It is difficult to comprehend how our president-elect, who has been so spot on in nearly every political move and gesture, could fail to grasp the symbolism of inviting an anti-gay theologian to deliver his inaugural invocation. And the Obama campaign’s response to the anger about this decision? Hey, we’re also bringing a gay marching band. You know how the gays love a parade.
Yes, the Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of the humongous, evangelical Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif., has a sound message on poverty. And certainly, in the world of politics, there is a view that Barack Obama owes Warren for bringing him before fellow evangelicals, despite fierce opposition during the heat of the presidential campaign.
But here’s the other thing about Warren, the author of the bestselling book “The Purpose Driven Life”: He was a general in the campaign to pass California’s Proposition 8, which dissolved the legal marriage rights of loving, committed same-sex couples.
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Is it ever not about them?
He is a moral criminal because he backed prop 8. The homosexuals and their lobby are NOT criminals when the sent their crowds into the streets to protest, harassed the Mormons, and raised a ton of money to defeat prop 8. Gored by whose ox? I wish I could believe that the broad run of Americans could see the hypocrisy in this. Is their no tipping point, when the “liberal” viewed is seen for wht it is: A hunger for power and the willingness to use it, once gained, to suppress all dissent. The truth is, as I watch this, I get angrier and angrier. The Supreme Court protects minorities from the tyranny of the majority. And just who protects us from the tyranny of the minority? Larry
“Obama’s been spot on up until now.” Why? You ask. Because he agreed with ME. He couldn’t say “I agree with his decisions.” No, he was “spot on.”
I think this is actually a pretty shrewd move on President-elect Obama’s part. I mean, yes, it sends a message, but he sees the need to try and woo as many New Right Evangelicals as he can to his side. At least for the time being, and this is as sure a way to try to acheive that end as he can do at this point. Whether anyone in this demographic is going to buy it is a different matter, but at least he’s attempting it.
Obama is being politically astute here…The nation is at war, the economy is on a roller coaster ride and look what happened in the Congress and the Senate at the mid-term elections during the first term of the Clinton administration. He’s trying to appeal to the ‘broad middle’ of the American electorate who put him into office. I’m not a huge fan of ‘purpose-driven’ yet I do respect Rick Warren and his attempts to get Evangelicals to step beyond the ‘Jesus and me’ vertical piety and into participating in God’s redemptive purposes in the world.
I think the bellyaching is unnecessary. Look at Obama’s cabinet picks so far, and you know where his policy will follow. Warren at the Inauguration is only a conservative fig leaf for the kickoff of a comparatively progressive administration.
But there is no reason why we should not believe Obama’s explanation: Warren invited him to speak at his church, even knowing that Obama’s positions were substantially different from his. Obama now is returning this favor, this demonstration of trust. And this is even handed and just and magnanimous. And mind y ou, I am not an Obama supporter. BUt the President Elect’s statement is clear and credible. Is it political? Everything a president does is political, even brushing your teeth. Larry
People are misinterpreting this. It is Obama who is schooling Warren, not the other way around.
I don’t think anybody is being “schooled,” John. I hope what we are seeing is bridge building and not “schooling.”
Well, according to VGR this is very, very, very bad because Warren and VGR do not pray to the same God! So Obama may really be on the wrong “big” foot altogether….http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/20/us/politics/20warren.html?_r=1