See, I asked nicely.
I recognize that many are hurt about Barack Obama's choice of Rick Warren to pray over his inauguration, and I understand that given recent events, I do. I frankly am a little confused myself about his support of Proposition 8. It would appear that he(along with many Californians) was a little confused about what Prop 8 meant. There seems to be this fear that churches would be forced to perform marriages that would violate their values.
This is wrong on two levels of course:
A: There is no such provision in the law, Catholics refuse to marry people that are in a state of sin(e.g. living together outside of marriage, etc.)
B: What gay couple would want to go to a church that didn't believe in gay marriage and force them to marry them? That is a somewhat twisted proposal.
Comparisons that put Rick Warren up against James Dobson and Pat Robertson though really don't portray Rick for what he has done and accomplished. He has been a champion of the AIDS crisis. He has pushed his followers to do more than pontificate on Sunday morning, but to do work in their community and in the world that positively affects people(and not just spiritually, but physically and materially as well. We should also remember that he has come to Obama's defense before as well and taken hits from the far right because of it. We should remember this story from 2006:
Some time ago, Rick Warren, megapastor of the Saddleback Church in Orange County and author of the mega-seller The Purpose-Driven Life, along with his wife Kay, invited Democratic Sen. Barack Obama to speak today at the second annual AIDS conference at Warren's church. Other politicians were to participate, notably Sen. Sam Brownback, a born-again Christian turned conservative Catholic who, like Obama, may have presidential ambitions. But while Brownback was to speak to his natural constituency, Obama's participation is a divisive issue for one overriding reason: he is pro-choice.
That Warren should lend him a lectern has infuriated the pro-life activists and general hard-liners on the religious right. Conservative talk radio host Kevin McCullough wrote on his blog, "Why would Warren marry the moral equivalency of his pulpit — a sacred piece of honor in evangelical traditions — to the inhumane, sick and sinister evil that Obama has worked for as a legislator?" An open letter signed by Phyllis Schlafly, head of the conservative Eagle Forum, and 17 other less prominent figures, most from anti-abortion groups, contended "If Senator Obama cannot defend the most helpless citizens in our country, he has nothing to say to the AIDS crisis. You cannot fight one evil while justifying another." The din became sufficiently loud that Saddleback posted a response stressing Warren's disagreement with Obama on abortion but noting that "Obama was invited to share his views on AIDS, not abortion or any other issue."
I remember watching Meet The Press when Jon Meacham and Rick Warren, and Rick giving this answer when asked about the issue:
But there—it goes back to the stability issue that I deeply believe is missing in our world. And that is, you don’t have to agree with everything a person believes in order to work with them. And we need leaders who work for the common good, not a single-issue people. I feel deeply about pro-life, very deeply about it. I’m a staunch pro-lifer. But I will work with anyone on anything if we can work together. If you can only work with people you agree with on everything, you’ve ruled out the entire world. Because nobody agrees with you on everything. I can’t even get my wife to agree with me on everything.
So lets be clear on this, the President-elect is friends with Rick Warren, They have known eachother for some time. They disagree on some social issues, but they do agree on finding common ground where everyone can work together to achieve common goals.
That is what Pastor Warren will be praying about, and he is a great emmissary for that.
Rick will not be pushing a pro-life agenda.
Rick will not be pushing a anti-gay agenda.
Rick will be asking God to give us unity of purpose, and that while some of us will never agree on some things, he will pray that we can learn how to set those differences aside and work together and solve the things we do agree on.
And Rick is exactly the person to pray that prayer.
Besides, Warren's prayer is not what we are going to be talking about on January 21st. We'll be talking about Obama's amazing inaugural address.