President Obama extols a biblical vision of equality for all in second inaugural

Our take: In his inaugural address yesterday, President Obama focused on race, gender and sexual orientation, tying the topics together with references to God's will. This Religion News Service article calls the event "faith infused."

A presidential inauguration is by tradition the grandest ritual of Americas civil religion, but President Obama took the oath of office on Monday (Jan. 21) in a ceremony that was explicit in joining theology to the nations destiny and setting out a biblical vision of equality that includes race, gender, class, and, most controversially, sexual orientation.

Obamas speech, his second inaugural address, repeatedly cited civic and religious doctrines namely the God-given equality extolled by the founding creed of the Declaration of Independence to essentially reconsecrate the country to the common good and to the dignity of each person.

It was a faith-infused event that recognized both the original sins as well as the later atonements of Americas history, especially on race, which was front and center as the nations first African-American president took the oath on the holiday commemorating the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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