Axelrod: Warren Prayer "A Healthy Thing And A Good Thing"

Politico:

Top Obama adviser David Axelrod strongly defended the selection of evangelical pastor Rick Warren to deliver the opening prayer at the inauguration, telling moderator David Gregory on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the nation needs to get beyond "shaking our fists" across a political divide.

...

"You have a conservative evangelical pastor who's coming to participate in the inauguration of a progressive president," Axelrod said from Chicago. "This is a healthy thing and a good thing for our country. We have to find ways to work together on the things on which we do agree, even when we profoundly disagree on other things."

Read the whole story: Politico

Comments

[USA2Sense]

Axelrod - I didn't think you were stupid enough to condone the choice of Rick Warren to speak at the Inauguration -

So far (0ther than this) you've proven yourself to be an astute thinking man! What happened?

[Pupster]

Maybe he's right and you're wrong...

[maxfax]

Come on David, Warren is a bigot, who needs to recant his hatred against gays.

[arkansasgirl]

I think Mr. Axelrod is wrong. I believe that if you support and enable people who preach hate then you support and enable that hate and allow it to flourish.

[Agent420]

A tempest in a teapot. Who cares who reads crap about myths and fairy tales. Let him have his fun.

Words are not the thing, just because someone says something does not make it true. The truth requires proof and you myth believers need to ask your imaginary friend why he allows gays and lesbians to exist. Is it because it is a myth with no real power or is is because he likes them.

[USA2Sense]

YES, (Agent420) but 'word's influence people, and people influence policy, and policy influences governments, and governments influence nations, and nations influence the world......

For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost, for want of a horse the battle was lost, for want of a battle the war was lost -

Think a little before you (Agent420) make unconsidered remarks.......that are really downright ignorant!

[Pupster]

Anybody who blames a nail for losing a war sounds rather incompetent. Rumsfeld?

[reedmaker]

Toni Morrison said is best in her Nobel Prize acceptance speech:

"Oppressive language does not represent violence. It is violence."

A man like Obama, whose popularity has depended so heavily on the weight of his words, should understand this better than anyon.

[AbbieXHoffman]

BO screwed up and can't walk back on it. I get it. But neither should gays from speaking out. This is part of democracy.

“It takes pressure, it takes marching, it takes demonstrating, it takes those forces that make a democracy work.
--Colin Powell on the civil rights movement for AAs. Same agenda applies to gays denial of civil rights. The pressure will be put where it's due.

[dagdavid]

Come on, Axelrod, quit trying to spin this stupid decision. There shouldn't be a prayer anyway.

[ThunderclapNewman]

There have been invocations and benedictions at every inauguration going back to Washington's.

I don't like anything about Warren, and I wish he hadn't been included, but it really doesn't have any substantive meaning for him to offer a prayer.

[Agent420]

That may be true, but that does not mean that they are required. In fact, they are not.

[youngat80]

And who of us remembers who prayed at any one of those inaugurations?
Billy Graham--but do you really remember it, or just risking a guess?
An invocation is actually an invitation to the God one worships to be present in the ceremony or rite. Some may be eloquent, but is still addressed to God, not the listeners.
Some of us who hear the spoken invocation may be drawn to enter into worship of the God we worship, Others will dismiss the prayer as bowing down to an unproven myth.
However you respond, you should respect the right of others to hold their own belief.

[SurrealPumpkin]

The most important part of the interview wasn't mentioned in this article. Axlerod stated that Obama is still committed to civil rights for all Americans. He was forceful about it. I think it was the strongest (loudest) his voice got during the interview.

Be angry, but don't give up hope yet.

[AbbieXHoffman]

He was forceful because he knows the irony that the first black president would be insensitive to civil rights has been revealed and he's ticked because he knows it's a valid point and he has no one to blame but himself and BO for allowing this to be revealed. He also knows that BO can't come out forcefully for gays right to marry if he wants to be re-elected--it's quite a pickle they put themselves in and they have no one to blame but themselves.

It's an irony that they can't run away from.

Having said that, I think all the noise that has been raised and BO's likeliness to listen to those that disagree with him may actually make BO pay more attention to gay issues and do something (although he will stop short of full gay marriage) about it instead of putting it on the back burner.)

In his first term he's repeal DADT. In his second term he'll work for civil unions (still not good enough though).

[Agent420]

Please repost in a readable form.

[AguynamedWayne]

Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood.

- Coretta Scott King

[ThunderclapNewman]

An excellent, and telling, quote.

[rgmwdc]

Great quote from Mrs. King.

[Jezreel]

Rick Warren's views on gay marriage are shared by nearly 70% of Americans. On this issue I agree with David Axelrod, Obama made a good decision in choosing Rick Warren to deliver a 2 minute opening prayer at the Inaugural Ceremony.

[AguynamedWayne]

At one time over 70% of Americans shared a view that slavery was right. They were all wrong.

[pupbayer]

I'm sure they think that is "different."

[pupbayer]

I have friends with whom I disagree on some issues. I have no friends who are racist, sexist, or anti-gay because those are not "issues" but core values that cannot be compromised. I have to wonder what core values Obama has that he counts this b.igot as a friend and sees him worthy of the honor of actively participating in one of the biggest days in Obama's life and an historic day in this country's day.

[Pupster]

And yet you worship Sarah Palin. I heard she has gay friends too, though she fails to name them and she claims to "tolerate" them. Do you have double standards when it comes to Warren and your hero Sarah?

[youngat80]

What is the basis for your statement that Rick Warren's views on gay marriage are shared by nearly 70% of Americans?

[indypete]

Perhaps there is a certain amount of.... disconnect in the way dems, libs, lefties and other supporters of Obama are approaching this whole Warren deal. Personally, I don't like the choice but I'm just one fellow and, quite frankly, I'd like to see the whole prayer-at-the-inauguration thing get thrown out the window anyway but a cartoon from the editorial pages illustrates one way to look at it.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/215/gallery/58549-a58540-t3.html

[scooperss]

Good one.

[M1]

An insensitive choice and a mistake. NO spin will change the facts. It is what it is.

[Jessegirl]

Why oh why Warren again?

Oh gawd I'm sick of this mans face.
He's getting way more attention than he should ever deserve.
That useless "conversation" out in Saddleback was enough to tell me how much he
REALLY cared about getting to the 'truth' of things.
I pray he loses his voice.

[Solja]

I find it interesting how Democrats (my fellow brothers/sisters) think change was only for the Republican Party; that we weren't expected to participate in being part of the change. Very interesting!

I also find it quite interesting that gays/lesbians, etc. are screaming for "inclusiveness" in the world by demanding "exclusiveness" when it comes to Rick Warren's participation in Barack's Inauguration. Isn't it prejudiced to exclude Warren from "our" event because he doesn't agree with us or because he isn't like us or doesn't like us? I am a heterosexual woman and all I can hear is Warren doesn't believe in being gay so he shouldn't be able to participate. That's not fair. It's the pot calling the kettle black.

[iwantpie]

Agreed 100% with you.

[M1]

You hear only what you want to hear.

[PallinAround]

Another instance of the pot calling the kettle black.

[useyourbrain]

Jeepers! Can you hear what you're saying? You have it reversed, it's the "gays" that are being excluded from the inauguration (I don't count one of a few dozen marching bands). The platform will be full of heterosexual christians -- many of them bigots like Warren (check him out on women's rights, choice, stem cell research, reparative therapy, support for the horrid Anglican Bishop of Nigeria who wants to criminalize just being gay, assassination of foreign leaders, etc.)

He can be invited but it's giving the friggin' INVOCATION that is the issue. This bigot is blessing Obama and his Presidency. Ideally, there should be no religious aspect of what is a civil event but if you're going to have someone, have someone more inclusive -- how about Rev. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Bishop in the US? He preaches love and acceptance to ALL , even straight evangelicals.

[PimpOmega]

He compared homosexuality with polygamy and child molestation. Seriously, this is the person you want to participate in the inauguration? As far as I'm concerned, all you Republicans deserve to be in the garbage can after the last 8 years.

[PallinAround]

Why does there need to be a prayer at all? That's an affront to atheists... do you care about their rights and feelings? And please don't come back with "but they can get married to whoever they want, so that's different" -- no, it's not -- it's allowing something offensive to a group of American citizens to occur at the inauguration -- that's the point.

[Pupster]

So you're happy to throw half the country away and deny them any say in government. How very Rove-like of you. 50+1 is a failed strategy.

[AbbieXHoffman]

No one who works to deny civil rights to another American should be honored, period.

You can reach out to them and bridge understanding, but a national honor is morally wrong. It was an ENORMOUS mistake and BO and Axlerod know that. And it's highly ironic that BO would be insensitive to civil rights.

The unveiling of the irony that the first black president would be insensitive to civil rights really ticking off BO and Axlerod because they know it's true and they only have themselves to blame for it.

Screaming at those who point this out this truth, is useless.

[Pupster]

And yet Obama's approval rating continues to rise.

I'm fine with his choice of Warren, and I'm a liberal from NYC.

[carrierobertson]

http://www.pubrecord.org/religion/583-proselytizing-in-the-military-likely-to-continue-under-obama.html

Proselytizing in the Military Likely to Continue Under Obama

Barack Obama's decision to have the evangelical megachurch leader Rick Warren conduct the invocation at next month's presidential inauguration proves that fundamentalist Christians still wield enormous power within the federal government and will likely continue to be a dominating force under an Obama administration.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the U.S. military where, for the past several years, in apparent violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, chaplains have openly proselytized to thousands of active-duty soldiers and, in some cases, have tried to convert Iraqis and Afghans to Christianity.

[Solja]

You sound like a right-winger. Go sit in the corner.

[bluekatz]

Did you expect anything different from Axlerod or anyone from the Obama camp?

Rick Warrren=poor choice, bad decision

[Solja]

To answer your question, NO, I didn't expect anything different. I expected them to keep their word, and they did. Barack campaigned on bringing people who disagree together, and that we don't have to be disagreeable to disagree. If you were a supporter of his during the campaign, you probably loved the thought of that. Now you don't want to play with those who disagree with you. I think the problem is with you, not them.

[useyourbrain]

Then invite Rev. Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopalian Bishop, who disagrees with Obama on gay marriage. What does Warren believe that is different than Obama? Maybe not assassinating the President of Iran, but that's it.

Warren doesn't bring people together. No one who equates gays with pedophiles brings people together.