Obama's Poor Choice - Rick Warren
Many in the LGBT Community are saddened, even very angry about President Elect Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation and the inauguration in January. I too am saddened and extremely disappointed. While Obama defends his choice by saying that he is trying to bring people together (which was his whole campaign theme), this choice is actually pulling people apart, and I find it hard to believe that he doesn't see that. Rick Warren is the senior pastor of Saddleback Church, a mega church in Southern California.
So why is this a bad choice? The inauguration is going to be seen world wide. The people who will be part of it will be seen world wide. It sets a tone for what that President is going to be. So what is an invocation? The definition from wikipedia: The act or form of calling for the assistance or presence of some superiorbeing; earnest and solemnentreaty; esp., prayer offered to a divine being.
The LGBT Community threw it's support behind Obama. While Obama opposes gay marriage in favor of civil unions, and he also opposed Proposition 8 (though did verly little to help the No on 8 campaign), his choice of Warren is contradictory to what Obama believes.
In an interview with Beliefnet.com, Warren has since equated allowing loving same-sex couples to get married with redefining marriage to permit incest and pedophilia. And he has repeated one of the Religious Right's big lies: that somehow allowing marriage equality to stand would have threatened the freedom of preachers like him to say what they thought about homosexuality. That's not remotely true, but it's a standard tool of Religious Right leaders trying to resist the public's increasing support for equality. Why exactly is he being given the high honor of delivering the invocation at one of the most historic ceremonies in American history?
A few of my friends are saying that while it is a bad choice, this is not a battle worth fighting or getting that upset over. So what defines what battles should be fought? Every battle where there is clear injustice should be fought. This is not the time to be dividing the country. If Obama really wants to bring the nation together, choose people who do that. Warren does not. I heard a comment on a morning radio show here in the bay area, that it's time that LGBT people stop electing people who really don't fully support us.
Obama's choice has sent a clear message to the LGBT Community. We really don't have a seat at the table. We're stuck at the kiddie table.
So why is this a bad choice? The inauguration is going to be seen world wide. The people who will be part of it will be seen world wide. It sets a tone for what that President is going to be. So what is an invocation? The definition from wikipedia: The act or form of calling for the assistance or presence of some superiorbeing; earnest and solemnentreaty; esp., prayer offered to a divine being.
The LGBT Community threw it's support behind Obama. While Obama opposes gay marriage in favor of civil unions, and he also opposed Proposition 8 (though did verly little to help the No on 8 campaign), his choice of Warren is contradictory to what Obama believes.
In an interview with Beliefnet.com, Warren has since equated allowing loving same-sex couples to get married with redefining marriage to permit incest and pedophilia. And he has repeated one of the Religious Right's big lies: that somehow allowing marriage equality to stand would have threatened the freedom of preachers like him to say what they thought about homosexuality. That's not remotely true, but it's a standard tool of Religious Right leaders trying to resist the public's increasing support for equality. Why exactly is he being given the high honor of delivering the invocation at one of the most historic ceremonies in American history?
A few of my friends are saying that while it is a bad choice, this is not a battle worth fighting or getting that upset over. So what defines what battles should be fought? Every battle where there is clear injustice should be fought. This is not the time to be dividing the country. If Obama really wants to bring the nation together, choose people who do that. Warren does not. I heard a comment on a morning radio show here in the bay area, that it's time that LGBT people stop electing people who really don't fully support us.
Obama's choice has sent a clear message to the LGBT Community. We really don't have a seat at the table. We're stuck at the kiddie table.