Thursday, December 18, 2008

On Rick Warren Delivering the Inauguration Invocation

I DON'T like Warren one bit. But I'm not bent out of shape over his inclusion on the program. He's not going to be a cabinet secretary. He's going to deliver a prayer. Barack is doing what he said he was going to do and while I understand some of the outrage, much more of it annoys me in its self-indulgence. GLBT people are hurt by what happened with Prop 8 in California on election day. I get that. But Barack, who was against the referendum, is telling the religious right that he's still willing to listen to them. They are, after all, still part of America. As my mother, who's an evangelical and doesn't "believe in gay marriage" but participated in my wedding anyway, is wont to say, "How can you expect anybody to listen to you if you don't listen to nobody else?"

On divisive social issues, there must be civil engagement between the extremes. Otherwise nothing will change.

Rev. Joseph Lowery is delivering the benediction. He happens to be a Black minister who is pro-gay. I'm not surprised that those so outraged by Warren say nothing of Lowery.

Quiet as it's kept, many white gay activist leaders flatout refuse to look at some of their biases around race and ethnicity.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you Craig, Something is just not sitting right with me about this outrage. Disappointment, frustration, yes....but outright hate at the President-elect? No. I don't get that. There is something bubbling under the surface, and you pointed it out perfectly.

Anonymous said...

Granted I don't read all the blogs, but the ones I do read that are critical of the Warren pick are not in any way hating on Obama. There are plenty of reasonable people of various races and ethnicities writing critiques of the Warren pick and they are not resorting to hate or stupidity.

Bernie said...

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!

I've been having this conversation most of today. We have to engage our adversaries before we can ever hope to change their minds. AND (and this is the important part), most of the people complaining, were Hillary supporters who never warmed to Obama, AND they are still looking to scapegoat the Prop 8 loss. THEY lost that issue because of a poorly conceived campaign!

Rick Warren has no real influence over most of our lives. This is a non-issue.

Anonymous said...

Well said, Craig.

Craig Hickman said...

Liza, I'm responding to what I've read. And while I agree that hate and stupidity aren't part of every criticism, the self-indulgence and short-sightedness I speak of was certainly in many remarks.

Anonymous said...

If I quoted every part of this post that I was cheering for, I would quote the whole thing.

But I will try to contain myself.

much more of it annoys me in its self-indulgence

Telling the truth.

Rev. Joseph Lowery is delivering the benediction. He happens to be a Black minister who is pro-gay. I'm not surprised that those so outraged by Warren say nothing of Lowery.

Seriously. I've noticed this too.

Quiet as it's kept, many white gay activist leaders flatout refuse to look at some of their biases around race and ethnicity.

Well, you know ..... gay means never having to say you're biased.

muriel may campbell said...

"I'm a democratic (small "d") purist"

Hey Craig,

We are small "d" purist's as well.

We want to thank you for bringing into our homes a personal accounting on this years election proccess through the eyes of a delegate




On the subject of Rick Warren

My lessor self feels:
Rev Rick Warren, the man who said that the only difference between James Dobson and himself is "one of tone rather than substance."
Warren is established in the religious right and his position on the social issues that any reasonable person would be open to, is un-Christ-like at best.As far as women's rights go, he along with his conservative group would like us to go back to the dark ages: same with gay rights,and in terms of stem cell research, once again, fear is their agenda.

Who wants to listen to that?

Looks like the politics of fear go on.

Reminds me of a paragraph by Al Franken

In the words of Al Franken:
"Bush could have challenged us to live up to our highest ideals"....
(in the way of FDR) .... the clearest path to victory ran not to the city on the hill, rather through a cemetery and past a haunted house. Instead of telling us that we had nothing to fear but fear itself, they would tell us that it was just a matter of time before the terrorist will strike again. There was a new ghost haunting the American Political landscape. A terrifying ghost. A ghost called fear." As he put it more succinctly, Bush stumping was about "fear, smears and queers"


That measure is enough to not want to listen to his Invocation, on almost any level. But then, that is not what Christ's teaching tell us. Organized religion is organized by people and we all know that we are completely flawed.
In order for the debate (that has been danced around for years) to take place, one side has to extend the olive branch and this is Obama's commitment to America and to the world entire.



Obama's choice of Rick Warren was the topic of discussion in our home last night and it got a little heated, despite our awareness of Obama's thinking and the fact that we agree with him completely, it still hurt a little when we read the press release. Especially because of the way Nov 4 played out

Election night was and still is, in part, magical. We were with some people that we barely knew, and yet i met them in a dream. The kind of dream you have when you are young and you dream about what life will be like when you are grown up. God does provide more than what we need, by way of gifts of people.

In order to keep growing we have to be very intentional about discerning information and not accepting fear based reasoning, even from those well meaning people who may leave out facts that would make their point moot.

Joe Solomnese's letter to Obama, where he calls the choice a "genuine blow to LGBT Americans".
The fact that Rev Lowery is delivering the benediction is consistant with Obama, and Lowery missed an opportunity to share that fact within the context of his rhetoric.

It has occured to us that the media is in the habit of stirring the pot. Ego sometimes sidelines the peace that passeth understanding. After all, its very survival depends on focusing on the smallness that divides us, rather than the devine that unites.
Craig, thank you for elevating the discussion, to challenge us all to open our minds and hearts at this critical point in history so that we can really be part of the solution, to work together, alongside our new President.


May we recognize the Promise of Peace, is indeed, at hand.

God Bless us Everyone