Originally Posted By: Mignon
I haven't been keeping up who he's been appointing so I didn't know he appointed Republicians.

What's up with this Rev. Warren story? I didn't hear anything about it. I haven't been watching the news alot lately.


Rev Warren is a relatively right wing evangelical leader who is anti-abortion and vociferously against gay marriage. However he has also tried to get evangelicals to do more anti-poverty work and get involved in more Christian outreach activities that are not necessarily centered around sexuality. He's of the next generation of evangelical leaders. He's not as far right as Falwell or James Dobson.

Warren invited Obama to speak at his church about 2-3 years back. More recently during the campaign, a "debate" (really more of a dual campaign appearance) between Obama and McCain was held at Warren's church.

So President-Elect Obama reached out and invited Warren to give the opening invocation at the inauguration.

Because the feelings are still raw around the passing of Prop 8 in California ,(which Warren of course supported) for some in the gay community/left community, inviting Warren to give the opening prayer was downright heresy. It made them so mad they could just SPIT.

My take is that they are overlooking the inconvenient fact that like Warren, Obama also opposes gay marriage. More to the point Warren will not be making policy. This is a purely symbolic role. The Rev. Joseph Lowery, a civil rights veteran, who does happen to support gay marriage will be giving the closing prayer.

So I think the whole brouhaha is silly. There are a lot of policy issues (from a VERY progressive standpoint) that I think Obama can/must be criticized on but this isn't really one of them. Obama consistently kept a campaign theme of reaching out and engaging people who disagreed with him. Personally I think he does this to a fault and it will backfire on him one day but so far I've been WRONG. Also a lot of people didn't believe it but Obama is not really all THAT progressive. He's going to be a liberal centrist. Obama also said repeatedly that he is going to be the President of all. That includes Americans who are anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage and who didn't vote for him.

Obama is a superb politician and this could also be a way of muting or slowing future opposition from the Warren camp to his policy decisions. It could also be a way of getting political cover to make real progressive changes. Who knows.

I just think that in the big picture, Warren giving an invocation is no big deal. Obama will be President, not Chief Inquisitor...

"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Winter is Coming

Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.