When I first heard that megachurch pastor Rick Warren is going to deliver the Inaugural invocation, I was disappointed. His clumsy attempts to frame his opposition to Proposition 8 as a “civil rights” issues is evasive doublespeak designed to obscure his plain vanilla homophobia. But I’m willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt on this one. Warren has advocated for environmental causes and has directed a significant amount of his church’s resources to reducing poverty and HIV around the world. If granting Warren a speaking slot at the Inauguration paves the way for progressives and evangelicals to make common cause on these issues, I can go along with that. Besides, very few people will remember any of Warren’s words six months from now.
I have no doubt that Obama will disappoint me in the years ahead, but I choose to reserve my outrage for the decisions he makes as president.
