So Who Is Fit To Pray at the Inauguration?

There are many reasons that I do not envy President-Elect Barak Obama.  One of which is that I believe that he’s becoming President during one of the nation’s most trying times.  Another is that I believe he was elected because of the promises that he made during the campaign—promises that I believe he will have a hard time keeping when he’s sworn in as President.

And oh, there’s this little issue of who his supporters are and what they believe.

Rick Warren

I haven’t read The Purpose-Driven Life.  I don’t subscribe to some of the things taught in it.  I don’t believe that our goal should be the here and now, and I probably wouldn’t attend Warren’s church if I lived anywhere near that.  I think that any time the church gets involved in politics it’s got its priorities mixed up.

That said, when Pres.-Elect Obama chose Warren as the man to give the prayer at the Inauguration it made sense to me.  Here was a popular preacher, a popular author who many have read, and the man with whom he and Sen. McCain had their first debate.  I mean, it’s not like he was going to ask Rev. Jeremiah Wright to give the invocation.

Revenge of the Homosexuals

But hopped up with rage from Proposition 8’s passage and looking for any excuse to be offended, the homosexual arm of the Democrat party threw itself in a tizzy because of Warren’s biblical position on homosexuality.  I mean, let’s face it.  Every state that’s had a Marriage Amendment on the ballot has passed it.  Though people may be acceptable to the concept, they still don’t believe it to be morally equivalent.

However, you have great statements by people like V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire:

“I’m all for Rick Warren being at the table,” he told The Times, but “we’re talking about putting someone up front and center at what will be the most-watched inauguration in history, and asking his blessing on the nation. And the God that he’s praying to is not the God that I know.”

Let me see, Rev. Robinson: When’s the last time that you did a good job uniting people?  If I know my current events correctly, you just did a fine job of dividing your denomination into pieces because your personal preference and attempting to force that preference on people that disagreed with you was more important than your church’s testimony for God.

Who Would Have Been Acceptable?

If Pres.-Elect Obama had chosen a black preacher, it would have looked racist.  If he had chosen a liberal preacher, he wouldn’t have been able to claim to try to be the President of even those evangelicals that didn’t vote for him.  He he chose anyone but a Christian, most of the nation would have tuned out the prayer…

He wasn’t going to win this one, and the scary part for those of us keeping score at home is that this is a sign for things to come.  When you build your coalition of government from so many divergent groups of people—with so many of them believing you think the same as them—you’re bound to ruffle lots of feathers and cause a lot of disappointment when they see what really happens.