Yes, I'm pissed off at the Rick Warren thing, but for more than the fact that he's a bigot who bans GLBT from his megachurch. I hope I'm not the only one thinking about this, too - but...this is a Presidential inauguration, not Mass. What are religious leaders of any faith doing in the ceremony in the first place?
I mean, I'm glad to see Reverend Lowery is at least delivering the benediction, but still... Isn't there this thing called "Separation of Church and State?" I wouldn't be angry if it were Lowery instead of Warren performing the Invocation, but that separation question would still be lingering in the back of my mind. Good or bad, simply the fact that it's two Christian leaders automatically makes some people of other faiths feel a tad rejected...probably not very strongly, but nonetheless... I'd feel the same way even if it was the Dalai Lama or a prominent Atheist figure giving the invocation or benediction.
My solution to this whole uproar: Why not just ditch the invocation and benediction altogether, and just have some well-known, non-religious figures open and close the ceremony? I think if you were to ask the majority of Americans, they would most likely be pretty satisfied if it were Aretha Franklin's performance opening the ceremony and Elizabeth Alexander's poem closing it. I know I would be.
And yeah, I know this is a bit hypocritical because Obama's probably gonna put his hand on a Bible when he takes the oath... I'm not fond of the Bible thing, either - but, really, when all is said and done, that's a relatively minor issue compared to this.
[EDIT: Although, I'd certainly be happy if we took the suggestion in one of GlowNZ's comments to this thread and made it tradition for the President to put his hand on a copy of the Constitution when he takes the oath of office...]
I don't know - I'm probably stretching a bit with this, but that question about the separation issue's been nagging at me ever since this story first broke. Argue about whether it was a calculated political decision by Obama to invite Warren or not, argue about the message of "equality" having Warren up there would be sending to the nation and the rest of the world, argue about whether or not Warren should be disinvited - all that's kinda secondary to me. I just feel there shouldn't be any religious leaders at all in the Inauguration ceremony - period.