Thoughts on Obama and Rick Warren
Dec 18th, 2008 by nick
It seems that some liberals are up in arms over Barack Obama’s choice of Rick Warren to give the religious invocation at his inauguration. While I certainly disagree with Warren on some key issues, gay rights and marriage equality foremost among them, this choice does not bother me. For too long, liberals have insisted on ideological purity. Look where that got us in 2000, with enough progressives voting for Ralph Nader instead of Al Gore to swing the election to Bush. If we liberals shun everyone who disagrees with us on any one issue, we’ll never sustain an electoral majority or make any practical progress on important issues. I think it’s a good sign that Obama is putting his money where his mouth is and forging alliances with people with whom he doesn’t agree on every issue. Rick Warren would be a great ally for the Obama administration in its work on global warming and environmentalism. Perhaps Warren would even be willing to put his money where his mouth us in regard to abortion, and work with the Obama administration to reduce unwanted pregnancies and the need for abortions, something about which both pro-life and pro-choice people should hopefully agree.
That said, I sympathize with supporters of gay rights who feel that Warren’s selection, combined with his recent support of Proposition 8 in California, and general opposition to gay rights and marriage equality, is a slap in the face. But there’s always going to be some point of disagreement with anyone. I don’t even agree with Obama himself on every issue, but I voted for him nonetheless.
Frankly, Obama’s choice of Warren to give the invocation bothers me less than the fact that the inauguration will contain a religious component in the first place. Obama was elected as the president of all Americans, not just the Christians. The inclusion of a prayer in the inauguration gives the appearance of improper and unconstitutional collusion between church and state.