I have been giving Barack Obama a measure of grief for some of his Cabinet picks and, like others who have been doing the same, have been getting that grief back multiplied many times.
So, now that so many in the community are unified in their anger at Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at his Inauguration, I have the dubious pleasure of defending him, which will probably be just as poorly received.
I opposed Prop 8 and have worked as part of a broad coalition with the gay rights movement for 30 years, which isn't bad for a heterosexual guy. I do not like what Rick Warren has to say about theology. But, unlike most people here, I don't think that this choice is about "teh gays" nor about us.
This is about the Evangelical movement. Obama is Kingmaking. He's choosing their new Spokespastor.
Let's make one thing clear at the outset: The only way not to have a prominent evangelical pastor who is virulently opposed to gay marriage at this or any other political event is not to have a prominent evangelical pastor involved at all. They all share this belief. Even the better ones -- and Warren is one of the better ones given the level of his competition -- hold beliefs that are offensive to gays and all who value human rights.
So the question people should be asking is not "should Rick Warren be participating in the Inaugural?", but "should any evangelical be participating in the Inaugural?" If you answer "yes," then I submit that there is a very good case that the follow-up question -- "which one?" -- leads you, as it has Obama, to Rick Warren.
Now there is a strong argument for saying that evangelicals should be kept entirely out of this event and any other honors than Obama may bestow during this Administration. As has been pointed out, evangelical beliefs are, indeed, an insult to gays, to Jews, often to Catholics, and to many others.
On the other hand, they are 25-45% of the population. Obama wants them to feel included and to want their goodwill in the times ahead. He probably wants to create dissonance inside them more than he does with us. If they find themselves working with and depending on a pro-choice, pro-gay President and movement, then maybe they'll decide that they can keep their religion out of politics and be more likely to let the progressive aspects of their nature influence their vote. (It happened this year. "Evangelicals for Obama" gives you 1.3 million Google hits.)
My main point in this diary is not to weigh in on that debate. All I have left to say there is that people shouldn't be saying "Rick Warren doesn't deserve XYZ," but "no evangelical deserves XYZ," if that's your conclusion as you answer the question I pose above. That simple change strongly affects how one reads today's diaries.
On to the main point:
Barack Obama chose Rick Warren because he wants him to be the next "Billy Graham."
Billy Graham is the person who has more or less been the cultural leader of evangelicals in polite society. He's the one who has been the "Friend of the President" for 50 years or so. He is clearly conservative and also pretty clearly Republican, but he has always maintained congenial relations with Democrats and it has always been possible to imagine Billy Graham supporters being liberal and voting Democratic.
It should surprise no one that there is much jockeying for position within the evangelical movement these days, with Graham leaving the scene. Search Google for "Rick Warren criticism" and you will find much more calumry from conservatives than from liberals. The reasons are ones that make Warren more palatable from our perspective: he has a generally more permissive theology, one that values good works (even if supposedly not for their own sake), one that does not make the angry thrill of censoriousness the main attraction to his church. I disagree with lots of what he has to say. But: as with Billy Graham, I see how it is very much possible to be a Rick Warren follower and to be a liberal and/or a Democrat.
As a purely political calculation, his being "The Next Billy Graham" is as good as we're going to get out of the evangelical movement. We can work with the guy even while opposing him.
The odds were that, after Graham, we were not going to be so lucky. I realize that I'm conflating evangelicism and fundamentalism here, but we should be expecting someone following in the footsteps of Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell to be America's Next Top Evangelical Pastor. For it to be Warren -- whose views offend, who was dead wrong on Prop 8, but who is not inclined to whip people up against liberals as his first priority -- is an amazing stroke of luck.
And so, Obama is treating him like a more-or-less friend. If you want to feel good about it, think about how this is making all of the other prominent evangelical pastors feel. (The anger of the people whom David Paterson will pass over in appointing Hillary's replacement is nothing compared to what these people and their followers feel.) The notion that Rick Warren here continues his rise to cultural prominence is driving them barking mad. It's probably also pissing off the Republicans who would like to see someone like Pastor John Hagee having Warren's cultural cachet.
That is what I think this is about. We're not being Sister Souljah'd here. Rather, Rick Warren is turning into the evangelical's version of Joe Lieberman -- to our benefit. Lots of conservatives and Republicans hate Lieberman too, remember; it's why he wasn't on the ticket. Well, now Warren is, more than before, the guy who gets to go on the Sunday news shoes, and they don't like it any more than when Lieberman would go on there representing Democrats.
I don't always agree with Obama, but in this case -- once one decides that no, we do not want to use his Administration to tell homophobic evangelicals to disappear from public life completely -- he's making the smart move. Gays are right to be insulted and should certainly demand and get compensation for having to endure this insult. But, in the long term, all of us, gay and straight, are better off if Rick Warren rather than someone rabid and radical is chosen as America's Next Top Evangelical Pastor. President Obama has just cast his vote.
Now, I'd like to see more discussion of what should be demanded of him in response to this insult.