Today was the National Day of Prayer, and if it seems like it was a much smaller deal than usual…well, it was.

From the Boston Globe:

President Obama’s latest break from his predecessor is drawing some ire among some Christian groups.

While former President Bush held formal events in the White House each year to mark the National Day of Prayer, Obama is opting today for a private observance and will later issue an official proclamation.

“We are disappointed in the lack of participation by the Obama administration,” Shirley Dobson, chairwoman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, said in a statement. “At this time in our country’s history, we would hope our president would recognize more fully the importance of prayer.”

The theme for the 58th annual observance is “Prayer… America’s Hope” and is based on Psalm 33:22: “May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you.”

But other religious groups praised Obama for dialing back the observance, and accused the task force of trying to exclude non-Christians. Dobson is the spouse of James Dobson of Focus on the Family, a politically active Christian conservative group.

“It is a shame that the National Day of Prayer Task Force seems to think it owns the National Day of Prayer,” the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, said in a statement. The alliance sent a letter to Obama urging him to make this year’s observance more inclusive of other faiths.

“Once again, the Task Force is misrepresenting the purpose of this national observance,” Gaddy added. “President Obama is not the pastor-in-chief of the nation and Shirley Dobson’s Task Force is not the spiritual judge of the president’s personal or official actions.”

Meantime, the Christian Science Monitor takes note of the controversy that has been fueled by Obama’s decision to play down the event:

One of the de facto leaders of the Republican party made it sound like President Obama outlawed religion. Rush Limbaugh, not Michael Steele, railed against the president for deviating from his predecessor.

“President Obama has announced that he is canceling the public day of prayer, the National Day of Prayer, that is tomorrow, at the White House,” Limbaugh said yesterday, followed by a long dramatic pause.

If that’s all you heard, you would wonder what was going on.

Before launching into the stratosphere, Limbaugh correctly explained that Obama was “just changing the policy that was in place for eight years of the Bush administration.”

But then the talk show host couldn’t resist…

“Why do this?” he asked. “Why go out of your way to do this? Why make these type of waves unnecessarily? He’s doing this on purpose. He’s trying to irritate some people. He’s asserting his authoritarian control.”

“They say he prays privately,” Limbaugh said. “I have no doubt. Who does he pray to? Does he pray to himself?”

PHOTO:  President Obama speaking to the National Prayer Breakfast in February.  Photo by Charles Dharapak/AP