Yeah, that’s change. Rick Warren is delivering the invocation at Obama’s inauguration. Congress couldn’t find anyone who isn’t a homophobe?
Why even have an invocation at all?
That’s my question too.
If Obama is going to insist on doing one, though, I’d much rather see Reverend Wright. No one can say the dude’s not entertaining.
How did Warren suddenly become America’s preacher, by the way?
According to the story, Obama chose him, not Congress. It’s a little odd, but probably a good reaching-across-the-aisle gesture.
Attrition. He seems to be the only megachurch guy not dealing with a sex/drug/homosexual sex and drug/financial scandal.
According to Salon, Congress did. I suspect the blog in my OP merely oversimplified.
No, a good cross-aisle gesture would be to have a conservative preacher who doesn’t hate gay people. I’m sure one exists.
Look I’m sorry that Warren’s views on gay marriage and gays is upsetting, but the man is as good as it gets for a pastor/leader with conservative religious views.He represents a great number of Americans. Given all the other participants slated for the inauguration its clear to me That Obama wants to be the president of all Americans. Bush wasn’t really your president was he ? He doesn’t want to repeat that mistake.
This is bullshit.
Reaching across the aisle is all fine and good, but why for this? There are plenty of far more progressive, forward thinking religious leaders.
And besides his views on gays and on abortion, I do not like celebrity preachers like this bafoon. It just reinforces the myth that he is somehow the spokesperson for religon in this country.
I am baffled and disappointed and I just threw up in my mouth a little bit…
He’s an evangelical who’s tried to reach beyond the traditional “religious right” issues and their traditional affiliation with the Republican party to a bipartisan stance and a call for social justice. So he fits Obama’s message of bipartisanship and a stronger role of religion and religious faith in the Democratic party.
He doesn’t hate gay people as far as I can tell- he just doesn’t seem to like them very much. Plus he doesn’t like talking about them (or abortion or any other divisive issue for that matter), which makes him a cut above most evangelical preachers. Still a dick, but less of a dick. FWIW, he doesn’t seem to have much of a position on gay rights- his Wikipedia page doesn’t even have a “Controversy” section, which is pretty unusual for a public figure.
A preacher with liberal social views would probably be a Democrat, so it wouldn’t be much of a cross-aisle gesture at all.
He supported Proposition 8.
I think I’ve decided that I’ll skip watching the Inauguration and check out Obama’s speech on YouTube later that evening. This man is an utterly disgusting bigoted homophobe (among other things) and to give him such a prominent platform is beyond the pale. What, they couldn’t get Pat Robertson or Ted Haggard? Fuck.
Fuck him in the ass.
Obama himself also supports the position of Prop 8, does he not? Is there any reason to believe Warren is any worse than Obama on this issue?
Obama’s on record opposing Prop 8, although he’s also said he’s “not in favor of gay marriage” and that he believes “marriage is between a man and a woman.”
But IIRC he’s in favor of states allowing civil unions. Just not calling it the M-word.
Also, we all know that he only even says that much because he politically has to. I think the gay rights movement gets it that he doesn’t really opposes same-sex marriage (he’s actually said publicly that he would not support a Constitutional Amendment against it), but that he couldn’t have gotten elected unless he pretended that he thought the word mattered. Aside from what he has to say politically, he doesn’t appear to have a genuinely homophobic bone in his body.
Frankly the same thing can be said about Dick Cheney. I’m sure that doesn’t matter when it comes to drafting actual policy though.
Can’t speak for anyone else, but I definitely got that. I can’t imagine it’s a super high agenda with him because with the war, the economy, the Bush damages big and small, etc., there’s just so many way more pressing concerns, but I think the marriage:civil union thing and frankly a good portion of his comments on his faith were political expedience.
And Warren’s not a homophobe at all. Some of the people whose relationships he has said are on par with incest, child molesting, and non consentual polygyny and who he’s proud of urging hundreds of thousands of people to vote against via email and phone calls are close personal friends. He’s even eaten in gay homes (where the meal consisted of a gay mushroom appetizer, moved on to a homosexual salad with pederast dressing, a main course of sodomite roast pork, catamite potatoes au gratin, sapphic asparagus, same sex melon, and a dessert of packed fudge in a plaid dish).
Somehow, the really calm televangelists and fundies like Warren and Dobson and Robertson are way higher on my “wanna slap 'em, wanna slap 'em hard” list. The Hagees and the Falwells and the Crouch’s and their ilk don’t bother me half as much- they seem somehow less hyocritical and less dangerous.
So regardless of his stated opposition of Prop 8, my statement that he supports the position of Prop 8 is correct, yes? Or was there more to Prop 8 than preventing same sex couples from getting married?
The difference is that Warren supported Proposition 8 while Obama opposed it. And there is more to Prop 8 than prventing same sex couples from getting married…it’s amending the California Constitution to prevent same sex couples from getting married. You can at the same time oppose same sex marriage and believe that there shouldn’t be a constitutional amendment prohibiting it.