Oh ho, I've got your attention now, have I?
Of all the preachers Obama could have selected to elevate and validate (and, in every sense, it was Obama’s choice), Warren is one of the most destructive—not only having been one of the most vocal supporters for Proposition 8, but also using the most inflammatory rhetoric on gay issues generally, expressing anti-abortion views in the most fanatical terms possible, and even sitting with Sean Hannity recently and urging the murder of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
(For links to all of the above about Warren, and the two paragraph below: http://pandagon.net/...
...Embracing someone like Warren is no more "inclusive" than inviting a White Supremacist or, for that matter, a Christian-hater to deliver the invocation.
People like that espouse views that are shared by many Americans; why not include them, too, or have Pat Robertson deliver a nice prayer? Obama’s "inclusiveness" mantra always seems to head only in one direction—an excuse to scorn progressives and embrace the Right . Not even Bill Clinton’s most extreme Dick-Morris-led "triangulation" tactics involved an attempt to court Jerry Falwell.
Why stop there? If you really want to show that you're not the typical Democrat, that you're breaking the mold and willing to embrace the other extreme of religion and politics, regardless of how much it ticks off your base, why not invite a racist and an anti-Semite too? Just imagine the thrill - one of America's lead civil rights activists, alongside the first black president of the United States, surrounded by men who think of them as little more than slaves. Talk about change!
But Barack Obama would never invite a high profile racist or anti-Semite to stand next to him during his swearing in, regardless of the bigot's caché. Obama did, however, invite a raging homophobe - and it's the second time now that he's done so - and we're supposed to suck it up and say "oh it's okay." Well it's not okay. It's yet another example of how when the bigot is anti-gay, somehow he's not as offensive, not as non grata, as the bigot who bashes blacks or bashes Jews. None should be acceptable, but one always is.
So the day of Obama's inauguration, millions of Obama's supporters get to watch a gay-basher, who compared our love to incest and pedophilia, who helped rip away our civil rights, share the stage with our new president. That's not change. It's the same old crap we've always had to deal with, and apparently always will.
http://www.americablog.com/...
John Aravosis at Americablog sums it up nicely:
Where are the racists, Mr. Obama? We don't see you embracing too many of them in the name of learning to agree to disagree. Or does your desire to create a new "atmosphere," and reach out to our enemies, stop when it's your own people, your own children, you'd be betraying? Funny how you only reach across the aisle when it's someone else's family, gay families in particular, getting the shaft..
http://www.americablog.com/...
Not there yet in your reasoning? Maybe you'll find something about else about Rick Warren on your list: liar, equates reproductive freedom to the Holocaust, creationist, war-mongering torture apologist.:
http://mediamatters.org/...
http://christianpost.com/...
http://www.thenation.com/...
http://firedoglake.com/...
But the worst of all, the effect of inviting Warren to the Inaugural isn't inclusive, it divides us:
Statement by Rea Carey, Executive Director
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
"President-elect Obama campaigned on a theme of inclusivity, yet the selection of Rick Warren to give the invocation is a direct affront to that very principle. This was a divisive choice, and clearly not one that will help our country come together and heal. We urge President-elect Obama to withdraw his invitation to Rick Warren and instead select a faith leader who embraces fairness, equality and the ideals the president-elect himself has called the nation to uphold."
Actually, that's the best argument I've heard to date. This is a divisive choice. It doesn't matter if Obama and his people think they're being post-partisan by picking a raging bigot to share the dais with the first black president. Warren doesn't bring us together. He tears us apart. And he already has.
http://www.americablog.com/...