Linsay Rousseau Burnett/Special to Oakland North Regardless of your opinion of President Barack Obama’s inaugural address, there was one seemingly benign statement that made inaugural history: “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and … non-believers.” While this line was a much-needed acknowledgement of the religious diversity in this country, it contained one final word that has been absent from most political discourse.

Sweta Vohra/Special to Oakland North In my predominantly Christian Texas town, among my predominantly Christian high school friends, I did my best to avoid any talk of religion. On Sundays, when my friends went to church, I went to a makeshift Hindu Sunday school that was run out of a senior citizen community center. But, of course, no one knew that. So, one day, when a fellow high school classmate, Kevin, had asked me what my religion was, I had…