Dear Rachel,
Electoral-Vote.com had an interesting take this morning on Obama’s pick of Warren for the Inaugural invocation:
“Gay and lesbian groups fiercely denounced Obama for letting Warren play a role in his inauguration, but Obama emphasized yesterday his support for equality for gays and lesbians. He also said he wants diverse voices to be present at his inauguration and that includes Warren. Finally, he noted that Rev. Joseph Lowery, a civil rights icon who found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, will give the closing benediction. Warren and Lowery don't agree on much and Obama pointed out that the magic of America is that it is a diverse country where multiple opinions are tolerated. The choice of Warren was no accident. Obama knew exactly what he was doing: trying to get evangelicals who voted against him to take a fresh look. Unlike many evangelical preachers who talk only about the hot-button issues, Warren is well known for saying that Christians have a duty to address world poverty and social injustice. By picking Warren, he is giving Warren (and his expanded agenda) a huge amount of credibility in the evangelical community. If Obama can get the evangelical leadership to stop focusing entirely on abortion and gay marriage and start addressing AIDS and poverty as issues, he will ultimately benefit immensely from giving Warren valuable exposure.”
In the long run (accent on long), E-V may be right.
Hopefully all this will happen sometime before history elevates Bush to Greatest President Ever status.
(every time I have to land at Reagan Airport I get air sick... reading the welcome sign)
Still, I do see reasonable logic in E-V’s hypothesis.
Obviously, homophobics are tougher to cure than hemophiliacs,
but the only way to cure them is to first desensitize them.
You have to get close enough to them for their fear to enter retrograde.
As much of a nut as Warren is, he’s a 17th century nut, and not a 7th century nut.
In other words, he’d have his minions stone you and burn you at the stake, but he wouldn’t skin you, first.
Now that’s Intelligent Design working hand-in-hand with Evolution.
Which brings me to my point:
Think of Rick Warren this way...
Warren is to other Super Church Preachers what Pat Buchanan is to other Wingnuts.
Both have been guilty of making profoundly ignorant and intolerant public statements.
Both are largely unrepentant for their past (or present) anti-humanity comments.
But my guess is that Pat likes you (and vice versa), and those folks (all 10 of them) who agree with Pat’s Right wing bombast AND watch your show may believe your contrary political positions are wrong – but are less frightened by you than other Liberal commentators. That affords you an opportunity to break the fear cycle – or at least put a dent in it.
If Maddow and Buchanan can knock a few down together, well... anything’s possible.
I hate Buchanan far less when he’s paired with you.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to regain my burning hatred of Pat at some later date.
In the meantime, you’re teaching me to coexist with the man.
In that spirit, I honestly believe Barack Obama has an opportunity to do something positive for Liberals, the LGBTC and the Country by “Palling around” with Warren.
If the President-Elect goes all Lloyd George on us and declares Rick Warren “the greatest living Christian...” well then we have a problem.
While discussing his personal Warren Commission, Obama was quick to reaffirm his support for the Gay & Lesbian community.
In a less hate-charged atmosphere, perhaps he’ll have a better chance to show some tangible signs of that support.
As a straight man, I realize it’s a lot easier to summon patience with pricks like Warren. On the other hand, he would probably deny me a pew in his church because I’m an unrepentant, lapsed-Jew with a capital Atheist.
Fundamentalist Christianity makes me pine for the days of the Calvinist monolith.
Almost.
Best,
Wally
I don't deny Rachel her right to feel outraged.
Rick Warren is a walking, talking outrage.
But in the longer run, I believe we need to find a way to invite these fear-filled folk to join us in the 21st Century.
Polarization doesn't change anything.
This week, Barack Obama took a first step.
It may blow up in his face, but he still took that step,
and that's more than I've been able to accomplish.
I'm not a pollyanna, but I'm also not a naysayer.
Whether the strategy behind the President-Elect's invitation turns out to be Quixotic or prophetic remains to be seen. The more I chew on the decision, the more hopeful I become that some good will eventually evolve from this bold decision.
Maybe that's exactly what Barack Obama had in mind.
UPDATE: So far the poll has been more favorable to Obama than the majority of the comments would suggest. An interesting phenomenon.
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