the rix mix

This is absolutely shameful:

CNN) — President-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony will feature big names like minister Rick Warren and legendary singer Aretha Franklin, the Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies announced Wednesday.

Warren, the prominent evangelical and founder of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, will deliver the ceremony's invocation. The minister hosted a presidential forum at his church last summer that challenged both Obama and Arizona Sen. John McCain on a host of faith-related issues. Warren did not endorse either presidential candidate.

His public support for California's Proposition 8 — the measure that successfully passed and called for outlawing gay marriage in the state — sparked the ire of many gay rights proponents, who seized on a comment in an October newsletter to his congregation: "This is not a political issue — it is a moral issue that God has spoken clearly about."

Of course I didn't expect Obama to invite a lesbian Unitarian pastor. But why would he go out of his way to insult every supporter of LGBT rights? Who, I'll add, had to put aside some doubts about Barack's commitment to even the most basic issues like civil unions. Hillary was the more supportive candidate in the primaries. & why choose a flaky huckster of shallow, commercialized religion - Warren is an industry, not a pastor. Evangelicals don't trust him, either. An awful decision, & I don't care how personal it was or what comfort level Obama has with this creep. It's disgraceful. George W. Bush has better ministers as friends than this "purpose-driven" brand masquerading as a deep thinker. The most disturbing, disillusioning aspect is that Obama seems to have no clue as to why this pick contradicts the over-riding message of his campaign. I had thought that Obama was a spiritual seeker. Now I suspect he's actually a sucker for flim-flam preachers.

We've watched Barack Obama stock his adminstration with Clintonistas, & choose for his economic team advisors who had a hand in creating our current predicament, & let it ride with cliches like, "Oh well, he has to hit the ground running on day one." Us Obama supporters have been very big on symbolism, & were encouraged throughout the campaign to accept symbols in lieu of specifics. This symbolic selection broke the "feel good" hypnotic spell, & one specific result will be supporters of LGBT rights demanding real change, upfront, at the federal level, from day one, by presidential directive. That may be a good thing.

The most effective way to get the majority of people to accept the extension of civil rights is to extend those rights & then step back let those rights accomplish what they're supposed to accomplish, which includes acceptance. So the only "symbolic" purpose I'm willing to read into Warren's presence at the inaugural is that he won a battle but has lost the war.

Labels: blogging against theocracy, religion