Why The Inaugural Prayers Have Become Less Inclusive Over Time
By Steven Waldman First published in The Wall Street Journal in 2009 In 1949, the year of Harry S. Truman’s inauguration ceremony, America was a much less tolerant and diverse place. It would be another decade before Americans would be comfortable electing a Catholic president. Jews were still excluded from the upper echelons of government and business. The levers of power were held by Protestants, who made up the vast majority of the population. But there on the podium with…