One day, someone who doesn't believe in God is going to be elected president of the United States. When that happens, I, for one, will be a very happy Christian.

By the time the inauguration rolls around, a non-religious president would probably do something radical with the time currently allotted to preachers and religious leaders.

Such a president would be free to assign the preacher's traditional slot to a speaker who isn't encumbered by doctrinal biases or culture war baggage. Imagine the possibilities.

Wouldn't it be nice to hear from an American -- even one who hasn't been to a church or synagogue in decades -- deliver a pithy, but memorable speech about what it means to be an American in perilous times?

We need to be reminded that contrary to recent practice and campaign rhetoric, we're a republic that doesn't have a religious test for office.

We need to be reminded of the "spiritual" roots of our democracy. We're a nation founded on the churning that happened when merchants, farmers, rabble-rousers, Enlightenment scholars, slaves, poets, religious dissidents, blasphemers, aboriginals and freethinkers worked at cross-purposes.

We need a break from the quadrennial arguments about which pastors from which denominations should deliver an inaugural prayer that is usually devoid of spiritual teeth, anyway.

By the time the inaugural invocation is vetted and put through an ideological shredder by the incoming administration, it has the consistency of pablum.

Liberals and progressives are angry with President-elect Barack Obama because he's tapped Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California to deliver the inaugural invocation.

They're angry because Rick Warren isn't their kind of Christian. He's an agnostic when it comes to gay rights, stem-cell research and abortion rights, among others.

They're especially angry with him because he used his considerable influence to help pass the gay marriage ban in California last month.

Barack Obama disagrees with Rick Warren on those issues and many more. Still, that doesn't mean the president-elect is willing to forgo the tactical advantage of co-opting someone with the kind of following the author of "The Purpose Driven Life" has.

As the pastor of a megachurch, Rick Warren won't be interested in saying anything on Jan. 20, 2009, that will be construed as offensive to any religious or political constituency. Only God and a few unhappy souls will be offended by the utter insipidity of the message.

The disappointment with Barack Obama for not picking someone who lines up with him on the issues is a perennial complaint about our soon-to-be-44th president.

Going back to his days as a candidate for the top post at the Harvard Law Review, the best way to be "rewarded" by Barack Obama was to have opposed him either ideologically or in a hotly contested election.

While fellow progressives expected to be named to top posts on the prestigious law review when their guy won, Barack Obama appointed members of the conservative Federalist Society to high posts instead.

It infuriated the true believers who assumed that the cliche -- "to the winners go the spoils" -- was somehow true. But Barack Obama always plays a perverse game of looking several moves down the board. Rewarding friends would be too obvious.

Still, Rick Warren isn't all bad. Conservative evangelicals despise him for his relatively liberal stances on environmental stewardship, global poverty, combating HIV/AIDs and his openness to traditionally liberal social justice causes.

He's considered a theological lightweight by anyone who has actually listened to one of his sermons. Rick Warren has more in common with the speakers down at the Rotary Club than the fire and brimstone preachers who made Calvinism America's unofficial civil religion for a while.

Take comfort, all ye liberals and progressives, in the fact that Barack Obama is using Rick Warren as much as Rick Warren is using him. This is all about politics -- it isn't a meeting of the minds.

Forget the symbolism of who delivers the inaugural invocation. Behind the pomp and circumstance is ungodly and cynical gamesmanship. The only prayer that matters is the one you pray for yourself.