Seriously? I mean, really?

[xenologer]

Obama?

Hell no. Not cool. You do not agree to these things.

President-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony will feature big names like minister Rick Warren and legendary singer Aretha Franklin, the Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies announced Wednesday.

Warren, the prominent evangelical and founder of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, will deliver the ceremony's invocation. The minister hosted a presidential forum at his church last summer that challenged both Obama and Arizona Sen. John McCain on a host of faith-related issues. Warren did not endorse either presidential candidate.

In case anyone on my friends list doesn't get yet why this guy is a total asshat embarrassment to America, here's the statement from People for the American Way (who, I gotta say, are pretty spot on with this comment).

It is a grave disappointment to learn that pastor Rick Warren will give the invocation at the inauguration of Barack Obama.

Pastor Warren, while enjoying a reputation as a moderate based on his affable personality and his church's engagement on issues like AIDS in Africa, has said that the real difference between James Dobson and himself is one of tone rather than substance. He has recently compared marriage by loving and committed same-sex couples to incest and pedophilia. He has repeated the Religious Right's big lie that supporters of equality for gay Americans are out to silence pastors. He has called Christians who advance a social gospel Marxists. He is adamantly opposed to women having a legal right to choose an abortion.

I'm sure that Warren's supporters will portray his selection as an appeal to unity by a president who is committed to reaching across traditional divides. Others may explain it as a response to Warren inviting then-Senator Obama to speak on AIDS and candidate Obama to appear at a forum, both at his church. But the sad truth is that this decision further elevates someone who has in recent weeks actively promoted legalized discrimination and denigrated the lives and relationships of millions of Americans.

Rick Warren gets plenty of attention through his books and media appearances. He doesn't need or deserve this position of honor. There is no shortage of religious leaders who reflect the values on which President-elect Obama campaigned and who are working to advance the common good.

Prosperity Gospel-spewing misogynist theocratic sonovabitch. I can't actually figure out what part of this little combination bothers me most... it might actually be the Prosperity Gospel bit. rake_blackguard has an eloquent (and appropriately foul-mouthed) take on this.

It looks like Obama is getting in bed with a nutso fucking religious zealot. For real this time! He's getting that bigoted, greedy Dr. Phil wannabe Rick Warren to do his inaugural invocation. Bonus points for his book, "The Purpose-Driven Life," because in biblical baby-talk and large, page-eating text basically condones and encourages an economic underclass. That, by accepting your ditch-digging vocation, you're "letting go and letting god" or somesuch tripe.

THIS is the man Obama selected to speak at his inauguration. A man for whom two people making a legally-recognized commitment is comparable to incest and rape, discussions on social welfare tantamount to Marxism, and who thinks some gold-encrusted megachurch glorifies the pauper son of a carpenter.

This man is emblematic of everything wrong with American christianity. And Obama's cuddling up to him.

Yep. About says it.

Comments

[copperstewart.livejournal.com]

I like what you put togehter here and linked to it on my Facebook. Yep, that's how I feel about it (esp. after the Dobson comparison quotation).

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

I'm reading Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope", and from his chapter on faith, I could see this coming.

Obama has decided in a big way that it is good political strategy to reach out to the traditionally Republican evangelical vote. Siphon off a few of them, and the country has a Democratic majority. Neat, huh? Just like the Bushies made "strategic" efforts to trick latinos into voting for them.

Except that in this case, reaching out to the fucktards has a cost, in that we're throwing our own values under the bus, not only on gay rights, but also in validating the faith-based War Against Intelligence.

And it won't even work strategically, unless you count creating schisms and disorder on the Right as strategic. I read some fringe right blogs, and the result of Obama's choice is simply that the fucktards have decided Rick Warren is a commie muslim sympathiser, for being civil to Obama. I expect it will do more to promote the alleged schism between "socially conservative blacks" and those who want civil rights for same sex couples.

Republicans make a point of throwing red meat to their base, regardless of the political harm. Democrats do nothing but kick their base in the teeth to prove that they're "moderate".

The Purpose Driven Lie...

[cernowain.livejournal.com]

I am no big fan of Rick Warren. I've read his "Purpose Driven Life" book and it is merely brain-washing tools for sheeples. And he now has several versions of "Purpose Driven" books and has turned the theme into a genre in christian publishing.

But I think Obama could have picked worse to lead a prayer. McCain courted the racist Bob Jones; and Warren is an improvement over non-official chaplains of the White House like crusader Rev. Billy Graham.

Warren is more socially conscious than any of the other televangelists out there, at least concerning AIDS and world hunger. He's not "far right" in the Church world; he's a centrist.

That's why Obama picked him, I'm sure, for this invocation. Because Obama is focused on pulling the nation together as we enter a most difficult time for our country.

After all, Barak Obama isn't appointing Rick Warren a cabinet position; he's asking him to lead a prayer, a very token job to do (and since I have led my share of invocations at public events, I admit it is the equivilent of being thrown a bone).

Now if Warren becomes Obama's favorite clergy and gains access to the White House like Dobson had at once point, then I'll be worried. For this innagrual event, I'm satisfied its a gesture, not a policy statement.

bb,

Cern

[x-eleven.livejournal.com]

There is no shortage of religious leaders who reflect the values on which President-elect Obama campaigned and who are working to advance the common good.

The only thing that surprises me about this is that anyone is surprised by this. Mr. Obama sold out to Corproate America last year, and obviously outbid Hillary Clinton, against whom the corporate MsM turned with a vengence starting in mid-December, 2007. He was always their candidate, and everyone who voted for him voted for Corporate America's willing cat's paw.

The fact that he did not select one of those religious leaders who share Mr. Obama's (faked) values is his sending a message that he's gotten with the program. He isn't going to pull the same stunt that V. I. Lenin pulled after the October revolution: promise the corporate fat cats one thing, and then turn on them.

The only question remaining is what Corporate America ultimately gets in exchange for promoting their candidate and just how much this is going to ultimately cost We the People.

Last November the biggest winner was Politics as Usual, and that's exactly what you are going to get: the same old shit. "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss..."