It's A Prayer Folks!

Look, it's not like I'm a big fan of the religious right. However, as far as crazy Evangelicals go, I actually like Rick Warren more than I do the other ones. I even bought his book some years back. It's not like he was appointed to Obama's cabinet or that he will be his spiritual adviser. Living in California where 75% of black folks voted FOR Proposition 8, it's not like I don't know more than my share of homo-bigots and people who are anti-choice despite the stupefyingly high number of out of wedlock children in the community. I think Obama is showing that his Presidency will not shut out anyone who doesn't agree with him the way Dubya did. That game is old and it set us back domestically and internationally. Let the man say his prayer for our President and for the future of the country. If he gets up there and says that all "sissies" are going to hell, everyone can be outraged then.

For more than two years, cozying up to Rick Warren has been one of Barack Obama's favorite ways of showing evangelical Christians that he might not be so scary, after all -- and for just as long, palling around with Obama every once in a while has been Warren's way of trying to show more secular-minded people that he's not so bad, either.

So about the only thing less surprising than the outrage that news of Warren's selection to give the invocation at Obama's inauguration is prompting among gay activists, liberals and Obama supporters generally is probably Warren's appearance on the program in the first place. Obama and Warren have often used each other to demonstrate that they'll be willing to listen to people they disagree with -- and yes, also to let everyone know that they'll be willing to anger their friends. This isn't one of those political controversies that pop up out of nowhere without warning; whether they want to admit it or not, it seems Obama's advisors brought on this fight with his own supporters knowing full well what was coming.

Having Warren speak at the inauguration might make more sense for Obama, now that he's been elected, than going to Warren's Saddleback Civil Forum in August in search of evangelical votes did from a campaigning standpoint. When the ballots were counted he only did marginally better among white evangelicals than Gore and Kerry; the idea now, apparently, is to signal that Obama will be a president for all Americans, whether they voted for him on Nov. 4 or not.