Despite media reports of overwhelming outrage over President Obama’s choice of megachurch pastor Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural prayer, a recent Gallup poll found that most Americans either approve of or are indifferent to Warren’s role:

Fifty-two percent of Americans say they don’t know enough about the decision to have an opinion either way. Among Americans who do have an opinion, those who approve outweigh those who disapprove 39% to 9%.

[…] Even among Democrats and self-described liberals, support for Obama’s choice of Warren far outweighs disapproval.

Among Democrats, there is 37% approval compared to 10% disapproval. Among liberals, the numbers are similar with 39% approving and 16% disapproving. Approval is predictably higher among Republicans and conservatives.

Regardless, initial reactions to Warren’s invocation are mixed.

Tobin Harshaw gathers opinions from around the Web for the New York Times, while Newsweek‘s Lisa Miller offers her own:

Warren’s pleas and exhortations were pregnant with double meanings. He begged God’s forgiveness “when we fight each other” and “when we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the Earth with the respect they deserve.” To those engaged in the gay-marriage battle and the related war over the appropriateness of Warren’s appearance on this stage, these lines will be parsed for meaning. But what was Warren really saying? Was he asking God’s forgiveness for things he has said about homosexual behavior that have caused offense? Or was he asking God to forgive those groups who launched such virulent attacks against him? Or was he doing neither? Was he simply doing what people do when they pray: expressing gratitude and seeking forgiveness? Warren is savvy; he was not specific.

Finally Warren made the move that was both inevitable and surprising. He prayed in Jesus’s name. Pastors at previous inaugurations have triggered controversy and lawsuits for explicitly Christian prayers, and pundits wondered aloud whether—given the tsunami of press that preceded this prayer—Warren would dare to stake out this turf. But Warren knows who he is. He is a conservative evangelical. There’s nothing else for him to do. Once again, his phrasing was deft: he invoked Jesus for himself, not for the millions on the mall or the billions watching on television. “I humbly ask this,” he said, “in the name of the one who changed my life…Jesus.” A good job, and yet the lingering question remains. Warren’s conservative theology teaches him that there is one path to God, and that is Jesus. So when he wraps his great big arms around Muslims and Jews (and homosexuals), does he really believe there’s hope for us? Or is he just being nice?

Watch Rick Warren’s invocation here.