Boston Globe columnist James Carroll revisits last week's National Prayer Breakfast and warns of its implications:
However “ecumenical’’ its trappings, and whatever the small number of non-Christian participants make of it, the tradition amounts to a religious festival of American Christian nationalism. President Obama spoke of humility, but this overtly theological claim on God’s favor goes to the heart of the imperial hubris that has led to one foreign policy disaster after another…
The framers of the US Constitution were wary of all such public piety. Not for nothing did they omit the word “God’’ from its clauses.