“one position that I don’t like doesn’t invalidate all the positions you hold!”
∞
Embrace What You Have In Common With Rick Warren
Apparently, Barack Obama meant what he said about our politics being too small for our problems.
With job layoffs and new miserable financial statistics being announced every day, how else can we explain the press and some Republicans being endlessly fascinated with the non-connection between between Obama and Blagojevich? How else does one explain the thrashing about of some progressives over the idea of Pastor Rick Warren saying a few minutes of prayer at Obama’s inauguration?
The answer is simple: we currently practice a mighty small politics in the United States.
You might not like the idea of Prop 8 supporter Rick Warren anywhere near Washington on January 20th. None of my friends do. This isn’t hype; the people who are so bent out of shape about Warren are literally all my friends or people I admire.
Like my comrades, I think Warren is dead wrong on same sex marriage. But the reality is that at the end of 2008, a majority of voters in California agreed with him. A majority of Americans agree with Warren about same sex marriage and many more states have made marriage equality unconstitutional than have ratified it.
So Warren isn’t out of the mainstream. He seems to agree broadly with the position of Barack Obama, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton in supporting equal legal rights but not gay marriage. Just to underline this again – I think they are all wrong but I also recognize I’m in the minority on this.
I don’t understand how anyone who listened to Obama during the campaign would be shocked that Obama lets Warren give the invocation. It’s vintage Obama. It does not signal agreement with Warren’s political positions, some of which are clearly at odds with Obama’s. Warren isn’t making policy or even giving a sermon. He’s saying a prayer and then possibly dancing later at some inaugural parties. If anything, it’s the possibility of this dancing that should be deeply troubling to all Americans.
Rick Warren felt some of this same heat when he invited Barack Obama to speak at his church on World Aids Day. Conservatives railed against Warren for legitimizing Obama. People with different political opinions aren’t supposed to come together in anything but a shouting match.
In a few weeks, Barack Obama will be sworn in as President and be joined by two men leading prayers – Rick Warren and Joseph Lowery. Lowery is the ‘dean of the Civil Rights movement’, the man who founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King Jr. Lowery supports same sex marriage.
There’s something bigger at play here and you can’t say Obama didn’t warn you. He talked about reaching out, about expanding our politics and that crazy bastard actually meant it. Nobody on the left or right quite knows what to make of it. We want to cram Obama into our old, divisive, two toned ideological and political frame and if he doesn’t fit, we’ll attack him too. Attacking is what we’re used to doing.
But in the long run this new politics benefits us all. Ironically, it benefits the minorities and marginalized and ill-treated the most. I know this may be hard for many to see right now but the truth is that this sort of symbol is what America needs. Not seeing just Warren on stage or just Lowery but seeing both of them of there at once
Obama said it in the abstract time and again during the campaign. Now he’s showing us. Seeing the things that Pastor Rick Warren and Reverend Joseph Lowery have in common is more important than seeing the things that separate them. America needs to see that. It’s a step down the road where a majority of us see the things that straight Americans in love want are the same things that gay Americans in love want, too.
If you are mad about Rick Warren, I’m not attacking you. I understand your anger and I’m not saying it’s not justified. But it’s all right to let your anger go, too. It doesn’t mean surrender, it doesn’t mean giving up the struggle for equality.
It means doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. It means winning, right now – because the fight against hate starts whenever you want it, in your own heart. You can win a battle right now by not hating.
Can I get an amen?
Amen! and So Mote It Be!
December 20, 2008 at 12:22 pm
I, like so many of my gay friends, gave a lot of money to Obama’s campaign. We worked tirelessly to get him elected. Now Obama decides to invite Rick Warren, who equates gays to rapists and child molesters; and who excludes gays from being members of his church to do the invocation? How many of Warren’s followers do you think gave as much to the campaign as gays did? How many of Warren’s followers worked as hard to get Obama elected as gays did? Warren is to gays what a Grand Wizard of the KKK is to African Americans. Obama has made it perfectly clear with this invitation how he feels about the gay community.
Do you think Obama would have had as much of a landslide if it wasn’t for the gay community? I don’t think so. I hope for his sake that all the evangelicals he is pandering to move over to his camp come reelection time; gays will be voting for a third party candidate from now on. It’s been made perfectly clear that the Democrats don’t want us. Good luck to Obama with his presidency. I don’t support him any longer. I, like so many fell utterly betrayed.
January 3, 2009 at 10:33 am
Amen.
Well I’m sure you know my stance on a personal level. Never thought I’d ever consider Britain as “Liberal” in her ideas and standards.
January 19, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Dear mrclmind ~
I am so sorry you seem to have missed the point of Mr. Stranahan’s column, and my reason for including it here.
Perhaps, after reading more (Time.com, Dec.18; and today) about Pastor Warren, I would have been less impressed with him. But … I still believe that “hating on” someone you disagree with is NEVER going to change their mind, or convince them that you are right.
On the other hand, acknowledging that they hold a position that you strongly disagree with, and working to rationally and emotionally counter their work, will have an effect on the public’s perceptions.
There are so many, many aspects to the “Change” that P-E Obama brings to America and the world, that throwing him (and all the other things he wants to accomplish) over for one decision, before he is even In Office, seems to me like “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” – before the baby’s even clean!
No-one has a magic wand, no matter how much we wish it were so. Changing the level of tolerance towards the GLBT community requires time and a process, just like changing our attitudes on racial equality and women’s rights did/do. And the amazingly high expectations that so many people have built up for themselves can only be fulfilled through our own hard work. Part of that work will include having real conversations (not shouting matches or mudslinging contests) with people we really don’t like or agree with. I hope you can see the good things that we can accomplish, even if your #1 button doesn’t get fixed first.
Bright Blessings!
Karen
January 19, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Perhaps Mr. Obama truly believes something that I disagree with. I am not surprised – because no-one is a clone of me, or you, either. But I also believe in the ability of people to “change their minds”, and the need to “talk to each other!”.
My personal interpretation is that Marriage is a private contract between individuals, and the State’s only interest in the matter should be to “duly record” the fact of its existence. Any private membership organization that is permitted by the State to conduct official Marriages, has the right to qualify the individuals they will provide that service for. Thus, Pastor Warren’s church may refuse to “marry” you and your same-sex-partner, but the State may not.
January 19, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Greetings and Salutations, my Brother! and Thank You!
I have been “afraid” to moderate this post for far too long, for fear of being “wrong”. (According to whom, I’m not sure!) I apologize to you, and to all six of my readers!
I’m also glad that, at least in regards to acceptance of non-hetero relationships (what is the “preferred term”, anyway??) that we here in the States can look to Britain for inspiration!
Bright Blessings!
Karen