"God can be a divisive force in American life," Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren told a hastily assembled Orange County news conference. "For that reason, I will omit any mention of God's name during my invocation at the Inauguration."
Warren, acknowledging that he was a controversial choice for the role of religious leader at President-elect Obama's inauguration, said he would "pray only to 'The Big Guy' and people can read between the lines as to who I'm referring to."
An advance text of Warren's invocation, leaked to the media by sources within the Obama transition team, has the pastor starting his prayer with the words, "To Whom It May Concern."
"I know it's a little different," Warren admitted. "But I think we've proven that you can have a perfectly fine religious life without God coming in and being all judgmental and all-knowing and everything. I understand that President-elect Obama is walking a fine line, trying to have a spiritual moment in his Inauguration without potentially offending voters who are atheistic or of other religions."
Warren promised that he would "stay away from traditional themes, like asking God to bless the new President and the nation and that kind of stuff" and would instead "remind people that if they feel good, they'll do good, and that's really all people want from organized religion today anyway."
Warren said he understood that some people were surprised that the President-elect had not chosen an African American to give the invocation.
"It's kind of like the old rules about college basketball teams and how many Blacks they can start," Warren said. "You want to walk a fine line."
A spokesman for God told the Dissociated Press that the Almighty was "disappointed" that He would not be personally acknowledged at the Inauguration, considering "all I've done for that Obama guy," but "if it helped in the polling, [he] really didn't mind being thrown under the bus in this manner."
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