I need to write this for the sole reason that I do not understand why we liberals, who are people who fight for the equality of every person, no matter if their white, black, latino, asian, gay, straight, rich or poor, are getting so mad at just an invitation by our next president to a renown Evangelical leader.
Update: After reading the first responses to this diary this is what I can sense:
Many Daily Kos liberals view evangelical believes and their pastors the same way the republicans view Islam, with intense hate, anger and insultive opinions, just because the views of each group are not 100% supported by the groups they critizise.
I think I need to say this, Daily Kos does not represent liberalism in America.
Final update:
Thanks to all the people who discussed this topic with rationality and not emotions. We need to be the educated left not the angry mob.
First of all, this is just an invocation, and Obama already has a liberal pastor invocating. He needs a conservative one as well, just for the sake of keeping honest to his message of unity in America. For hardcore liberals, no conservative, right wing evangelical leader will please them because every pastor,in order to fit the believes of that community,has to have certain views that are antagonistic to progressive values. This is not rocket science. There is no renown pastor of that community who believes in gay marriage. There is NONE.
For that reason, if Obama chooses any pastor who is a conservative evangelical he will end up with people who are against his ideological believes. Evidently, as everyone who is mature enough in this community, should understand there is no person who is 100% in accord with your ideology, no one. For that reason, I see no fault at all in Obama choosing a pastor of this community for his invocation as President for ALL AMERICANS, not just DAILY KOS AMERICA. This sector of society emcompanses 25% of our people and for that reason alone it is important to have them represented as well.
Some people will say, how can Obama choose people who are against gay rights to be part of anything he does? I would answer that by saying that Rick Warren is only giving an invocation, he is not part of the cabinet, no part of the advising team, not part of the Obama administration whatsoever. He is just giving a prayer in his inaguration. Some would say, this gives the wrong sybolism because Obama will be having an anti gay person doing such an honor. To this I say, that Obama is having a person who fights against AIDS, who wants to help erradicate poverty, who agrees with the social issues of churchs and wants them to help improve our communities. Does he have anti-gay right believes? Yes he does. Does it matter? No it doesnt. Obama does not share those believes and inviting him to do a prayer is a symbolism that Obama respects everyone of every ideology and wants them to feel like he is their president as well.
Finally, I would like to state that I believe in gay marriage and think they deserve all the rights everyone elses have, but choosing Warren is not going to hurt this cause of equality. It helps it. I say this because it gives Obama more credibility to a community that shares a belief system which is different from ours. It can create bridges that could lead at some point to our ultimate goals. We should not get mad at Obama and call him names, and we should not insult Warren for his believes. We cannot conduct ourselves in the eye for an eye mentality of criminalizing those who believe gays should not marry. That is just bringing ourselves down to their level.
Instead, we should be true liberals and respect them and our differences with them even. Attacking them and calling them names is not going to solve the problem, it creates more problems as well. Fighting fire with fire burns us all, and weakens society as a consequence.
One last note, if Obama wants to talk with people who want to destroy America and say they hate our country, why cant he talk with people who just share a belief that gays are lower people. It is a belief I find wrong but it is one that in most cases, like the ones of my grandparents, is just the fact of being educated differently. For that reason, we should focus in educating the younger more open generations and give our sympathethic hands to those who have not open their eyes yet. Have mercy in them and respect them please. They are human beings too.
UPDATE: RICK WARREN IS NOT A BIGOT, HE JUST OPPOSES GAY MARRIAGE LIKE 75% of AMERICANS.