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There is a temptation to regard Obama’s inauguration as the end of a forty year “wilderness” experience, but symbolism and symmetry can only take us so far. We, as citizens, are going to need to hold Obama accountable.

In a series of short essays, special to Religion Dispatches, religious historians, philosophers, and ethicists celebrate Obama’s place in American history while heeding Dr. King’s continued prophetic challenge for our nation.

King’s reputation and influence suffered in the four years after his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Even Obama, who rides high on a tide of popularity, is not immune to the vagaries of history.

A professor of religious studies, challenged to write a patriotic song that isn’t militaristic, is inspired by texts on our democratic project.

With the choice of Rev. Warren to make the inaugural invocation, the president elect has proven himself tone deaf to the nuances of American religious life.

“Evil Genius” Paul Weyrich’s legacy of a conservative revolution may be coming to a close.

He was a lifelong Democrat, and opposed to the Iraq war, but his theory of the “clash of civilizations” helped to support the neo-con notion of a war on terror.

The numbers are in and you, the reader, have chosen your favorite RD stories of the year; from Rick Warren to AIPAC, Sarah Palin, Creationism 2.0 and the fabled “death” of the religious right.

New federal regulations, enacted by the lame-duck Bush administration, privilege the religious or moral scruples of physicians over a patient’s right to treatment. 40 million Americans have physicians who will not present them with all the options for treatment.

Rolling with the atheists in the UK; rich men, camels, and needle’s eyes; Jews, Christians, and Gaza; the Obamas on Sunday mornings…all this and more on the religion writer’s beat as the year begins.