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Originally Posted by u-dog
If we are looking back two years from now and he has done nothing about eliminating DADT or repealling DOMA or if he has declined to sign the hate crime legislation, then I will join you all in your outrage. Until then, give the man some room to work.
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Amen. While the announcement of Warren to deliver the invocation was a visceral punch in the gut for me, i think all the outrage i'm hearing from some (not all, SOME) gay people is premature. The President-elect also chose civil rights giant (and supporter of gay rights) the Rev. Joseph Lowery to deliver the benediction. While i would prefer the choices were flipped, with Lowery delivering the invocation instead of Warren, i think Pam Spaulding at Pam's House Blend
may be on to something. And good old Andrew Sullivan, with whom i tend to disagree more than agree overall, also has
a valid perspective i think.
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Dish readers will know my own conflicted feelings about the selection of Rick Warren for the Inaugural Invocation. But feelings must at some point cede to reason. And I sense an understandable but, the more I think about it, misjudged response on the part of my fellow gays and lesbians. In our hurt, we may be pushing away from a real opportunity to engage and win hearts and minds.
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Why not take Obama's choice of Warren as an opportunity to shine more light on the utter lack of compassion and integrity in Warren's anti-gay views? To get our truth out there while the media's looking for angles to cover? If
all we do is protest and complain, i fear it's like a Christmas gift to those who oppose our equality. i've also recently noted reports that some conservative evangelical Christians are not happy with Warren's acceptance of his role in the inaugural ceremonies. Erosion of some of Warren's base is hardly something that saddens me.
One reality that i think some lgbt folks may be missing is that if Obama had gathered together a representative group of, let's say, 100 evangelical Christian clergy and then had randomly picked one to deliver the invocation, that randomly chosen pastor would most likely share Rev. Warren's views on gay rights & abortion rights. The evangelical right exists, and much of the prejudice & ignorance we face is rooted in the soil they're tending. At least since the announcement of Warren, he's been on the defense in the media and his lame bigotry is there for everyone to expose & critique. We've known about Warren for some time - many others are only now waking up to his un-Christian stances toward women and lgbt people.