My view on Rick Warren for invocation

This is what I sent around to PoL Chat. I'm questioning my view a bit, as Mr. Gallagher alerted me to a 2004 letter from Pastor Warren suggesting his parishioners vote on the traditional life issues and gay marriage. I hold to most of this as a matter of perception though.

I'm under the impression most of you knew of Rick Warren before Proposition 8, so I don't need to go into his history so much. What I think I need to reinforce is that inside the spectrum of religious conservatism, Rick Warren has been considered a capital-L Liberal, and by no means part of the movement proper. He's a meagchurcher who has been buddy-buddy with media and liberal politicians since day one.This perception started to change when he asked about abortion and gay marriage at the Faith Forum (or whatever it was called) and then a little more when he spoke out on Proposition 8.

That liberalism has nothing to do with his actual stances, mind you. Many religious conservatives share Warren's economically liberal/social justice tendencies. Speaking for my own community, it's simply that they could not possibly fathom why he would be willing to take the focus of abortion and other 'hot-button' issues. The idea is, of course, that the pro-life movement only has a chance if all people of faith would speak with a united voice.

Warren has clearly moved away from that on some level. Recent quote :

“But to me it is kind of a charade in that people say ‘We believe abortions should be safe and rare,’” he added.

“Don’t tell me it should be rare. That’s like saying on the Holocaust, ‘Well, maybe we could save 20 percent of the Jewish people in Poland and Germany and get them out and we should be satisfied with that,’” Warren said. “I’m not satisfied with that. I want the Holocaust ended.”

So you read that, and you gasp, and you take offense and all that. Religious conservatives applaud the point, but many also take offense in a different way. They ask why you would still invite now-President-elect Obama to speak at your church if you believe that he is absolutely complicit in a holocaust of defenseless babies. But he did invite Obama, this person who is not only pro-choice, but voted against the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act in Illinois. Didn't matter. Rich Warren is still there to reach out on other issues, instead of sacrificing them all for the one and condemning those who disagree.

Dara, it's not that most Americans don't know these ideals exist (although the more conservative end is probably unnecessarily wary of government as a tool to accomplish them) it's just that they are absolutely subordinate to other concerns for the time being.

And by the way, may I remind everyone who (at least verball) opposes gay marriage besides Rick Warren? Barack Obama . Yes, he came out against Prop 8 in that video, but he did so just a few days before and very incoherently--and mind you, he's never given a reason for his belief on marriage outside of his religion. Is that acceptable? And if so, why do we have a political culture where religious language is acceptable as justification for refusing to recognize relationships between people but not for opposing the taking of an either potential or actual life?

After all that....I suppose hyper-progressive Rev. Jim Wallis would have been just fine too.

-Chris