Obama Invocation

It's of no interest to me whether Rick Warren appears as an empathetic or warmhearted man. What matters is what comes out of his mouth. What he preaches, what he and his church stand for.

When Barack Obama's presidential campaign contacted Ryan Culp last year to ask him to deliver a prayer at an Obama rally in Culp's native Elkhart, Ind...

If our new president is truly devoted to change, he will separate, once and for all, the sloppy, congealed mess that is Church and State. He will allow us to shed unsolicited religious ideology which suffocates us like a dirty, wet t-shirt.

Through this visible Inaugural platform, President-elect Obama and Dr. Rick Warren have opportunity together to move beyond sectarian interest to national interest.

Frank Lambert's Religion in American Politics is a perfect starting point for understanding just how deep the tradition of liberal religious activism runs.

Obama would move on -- he'd refuse to be distracted. He'd brush the dirt off his shoulder and immediately return his focus to winning.

In 2006, Rick Warren publicly lionized (literally) Peter Akinola three months after the Archbishop had endorsed legislation more draconian than comparable anti-gay statutes passed prior to World War II under the Third Reich.

This isn't necessarily another angry take on Rick Warren. This is about fighting back in the age of Obama.

While Saddleback Church removed several entries from its website, a not-so-gay-friendly manifesto is back up. This wasn't a removal of homophobia, but revisionism for PR purposes.

If there is a rational argument against gay marriage, I have yet to see it. And this is why Obama's invitation to Warren might just work. A major limitation to progressive thinking is our over-reliance on rational debate.

Remember, it's not about swaying our hard-lined opponents, it's about talking to those in the middle. That is done with composure and, more importantly, respect.

The gay marriage issue has intruded so profoundly on gay politics that I am told I should protest the inauguration of Obama, because he invited a minister to say a prayer whose main priorities are climate change, poverty, and AIDS.

Obama can call the placing of a hate monger like Rick Warren on the world dais political healing or inclusiveness or any other nicety he'd like, but I call it pandering to the lowest instinct of the worst kind of politics.

I'm not defending Rick Warren. But if the worst thing that happens during the Obama presidency is that he lets a hate-mongering idiot speak at his inauguration I'll be ecstatic.

Why does Obama have Rick Warren delivering the invocation? Politics, naturally. It's a way to keep slicing off some of what has traditionally been a Republican vote.

The best way to understand Warren's remark about supposedly loving "gays" is to look at his own church's policy statement about lesbian and gay people.

With the magnitude of the recent media attention, you'd think Rick Warren had been chosen for a Cabinet post, rather than a small segment of a one-day affair.

Obama's version of the game has always been bridge building. He's completely serious about reaching out, transcending red and blue, and etc. But this is a bridge too far.

How is it that queers became the odd ones out at such a momentous turning point in history? By pushing an agenda of stupid issues like gay marriage.

We can dialogue with them from now until the Rapture, but many evangelicals' ideas will still be anathema to most of those who elected Barack Obama.

Is Obama's choice of Rick Warren another example of the president-elect giving conservatives the visual while later giving progressives the policy?

A copy of what seemed to be a draft of an inaugural invocation by Pastor Rick Warren arrived in my fax machine this morning. I've posted it here.