Our new President didn't commission an inaugural poem this year which shows an unconscionable insensitivity to poets, a class of Americans always in need of work. Instead of poetry, we were treated to prayer, prayer, prayer and god, god, god. It'd be hard to imagine an outside observer who, watching the proceedings, would conclude that ours is a secular Republic, or that a large segment of the population does not subscribe to Judeo-Christian beliefs.

Actually, I should not have said Judeo. Those who believe in the Old Testament were also left out of a ceremony with a decidedly evangelical tone. If we are to believe what we heard, God selected Bush and Cheney to run the country. I thought it was the Supreme Court, but God works in strange and wondrous ways. Certainly, the voters didn't pick Bush-Cheney, so God's will is as good an explanation as any.

"So help me God" is not an official part of the oath of office, or a courtroom swearing. George Washington added the lines to the secular oath he took when first selected, and the tradition stuck. I wonder what our first atheist President will say during his oath. From the mouth of a non-believer, the words "so help me God" would be an existential crying out ("No one can help me!") or a cynical lie. Regardless of people's beliefs, I wish they would stop saying it, not because I've got a problem with God, but because I want our president to take personal responsibility for the fulfillment of his oath. Why not say "to the best of my ability and beyond" or some such phrase that says "I promise, and if I falter, blame me."

I wonder how Hindus, Muslims, Jews, and Buddhists felt watching the ceremony which screamed to them "this is not your country, this is our country, unless you want to accept Jesus into your heart, of course." The reason we are a secular republic, and not one based on religion, is that metaphysical questions have no answers. Because claiming that God selected Bush-Cheney is meaningless and doesn't get us anywhere in terms of determining mandates. Because we speculate about the heavens but only know the Earth.

It's not about hostility to religion but our ability to understand -- whether or not their is a God or gods or god is irrelevant and whether or not there is some mystical force out there with an agenda for America is equally so, because we will never know that agenda, we will only know our own. The founding fathers were pragmatists and they knew that religion would only confuse the mission of government. So in a ceremony that should have been a celebration of the people, their wants, needs, and hopes for the country, we got confused and talked only about God, and we wasted a lot of time doing it.

But this will be a confused administration, and religion will be a part of that. Make no mistake, George Bush will have Billy Graham just like Nancy Reagan had her astrologers, and the result will be rule by luck and kismet more than reason. God save us all.

Michael Maiello knows that there are no atheists in foxholes. Especially when your sergeant is George Dubya Bush.