I live in a red state. I am old enough to remember Jim Crow statutes. I was part of changing those statutes and had personal encounters with Mr Crow that were beyond tolerably pleasant description. And I know what a KKK preacher looks like. Despite the uninformed musings of some reactionaries that post here Rick Warren isn't even close to a KKK preacher. To say he was is to make light of outrages some of us actually lived through.
There is no movement for Civil Rights that wins every goal overnight. The original Montgomery bus boycott didn't aim to end segregation on buses. It asked only for the just slightly more humane allocation of more seats for the majority of riders who would remain in the back of the bus. I do not ask any soul to remain in the back of any bus. I just don't know how to make things as they should be by magic. I have no magic wand. Martin Luther King, John Kennedy, the Supreme Court - no one has both the ability and propensity to change things fast. Neither does the new President. He does know how to change things faster than most his critics, though.
The average parishioner in a radical fundamentalist church has one trusted source of news. The preacher is the only one many fundamentalists trust. These preachers essentially control many towns and some counties. If enough fundamentalists preachers share a view it often becomes the usually twisted vision guiding law in several red states.
These preachers are less prone to violence lately than they have been in my lifetime. But restraint from violence may end sometime here. This is no small difference. Being lynched is much worse than being deprived otherwise. Warren seems as unlikely to lead a Klan church as Billy Ghramm.
The loss of a child to a fundamentalist church is no light matter. It happens constantly and at all ages. It is a loss of intimacy with a child that is devastating. Most would prefer a beating from the Klan, I suspect, than a child alienated by a radical fundamentalist church.
I realize the cultural warriors in the countries Metropolis lost a lot when Warren was allowed to say a word at the inaugural. I'm just not sure what that was. I have tried wishing fundamentalists away. When I open my eyes - there they still are.
In the belly of the fundamentalist beast we have a ton more people that will watch all the inaugural events only because Warren will be on the dais. That's an opportunity to change things where they most need changing. Some child will see a man on the dais her preacher speaks well of. Maybe a call to a parent alienated by religion and excommunicated by politics takes place just because there seem to be lions and lambs laying together now. Tolerance grows under such juxtapositions of disparate beliefs. And tolerance is the best outcome in this day.
Treating Rick Warren as a pariah doesn't end threats to reproductive freedom or gay bashing. On the contrary - it will hurt mean spirited ignorance and intolerance most to have dialogue with their proponents. The proponent of intolerance has to hide. He withers in the sun like a slug if he comes out. Let the fundamentalist church show it's members an alternative future - the hope of a prosperity that allows a celebration of motherhood by all women, a culture that values all life (even of foreigners and non-Christians and even of the worst criminals). Let the fundamentalist church see a vision of gay people bound by the same conservative institutions that guide the conduct of married straight people.
They will hear Warren. But they will also hear the closing pastor who is a lion for tolerance, a proponent of gay marriage, and in every living room where Warren is heard on inaugural day. Should the topic turn on tolerance I guarantee you the light of day will shrivel the argument of the intolerant. And the topic of tolerance will surely be raised by the better angel on Obama's dais. Joseph E. Lowery is going to help make this inagural day one where tolerance increases.
I am quite sure that liberals in the middle of a lake of liberals know how to turn out the vote for their causes. But they don't know how to turn the hearts of their enemies. It surely doesn't happen by ignoring them or treating them like pariahs. In the red states where tolerance is as scarce as water in Death Valley we know how to exploit our opportunities. And Obama has given us a wealth of opportunities.
Liberals should never fear the words of the intolerant. They are welcome in the open because they can always be defeated when they are met with the sunshine of a more tolerant vision for this country!