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Friday, January 9, 2009
Rick Warren’s inaugural role
Shaunti Feldhahn, a right-leaning columnist, writes the commentary this week and Andrea Cornell Sarvady, a left-leaning columnist, responds.
Rebuttal
“It would be one thing if he were harsh about it,” my colleague writes of Rick Warren’s attitude towards homosexuality, as though tone matters more than content, as though prejudice delivered with equanimity isn’t prejudice at all.
Mere weeks after a crushing civil rights defeat in California, many who voted for Obama were blindsided by his selection of Rick Warren, a vocal and influential backer of Proposition 8. Far more than a mere proponent of traditionalism, Warren compares gay marriage to pedophilia and incest, and his church blatantly rejects “unredeemed” gay members.
So the gay community is upset, and those who share in their fight for equality are upset as well. In fact, this anger mirrors the furor that ensued when Warren invited Obama to a 2006 Global AIDS summit. Far more than “some parishioners” complained: a conservative talk radio host called Obama’s work in the Senate “inhumane, sick and sinister evil”, and Phyllis Schlafly spearheaded a furious open letter condemning the invitation. Perhaps most telling was the view of Dr. Wiley Drake, a leader of the Southern Baptist Convention, who explained, “You can’t work together with people totally opposed to what you are.” I think there’s more than a few gay folks who might say “Amen” to that.
Still it’s time we tried, even if the effort rankles. Yet in healing our fractured nation, we needn’t exclude hot-headed protests (provided we keep our shoes on). From Schlafly’s angry letter to a sea of angry backsides, democracy has always welcomed dissent.
I’ll be heading off soon to the inaugural, taking my place in that crowd of teeming millions. Once there, I’m not turning my back on Rick Warren. I want to hear what he has to say. And while he’s saying it, I’ll look around me, marveling at how we all got there. Some of my neighbors on that cold morning will be life-long Republicans, supporting their first Democrat. Others will be young evangelicals, putting aside old litmus tests for the pressing issues of poverty and peace. Obama’s reach across ideological lines, only surprising in light of the last eight years, has brought us to this place, a vast assemblage of humanity filled with anger and hope, exhilaration and fear, mutual distrust, mutual need.
Let the democracy begin, again.
Commentary
By Shaunti Feldhahn
Andy worried that conservatives wouldn’t give Barack Obama a chance - but it’s not conservatives who are up in arms about the inauguration. The far left is incensed that Obama asked Dr. Rick Warren to pray for God’s blessing over his presidency, simply because Warren supports traditional marriage: something presumably supported by every pastor at every invocation in American history. And something that Obama himself supports, as explained in 2006: “I personally believe that marriage is between a man and a woman… [and] that decisions about marriage should be left to the states.”
So the residents of California amended their Constitution. And now those who want to demand tolerance and respect are showing extreme prejudice and disrespect. Even mainstream liberal Websites are, appallingly, publicizing plans for those at Obama’s inauguration to stand and turn their backs when Warren comes to the stage!
I was so surprised and proud of Obama for reaching across ideological lines to invite Warren - and so sad to see just how trapped in discord some of Obama’s supporters want us to remain. Those who are angry about the California decision should stop taking their anger out on a pastor who has poured his life out in the sort of ministry that they would otherwise support. Warren’s California church provides enormous succor to the poor and those with HIV/AIDS. He personally gives away 90 percent of his income from his best-selling book “The Purpose Driven Life,” to the global fight against AIDS, poverty and illiteracy. And he also reached across barriers to invite Obama to a 2006 Global AIDS summit at his church, over the objections of some parishioners upset with Obama’s pro-choice positions.
Detractors call Warren’s views divisive, but how can they be divisive if most people agree with them and they follow the teachings of every major religion? It would be one thing if he was harsh about it, but his statements have always been full of love and grace - he just won’t change to go along with the recent changes in a portion of our culture.
Although I strongly disagree with some Obama decisions, I can still admire and support his attempts to bring a fractured nation together. I call on Warren’s detractors to do the same.