A firestorm of seeming outrage and indignation burst forth recently upon the announcement that Barack Obama had selected the so-called ‘Megachurch Pastor’ Rick Warren to deliver the prayer at his inauguration ceremony this month. Well, allow me to call bullshit, especially against the liberals this time. If I am to believe that the people who voted for Barack Obama simply had no idea that ‘The One’ was an avowed Christian with a penchant for political and financial opportunism then it might be time for those people to turn off the Oprah and start paying attention to something other than slickly marketed campaign slogans.

If the odious ramblings of the Jeremiah Wright situation didn’t explain it to people nor did the proclamation by ‘The One’ himself that he is, in fact, a Christian keep them from wondering, then this surely won’t either. Mr. Obama has won the election so we needn’t bother with the mock self-righteousness that yet another Christian sits in the White House thinking that the magic man in the sky is guiding his decision. Now, if you are of the same socially liberal brand of Christianity as Mr. Obama, then you are no doubt gleeful at future prospects. But if you are a liberal secularist that was hoping that a vote for the Democrat was a vote against religious fundamentalism outright, then you might find yourself severely disappointed during the next eight years. Don’t say your antitheist friends didn’t warn you.

What truly sickens is not that some plump, holier-than-thou preacher man in expensive suits was chosen for the prayer at all. It is the mere fact that there will be a prayer in the first place. Liberals love to cry ‘Separation of Church and State’ at the drop of a hat, but there is no outcry that the supposed inclusivity and tolerance espoused by the United States is tainted by including a CHRISTIAN prayer on a CHRISTIAN bible at the inauguration of the very person who ought to hold that separation as one of this nation’s highest axioms. Shouldn’t any self-respecting liberal find the use of the Christian bible itself as a possible insult to Muslims and Jews, to say nothing of their atheist brethren? I am assuming, of course, that the Christian fundamentalists on the right have no issue with the practice itself nor the presence of this Mr. Warren for the inaugural proceedings. As long as there is a Christian bible, a Christian prayer and a man who professes to be a Christian taking the oath, shouldn’t this at least give some comfort to our conservative neighbors?

If Mr. Obama is aware of the inherent hypocrisy involved in the entire inaugural prayer affair, and I’ve no reason to doubt that he is, he seems apt to go through with it anyway. If he isn’t aware, congratulations on establishing such sweeping change that involves yet another religious pseudo-zealot sitting in the Oval Office asking his imaginary friend for advice on who to nuke. In any case, we are left either with ignorance or with deception. Such striking change from the way things have been, wouldn’t you say?

Rather, it is time for thinking, rational people to voice the idea that neither god nor his many denominations and collection plates shall be institutionally involved in the government of the Unites States of America any longer, be it in an official or merely symbolic manner. If America is ever to truly realize the dream of purported “diversity” and “tolerance” then shouldn’t its first step be to renounce the idea that this is, at its core, a nation hinging solely on Judeo-Christian values and ideals?

Remove the bible that the President-Elect swears upon. Vanquish any trace of religious prayer from the inaugural ceremony. Renounce religious figures whose main purpose in life seems to be enjoying the tax-exempt prestige that comes with the sanctimonious claim that they believe in Jesus. And while you’re at it, Barack, abolish that tax-exempt status as its laughable basis is in no way indicative of even your own personal reality. In this way let us challenge Barack Obama to return reason and intellect to the highest office in the land.

There’s still time before the inauguration for reason to prevail. How about it, B?