Should Rick Warren have been invited to give President-elect Obama's inaugural invocation?
Some have called President-elect Obama's decision to invite Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration a brilliant move, signaling his intent to unify the widest possible cross-section of Americans, even bringing mainstream evangelicals into the fold.
Others consider it a slap in the face of the GLBT community to invite a pastor who opposes gay-marriage, and who was such an outspoken supporter of Prop 8, to be given such an important and visible role at this historic event.
What do you think? Weigh in.
Others consider it a slap in the face of the GLBT community to invite a pastor who opposes gay-marriage, and who was such an outspoken supporter of Prop 8, to be given such an important and visible role at this historic event.
What do you think? Weigh in.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jeffrey on -
I'm in the middle on this; Rick Warren is far more "evangelical" than I, but I have also read that he has upset some Evangelicals because he has worked with people who are not "Christian" in his attempts to improve living conditions, etc. globally.
I also know that his debate was by far the best presidential debate leading up to the election.
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Permalink Reply by Fred Holland on -
Do we really want to fall into the "super special priesthood" trap? You know how it goes. "I'm a super special preacher that God tells things to that He can't tell all the regular schmoe's. And I can call down the blessings of the almighty for you and your administration." Myself I am in the "who cares" camp. A preacher cannot get God to do things for him that He wouldn't do at the request of any of us. So if Obama is using Rick Warren as a political stament then I think that is pretty smart. If, however he is trying to find a super special preacher, then I say we need to send a lot of emails to Mr. Obama.
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Permalink Reply by dlw on -
legal marriage is largely symbolic.
GLBT activists construe themselves as heirs to the civil rights movement. They have some points, but the analogy is by no means perfect and their upset over Warren seems to hue to the hardline on the issue.
realistically, the popular usage of the term homosexuality covers a variety of heterogenous phenomena, which invites a variety of ministerial responses, based on both experience and revealed truth found in Scripture.
dlw
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Permalink Reply by James (Jim) Cook on -
It gives me cause to think that Obama will govern much more toward the center than his historical voting record and associations would seem to indicate. I would love to sit down with the new Pres and hear what he has to say about his faith and what it means to have a relationship with Christ. God bless Rick Warren for building a relationship across lines. Who knows what an out of the box God has in mind for the USA over the next 4 to 8 years. It is not, in my opinion, a "super preacher" situation. Hopefully it is just one follower of Christ reaching out to someone. Their public positions are not relative!
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Permalink Reply by julia on -
I think it was a good move. Although I myself am not a big fan of Warren, those I know who greatly opposed Obama in the Presidential race tend to be big fans of him. I appreciate Obama's attempts to bring together those that have thus far opposed him. No one is ever going to be happy with everything he does and the decisions he makes - but each step he takes gathers a different group of appreciators and respect for the position he now holds. He still has a lot of ground to gain, but I believe he is making good strides. Although he has gotten a lot of grief for many of his cabinet decisions, and now for his choice of Rick Warren, he's doing his best to unify. And that, quite frankly, seems an impossible task.
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Permalink Reply by dlw on
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my impression of Warren is that he is a reformer w.in the world of southern Baptists and self-proclaimed evangelicals and that the hard-lines he takes on some issues is possibly what is needed to be the reformer he is on other (somewhat more important) issues.
It's a sit not wholly unlike as with progressive Muslims who make statements critical of the modern state of Israel to show that they are truly Muslim.
dlw
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