In its first public letter of the year, FFRF asked President-Elect Donald Trump to “faithfully execute” the secular Constitution by keeping faith and prayer out of the inaugural ceremony.
Religion should not be part of “a ceremony about pleading fealty to a secular Constitution,” FFRF wrote in the letter. The framers of the U.S. Constitution thought the presidential oath so important they included the exact wording: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Notably, there’s no reference to “So help me God” or placement of a presidential hand on a bible.
FFRF notes that Trump seems to be turning the secular inauguration into “a religious circus” — given that Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Rabbi Marvin Hier, Bishop Wayne T. Jackson, Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, Rev. Franklin Graham and Pastor Paula White was each scheduled to pray and give readings.
