I’m sorry, Jay, but I can’t say “amen” to your characterization of Rick Warren’s participation in the inaugural ceremony.  Although once you pass the threshold of having two Protestant ministers, it is not unexpected that one or both (in this case, only one since the Rev. Joseph Lowery did not) is going to pray in the name of Jesus. As you know, I think the prayers should have been restricted to the worship service the then-President elect attended earlier in the day. Adding the Lord’s Prayer to the end of Warren’s own was really over the top, since this is such a well-known Christian intercession. 

As he discussed on Larry King’s show, Warren doesn’t believe non-believers should be elected to public office, at least not to the Presidency.  So he still thinks their moral compass is inferior to his own just on the face of it.  Also, I don’t like people prattling on about “our commitment to freedom and justice for all” when they just participated in a campaign of injustice, in Warren’s case his support for passage of California’s notoriously discriminatory Proposition 8.

As for that poll about Warren, sorry, but I’m not buying it.  Given that very few people know who is on the Supreme Court, the idea that 61% of people even know who Rick Warren is simply stretches credulity.