I want to talk about this Rick Warren invocation issue, since the emotions in my circle are really running high and I have heard some hard, ugly words in the last few hours that made me wonder if hating hate-mongers is really different from being a hate-monger.
In part, I guess I will structure my response around this particular debate clip from CNN:Hilary Rosen is pretty upset, and it seems like in the long, dark shadow of the Prop 8 horribleness pretty much anyone who cares about civil rights for LGBT people would be. She takes issue with the fact that Warren is a divisive figure who uses his pulpit to demonize gay people. Warren is well on record for comparing gay relationships to polygamy, pedophilia, etc. etc. I don't debate that, nor do I condone it. She castigates him for being a divisive figure, which perhaps he is, and that Obama should have picked someone less controversial, someone that wouldn't kick gay people when they're down. I can almost get behind that, but one consideration stops me from seeing the inclusion of Rick Warren as adding insult to injury: Barack Obama did not pick Rick Warren because he's a homophobe, he isn't trying to reach out to the homophobe contingency in this country. He picked Rick Warren because he is a man that has done a lot of good in the world, has a powerful voice and following, and because Warren's own stated political ideals emphasize the importance of openness in democratic conversations.
I don't think that Warren's right about gay marriage (for the record, I don't agree with Barack Obama either) nor do I believe that his views on gay rights will be borne out in the evolution of our ever more perfect union. As Roland Martin points out, the benediction will be presented by a pro-gay rights clergyman. Before I make my major point, let me post our President-Elect's own comment, which is more or less the meat of what I want to get across:
This is my view: This is a diverse nation. We have lots and lots of people with lots and lots of different viewpoints. There isn't anyone in my life, not anyone, that I don't have some fundamental disagreement with that challenges my understanding and love for them, as well as my moral compass. Given that fact, and my experience of it over and over again, I have never tried to surround myself with people who thought like I did. It happens, I'm from a liberal town and I spend most of my time in academia, which unfortunately is not as diverse or as integrated as perhaps it should be. But at times like this I'm reminded why that's a bad thing, why it insulates us and makes us callous and bends us toward dehumanizing the "enemies" we are all too ready to imagine.
The pitch of outrage over Rick Warren giving a prayer at Obama's inauguration is disturbing. It's overblown because the castigation of Warren as a spiritual leader is overblown. Hardly anyone I talk to knows anything about him. With the publication of his VERY successful book, he repaid 25 years of salary to the church and continues to dedicate 90% of its tithes to church initiatives. His ministry puts good works and anti-consumerism at the core of its message, supports initiatives on global poverty, illiteracy and disease, including HIV/AIDS, and he's one of the very few Evangelical leaders that has acknowledged global warming and holds human beings responsible. I enthusiastically applaud all this despite the fact that he's a creationist, against gay rights and a woman's right to choose, his dedication to the success of Prop 8 and his stance on euthanasia. Here's a TEDTalk he gave in 2006:
I agree with a lot of what he says here, especially about giving, and how it breaks the hold of materialism. I agree with his interpretation of our stewardship responsibility and the idea that our gifts are best exercised in service to a larger community. Because of all this, I disagree profoundly with classifying Rick Warren as a hate-monger. If he's a hate-monger, then the definition extends to everyone I have heard condemn him with a twisted, poisonous vitriol, who expressed surprise when I told them of his good works, or who said something like "that doesn't matter, he's a bigot."
It does matter. There isn't a single one of us that isn't a bigot at one time or another, not a SINGLE ONE. The fact that Barack Obama recognizes this, and has publicly recognized it in his closest family members, his own spiritual leader and now in Rick Warren is reason enough to praise him to the skies. But the fact that he's willing to WALK that talk, to acknowledge the truth in the controversy and still put his rhetoric in action, his including (albeit in a token way) Rick Warren in the inaugural proceedings only adds to my sense that our President-Elect is a rare man of principle and that we are even luckier than we know.
I may alienate a whole lot of people by saying so, but Rick Warren is not a bad man, and I bet he's going to give a good invocation. I hope that he will have influence with our president, because like so many of us, he has a LOT more to offer than the bigoted bullshit we are all so ready to use, so conveniently, to sum up his character and condemn him. Barack Obama explicitly rejects the ideology of excluding someone based on a disagreement which, I would add, is an ideology that incubates most forms of ignorance and hatred. Disagreeing without being disagreeable is more than a pithy phrase. It is a principle that requires hard work and moral discipline. Demonizing people who have different views and reducing them down to a one-dimensional caricature that can fit in the circle of a bull's eye is not my idea of progressive politics. Our new president has the wisdom to discern that and as in so many other instances, I hope we will take his example to heart.
Just for good measure, I will post Obama's section of the forum that Warren hosted during the campaign. As you will remember, the President-Elect mentions the openness of this forum as one of his reasons for including Warren in the inauguration proceedings:
And there's just a little bit more in part 6 before McCain comes on:
I don't think that Warren's right about gay marriage (for the record, I don't agree with Barack Obama either) nor do I believe that his views on gay rights will be borne out in the evolution of our ever more perfect union. As Roland Martin points out, the benediction will be presented by a pro-gay rights clergyman. Before I make my major point, let me post our President-Elect's own comment, which is more or less the meat of what I want to get across:
This is my view: This is a diverse nation. We have lots and lots of people with lots and lots of different viewpoints. There isn't anyone in my life, not anyone, that I don't have some fundamental disagreement with that challenges my understanding and love for them, as well as my moral compass. Given that fact, and my experience of it over and over again, I have never tried to surround myself with people who thought like I did. It happens, I'm from a liberal town and I spend most of my time in academia, which unfortunately is not as diverse or as integrated as perhaps it should be. But at times like this I'm reminded why that's a bad thing, why it insulates us and makes us callous and bends us toward dehumanizing the "enemies" we are all too ready to imagine.
The pitch of outrage over Rick Warren giving a prayer at Obama's inauguration is disturbing. It's overblown because the castigation of Warren as a spiritual leader is overblown. Hardly anyone I talk to knows anything about him. With the publication of his VERY successful book, he repaid 25 years of salary to the church and continues to dedicate 90% of its tithes to church initiatives. His ministry puts good works and anti-consumerism at the core of its message, supports initiatives on global poverty, illiteracy and disease, including HIV/AIDS, and he's one of the very few Evangelical leaders that has acknowledged global warming and holds human beings responsible. I enthusiastically applaud all this despite the fact that he's a creationist, against gay rights and a woman's right to choose, his dedication to the success of Prop 8 and his stance on euthanasia. Here's a TEDTalk he gave in 2006:
I agree with a lot of what he says here, especially about giving, and how it breaks the hold of materialism. I agree with his interpretation of our stewardship responsibility and the idea that our gifts are best exercised in service to a larger community. Because of all this, I disagree profoundly with classifying Rick Warren as a hate-monger. If he's a hate-monger, then the definition extends to everyone I have heard condemn him with a twisted, poisonous vitriol, who expressed surprise when I told them of his good works, or who said something like "that doesn't matter, he's a bigot."
It does matter. There isn't a single one of us that isn't a bigot at one time or another, not a SINGLE ONE. The fact that Barack Obama recognizes this, and has publicly recognized it in his closest family members, his own spiritual leader and now in Rick Warren is reason enough to praise him to the skies. But the fact that he's willing to WALK that talk, to acknowledge the truth in the controversy and still put his rhetoric in action, his including (albeit in a token way) Rick Warren in the inaugural proceedings only adds to my sense that our President-Elect is a rare man of principle and that we are even luckier than we know.
I may alienate a whole lot of people by saying so, but Rick Warren is not a bad man, and I bet he's going to give a good invocation. I hope that he will have influence with our president, because like so many of us, he has a LOT more to offer than the bigoted bullshit we are all so ready to use, so conveniently, to sum up his character and condemn him. Barack Obama explicitly rejects the ideology of excluding someone based on a disagreement which, I would add, is an ideology that incubates most forms of ignorance and hatred. Disagreeing without being disagreeable is more than a pithy phrase. It is a principle that requires hard work and moral discipline. Demonizing people who have different views and reducing them down to a one-dimensional caricature that can fit in the circle of a bull's eye is not my idea of progressive politics. Our new president has the wisdom to discern that and as in so many other instances, I hope we will take his example to heart.
Just for good measure, I will post Obama's section of the forum that Warren hosted during the campaign. As you will remember, the President-Elect mentions the openness of this forum as one of his reasons for including Warren in the inauguration proceedings:
And there's just a little bit more in part 6 before McCain comes on:
