Inaugural Prayers in History

Overview:

In this lesson, students will examine the practice of including prayers in inaugural ceremonies, focusing on the messages these presidential selections send about diversity and faith in American life.

Framework
As Donald R. Kennon, Chief Historian of United States Capitol Historical Society has noted [1],"the role of clergy in our inaugural ceremonies is a recent development that began in 1933, when Franklin Roosevelt had a minister to give a benediction, and then his following inauguration had an invocation and a benediction. And it has involved Catholic priests. It has involved Protestant ministers. It's involved Jewish rabbis. So there has been a little bit more diversity. … [But we should remember that] religion supports the government. The government doesn't necessarily support or favor any specific religion or Christian denomination."

Is Kennon right? When a President-elect invites a minister to pray at an inauguration, does that represent an endorsement of a particular religious view – or an expression that some views are legitimate and others are not? Who has not been represented at the inauguration? In this lesson, students will analyze demographic information about the clergymen who prayed at inaugurations since 1937, look for trends in those choices, and formulate possible reasons for those trends.

Materials
• Donald Kennon's quote, above, written on the board or on an overhead.
• Copies of the Diversity Matrix [2] handout for each student

Procedures
• Introduce the unit to students by sharing the framework above.
• Distribute the Diversity Matrix handout to students, and give them adequate time to review it.
• Discuss as a whole class:
    a. What was going on in the world when FDR first introduced prayer at the inaugural ceremonies that may have influenced his choice to do so? (Consider the role the Great Depression may have played in this decision.)
    b. What do all of these faith leaders have in common? (All are male, and all belong to monotheistic faiths)
    c. Kennon says, "The government doesn't necessarily support or favor any specific religion or Christian denomination." Looking at this list of faith leaders, have our presidents shown a consistent preference for some kinds of faith over others? Why? (All are from monotheistic faiths)
    d. Have they shown a preference for faith over atheism? Monotheistic faiths over other traditions? Why?
    e. Kennon asserts that faith representation has become more diverse over time. At which junctures on the handout did rabbis and African American religious leaders first appear? What was going on in the world that made these choices powerful symbolically? (Jews were not represented until after World War II and the Holocaust. Black ministers were not invited until 1969, after the Civil Rights Movement ended legal segregation.)
    f. Obama chose two pastors, Rick Warren [3] and Joseph Lowery [4], to offer prayers at his swearing in. How did these selections narrow or expand the representations of diverse faiths? (Answers will vary.)

• As a homework assignment, ask students to imagine that they are on a committee that will advise the next president on the plan of events for the 2012 inauguration. Which ministers (if any) would your students invite to deliver a prayer? Should the inauguration have a prayer led by a Muslim or a woman? Have each student write a brief essay defending their decision and support the text with at least one bar graph or pie chart using data from the Diversity Matrix.

Extension Activity
Some Americans believe prayer should have no place in inaugural ceremonies. This year, the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit seeking to stop prayer at Obama's swearing-in. The Foundation's legal complaint [5] states:

"Interlarding those ceremonies with clergy who espouse sectarian religious dogma does not unite, but rather divides, our citizenry. Similarly, instead of instilling confidence in our governmental structure, it tears at the very foundation upon which that structure is built. … Atheists are the most despised minority in the land, and [government-sponsored prayer and government support of monotheism] stigmatizes them (atheists) and perpetuates, if not instigates, this situation."

Ask students to reflect in writing on the lawsuit's premise and consider whether allowing prayer shows, in Kennon's words, governmental "support or favor [for a] specific religion or Christian denomination."

Standards
This lesson supports content standards in reading [6], civics [7], mathematics [8] and life skills [9].