Including the two prayers at Barack Obama’s inaugural, 12 prayers will have been delivered at inaugurations since 1989. All of them have been delivered by Protestants.
By contrast, in the previous 48 years, of the 41 prayers delivered, 16 — or 39% — were offered by Protestants. Every president prior to George H.W. Bush had a Catholic and more than half also had a Jewish or Greek Orthodox clergyman. None since then have had any.
More thoughts on why coming soon…
In the meantime, our Ultimate Inaugural Prayer Archive is coming together. We’ve now got the complete record for nine inaugurals (FDR ’37, Truman, Eisenhower ’52, JFK, LBJ, Carter ’77, Reagan ’81 and ’85, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton ’93, G.W. Bush, a partial for one of them (Clinton ’97).
We’re missing: FDR ’41 and ’45, Eisenhower ’57, Nixon ’69 and ’73. Please email me clues if you have them.
(Thank you to the librarian at the Toronto Star for her tip about LBJ)