious ones, you think the first choice is a better one? I mean, obviously, he won the election, he CAN do whatever he want. If he wants to read bible verses during press conferences, he CAN. But SHOULD he? ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/33 "2005-01-20T18:28:36Z")
I don’t think Bush is much of a Christian, but the reflexive “EEEK, he mentioned God!” nonsense is as bad as the “EEEK, the TV mentioned gays!” from the other side. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/34 "2005-01-20T18:31:19Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Nonsense yourself. No politican could be Christian under that standard. > > No. I said reasonable people. The hijackers may have sincerely believed, but their belief was objectively unreasonable. The teeming masses would love for you to elaborate on objective standards of reasonableness. ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/35 "2005-01-20T18:31:38Z")
> [@lno](#): > > In unrelated news, John Kerry’s [acceptance speech](http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2004_0729.html) to the 2004 Democratic Convention mentioned God _five_ times, fully 60% more than George Bush did today. Clouded by anger, I typed 60% when I meant to type 66%. My outrage is now ten percent stronger than it was before. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/36 "2005-01-20T18:32:15Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > No. I said reasonable people. The hijackers may have sincerely believed, but their belief was objectively unreasonable. Explain? ---
**Author:** ![Good\_Egg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Good\_Egg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Good_Egg)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/37 "2005-01-20T18:35:40Z")
What caught my ear was that preacher who said something like “We of all faiths…in the name of Jesus” and it just disenfranchised all the Jews. Odd. ;j ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/38 "2005-01-20T18:37:30Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Nonsense yourself. No politican could be Christian under that standard. Really? Carter didn’t seem to have that problem; he had bad judgement, but he did his best to govern according to the dictates of his conscience. > [@](#): > > No. I said reasonable people. The hijackers may have sincerely believed, but their belief was objectively unreasonable. By whose standards? You and I agree that they were evil, but many reasonable devout Muslims believe the 9/11 hijackers were martyrs for God who now sit at His right hand. Granted, it’s an extreme example, but one that shows that mere sincerity of belief is no excuse for bad conduct. Bush has approved the use of torture and deliberate lying to instigate a war that has killed tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis. How he and you can reconcile that with faith in Christ is beyondf me. And if you continue to defend Bush by saying that he has leaned on bad advice, then his refusal to fire his advisors, Rumsfeld especially, shows that he hasn’t learned from experience. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/39 "2005-01-20T18:38:48Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > I don’t think Bush is much of a Christian, but the reflexive “EEEK, he mentioned God!” nonsense is as bad as the “EEEK, the TV mentioned gays!” from the other side. Oh, that’s just silly. Every political speech ever given, by any party, ends with “and may god continue to bless these United States”, or words to that effect, and not EVERY speech results in an angry pit thread from leftists.\* There’s some level of overt religiosity which has to be there for a speech or event to make me feel uncomfortable, and I assume the same is true for the OP and the other participants in this thread. And it’s NOT just “eeeek! he mentioned god! I’m calling my mommy and my local up-with-atheists coordinator!” \*Yes, I realize that not EVERY political speech ends with those words. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740/40 "2005-01-20T18:40:43Z")
> [@manhattan](#): > > And anyone who is gonna object to quoting Lincoln might as well move to Iran right now. Can I at least object to Dubya quoting Lincoln? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-presidential-inauguration/285740.md?page=3)