Obama reaches across the aisle

Marc Ambinder:

Here's a bit of a surprise: Dr. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church will give the formal invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration. The good pro-life theologian first met Obama in 2006 at a Saddleback AIDS forum in California. Obama used the occasion to press the evangelical pastors present to embrace "realism" when they considered the issue; preach abstience, yes, but preaching against contraception can kill. (Here's some of what Obama said that day: "I know that there are those who, out of sincere religious conviction, oppose such measures. And with these folks, I must respectfully but unequivocally disagree. I do not accept the notion that those who make mistakes in their lives should be given an effective death sentence.")

When I interviewed Obama last year, he told me that the moment was integral to his decision to run for president; when was the last time, he had asked himself, when a Democrat had had such dialog with pastors about AIDS?

Who's not happy? The American Spectator and the Washington Blade.

Obama is likely to undo Bush-era abortion rules.

Added: Furor Over Rick Warren, Obama’s choice of evangelical leader sparks outrage, A Defense of Rick Warren, Could Rick Warren fill Graham's role as counselor to the president?, It's like the Lieberman thing, but even bigger!

Sarah Posner sensed the announcement in the air (see points 1 and 3). But on the announcement she finds herself "speechless."

Can you say "team of rivals?"

Posted by John B. Chilton on December 17, 2008 2:39 PM | |
Comments (3)

I'm definitely ticked off about the choice of Pro-H8 Warren to give an Inaugural invocation, and went to discussion site at Obama's Change.gov to say so: http://change.gov/page/content/discussservice

Add your voice---tell Obama, "Say NO to homophobes!"

JC Fisher

Posted by tgflux [TypeKey Profile Page] | December 18, 2008 2:06 AM

Well, I suppose hearing from Warren might not be so bad if this is the last we hear from him. Change can still allow a last chance for the displaced folks to say goodbye....

Marshall Scott

Posted by mscottsail [TypeKey Profile Page] | December 18, 2008 10:56 AM

Add your comments

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

Reminder: At Episcopal Café, we hope to establish an ethic of transparency by requiring all contributors and commentators to make submissions under their real names. For more details see our Feedback Policy.

Advertising Space