Obama reaching across the lines -- Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the inauguration
It appears that the Rev. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church
has been asked to deliver the invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration. Some of Obama's supporters are Not Happy. People For the American Way says:
It is a grave disappointment to learn that pastor Rick Warren will give the invocation at the inauguration of Barack Obama.
Pastor Warren, while enjoying a reputation as a moderate based on his affable personality and his church's engagement on issues like AIDS in Africa, has said that the real difference between James Dobson and himself is one of tone rather than substance. He has recently compared marriage by loving and committed same-sex couples to incest and pedophilia. He has repeated the Religious Right's big lie that supporters of equality for gay Americans are out to silence pastors. He has called Christians who advance a social gospel Marxists. He is adamantly opposed to women having a legal right to choose an abortion.
All of which is true, if spun to be negative. Warren is hugely popular with his bible-themed "Purpose Driven" guides for how to live a more meaningful life. His focus on AIDS in Africa and the plight of the poor resonate powerfully with those who suggest that abortion and gay marriage aren't the totality of conservative Christian issues.
And he is theologically very much a Southern Baptist who has made it clear
in recent interviews that he has not strayed from the SBC position on some hotbutton issues.
All of which makes the selection look like one of many being made by the Obama transition team to reach across some longstanding lines of division. Is this a Good Thing or a Bad Thing? Depends on whether you think those lines should be impermeable boundaries of principle or if you think they are artificial impediments to progress...
Dude, that article is a year old!