Barack Obama has always claimed his religious faith is one of the most important things in his life, and essential to his identity. It's therefore all the more disappointing that his choice of Rick Warren reflects a particularly American brand of incoherence and hypocrisy when it comes to public displays of supposed religious belief.Read the entire post - well worth it.
The incoherence is reflected by behavior -- such as choosing Warren to give the invocation -- that seems to affirm two propositions:
(1) Religious beliefs are enormously important.
(2) The actual content of those beliefs is irrelevant.
December 18, 2008
Coherence
A very coherent point lost in all the drama about the choice of Rick Warren to perform the invocation at the inauguration.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Re-read the Call To Renewal speech (especially the end), and you'll see exactly why he picked Warren. He telegraphed this one over two years ago in terms of dialogue between views on religious affairs, and even earlier than that in terms of his desire to engage his ideological counterparts in the quest for common ground.
This is going to happen way more often than most people think. When Obama talks above working with everyone, he's not kidding. Progressives have a place at the table now; they may even get to order first; but it's not "their" table.
The difficulty here lies in Warren using his weight to help Prop 8 pass. Not to mention the lies and propaganda he was feeding to the media about the terms of Prop 8, all of which he knew were absolutely false ("we'll be accused of hate speech", etc).
He is among the worst of the literalists, dressed up as some sort of new moderate figure, and he isn't.
Obama is getting a lot of shit for this, and so he should. Progressives don't think of ti as their table, but they feel they shouldn't have to share it with someone who uses his religious clout and lies in the service of shitty public policy.
The Prop 8 mess leaves me cold, as well. Warren accomplishes a lot of good things, but his stances regarding the gay community are typically conservative double-speak. As someone with a partial dog in this fight (from a denominational and personal ethical standpoint), I think it's possible for Obama to hold his feet to the fire for this. He stands to accomplish a number of things by moving the power base away from the "strident" fundies over toward the members of the right who actually have some points of agreement.
I feel you on some of Warren's tap dances. I also agree (somewhat) about the level of criticism Obama is receiving (and should receive). However, there was a golden opportunity to extend a hand across the aisle to a tremendous segment of the population and say, "despite our disagreements on certain matters, I'm your President, too." I'm glad he took it, rather than automatically farm out that segment (which, believe it or not, does contain some rational folks who in all likelihood will be sympathetic to the Obama positions on this and other issues, but maybe not every issue across the board) to the GOP. If he would've dropped the ball here, Dobson or, even more dangerously, Gringrich could seize an opportunity. Now, if they say anything, they're just bitter culture warriors.
Post a Comment