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Monday 
22 December 2008
too much compromise
rick warren is a right-wing evangelical zealot.
joe biden wants us to overlook that and say ‘hey, pastor rick’s entitled to his opinion. let us pray together at, say, the inaugural invocation!’
“Barack Obama said you’ve got to reach out. You’ve got to reach a hand of friendship across the aisle and across philosophies in this country.” — joe biden
reaching out to rick warren without purell? eewww.
over the past few years, the right’s idea of compromise was telling opponents to go fuck themselves.
fun fact: since democrats regained control of congress, republicans have set records for obstruction and filibuster. the stated goal of the gop is to prevent democrats from accomplishing anything.
the takeaway is that the right is unwilling to sit at the table in good faith. despite this, the obama administration wants to get all post-partisany and embrace an embodiment of right-wing antipathy in good ol’ pastor rick.
thanks, really, but no.
Warren doesn’t just oppose gay marriage, he’s compared it to incest and pedophilia. He doesn’t just want to ban abortion, he’s compared women who terminate pregnancies to Nazis and the pro-choice position to Holocaust denial.
Speaking of Jews, Warren has publicly stated his belief that they will burn in hell, presumably along with everyone else who hasn’t accepted his particular brand of Christianity (i.e., the vast majority of people in the world). And forget about evolution — the existence of homosexuals, he’s argued, disproves Darwin. And while we may not know how old the Earth is, the Saddleback website assures us that dinosaurs and humans coexisted.
warren’s beliefs are a provocation, not an invocation. asking him to speak at the inaugural isn’t reaching out: it’s heresy. the man has no business being in the same room with people who made an obama administration possible.
even if he were to renounce his most invidious views, warren would still be a poor choice for the role he’s been handed. there are people of faith — and goodwill — who would’ve been much better ambassadors of the spirit.
barack obama knows the power and importance of religious symbols. which makes his choice for this occasion all the more incongruous and dissonant.
nevertheless, joe biden wants us to like it.
sorry, once again. no.
“We’ve made too many compromises already; too many retreats. They invade our space and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here. This far, no further.” — patrick stewart in some movie
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Space, I don’t like Warren either and I can think of other, more progressive choices, like Jim Wallis.
But, this really is nothing more than a glorified cup of coffee for Warren. I continue to have faith that, while Obama will continue to make all kinds of non-partisan gestures, he’s firmly in the driver’s seat.
I keep thinking about this quote that I posted earlier this month:
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Warren is a huckster preacher. Sure Obama can invite him to a meeting at the White House on faith or whatever. But at the innauguration in front of the whole world is terrible. Giving this guy the stage was wrong. Should there be KKK representation as a way to be more inclusive? Neonazis?
If there must be an invocation then pick a figure that shares the ideas of inclusiveness. There are thousands or clergy that aren’t in of for the money or run mega churches that preach hate.
I don’t think there should be an invocation or any religious pagentry at the innaugural.
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What? Do you mean this is not “change we can believe in”? Where is the government hug?
You guys sound just like the Bush fans when he reached across the aisle. It’s like Animal Farm.
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I still contend that we’re looking at a whole new kind of leadership.
Do you really think that we have to worry that Warren will be delivering an invocation preaching hate, or that Obama is going to be beholden to the religious right for this choice?
Warren will be on his best behavior, and while we could count on quid pro quo cronyism from the Bush administration, I just don’t see it happening here.
As for doing away with the invocation, it ain’t gonna happen. Obama is going to wisely avoid stepping into any early ideological traps. He’s got a shitload of work to get done and can’t afford taking on religion’s influence on government right now.
He’s working on national healing, on chillin’ everyone out after a war of a campaign. I have faith that once he’s in office and has had some success in patching the holes in the sinking ship that he’ll start to tackle some of the more touchy topics.
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“A whole new kind of leadership” is as empty a phrase as “change we can believe in”. Without specifics, it means nothing or everything - whatever one wants it to be.
A “national healing”? If only politics were about these things, rather than actual policies and hard choices. Meet the new boss, same as the old.
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In re-reading this, it’s really remarkable how much spaceneedl sounds like Dick Cheney talking about those who disagree with him.