Obama and Rick Warren
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Update December 22, 2008
From Cmcdonough of AOL:
This will give political currency to this ass that he neither needs nor
deserves.
There was some talk that Warren was “selected” by a congressional committee and
that Obama didn’t weant to piss off the fundies by rejecting him.
You know what?
I don’t give a rat’s ass what the fundies get pissed about.
They have interfered with the lives of ordinary people in this country for far
too long for me to have any sympathy for them.
Update December 22, 2008
Another friend writes:
I understand the symbolic gesture of the inaugural sermon. The message it sends to his constituents really sucks, though. It's a real slap in the face.
Update December 21, 2008
Obama continues to get cards and letters - one, written by a non-gay friend
of mine (not that there's anything wrong with that) read:
The Obama crew picked the wrong day to send me an email about "what you're
saying about change coming". They got this in reply:
I'll tell you where there isn't change coming--in having Rick Warren do the
invocation at the inauguration. I am so disheartened that Barack picked a man
who just actively worked to take away an existing right from a group of
citizens. There are plenty of Evangelical Christians who did not work to pass
Prop 8--if Obama wanted to reach out, why didn't he reach out to one of them?
Rather than to a man who just successfully worked to restrict the rights of
gays? This is a slap in the fact to all the GBLT community, and their friends an
relatives. I have three children. Thanks in large part to Rick Warren, two of
them can marry in California, and the other cannot. I simply can't believe our
new President is giving Warren a platform, and political currency. It is
heartbreaking, really. Why not just ask Fred Phelps? Warren's beliefs about gays
are really not very different--he just dresses it up prettier. Unfortunately,
while people revile and ignore Phelps, they take Warren seriously. Lifting him
up in this way after Prop 8 is simply an unbelievable choice on the President
Elect's part. I'm sure Obama wouldn't dream of having an anti-semite like Rod
Parsley or John Hagee do the invocation in the name of "reaching out to those
who disagree". Why is he willing to have the anti-gay Warren do it?
Update
Human Rights Campaign: We understand that the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, a civil
rights icon and a dear friend of LGBT Americans, will close the inauguration
ceremony. But would any inaugural committee say to Jewish Americans, "We're
opening with an anti-Semite but closing the program with a rabbi, so don't
worry?"
Original Note
Obama defends his choice of Anti-Choice, Anti-Equal Rights for Gays and
Lesbians Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration with a
flat pronouncement that he wants to offer, "a wide range of viewpoints."
He goes on to state, "That's part of the magic of this country is that we are diverse and noisy and opinionated."
Yes, we are all diverse and opinionated --- but the right to say stupid things doesn't extend to the right to be presented to the world at large by the incoming President of the United States.
How utterly foolish.
Yes, Mr. President-Elect, Let's embrace senseless and ignorant bigotry. There certainly aren't any people of faith who manage to do and preach good works without restricting the rights of others. Oh, there are? And people wonder why I still have my Clinton bumper sticker on my car.
Or, as a friend of mine suggests - how about the Grand Duke of the KKK for Keynote speaker. Just another point of view, right?
Deborah
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