Obama’s choice of Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the presidential inauguration is another slick political move on Obama’s part and another slap in the face to GLBT Americans.
Warren leads one of the nation’s largest megachurches, Saddleback Church in California, and was a major backer of Proposition 8. Aside from opposing equal rights for gays, he is a strident Creationist who opposes teaching Evolution. The guy’s creative though; he claims that homosexuality disproves Evolution. That’s taking scapegoat to a new high.
My long-running fear during the 2008 campaign was that the increasing religious rhetoric from the Democratic party would lead to blatant pandering on issues like equal rights for gays. The Democratic Party is our only safe harbor in American politics, and we may lose it if this trend continues.
I’m sure the GOP leaders back in the 70’s didn’t plan on having their party hijacked by the Evangelist rubes they thought they could manipulate. Religious Fundamentalism became a disease of the American Body Politic because of its fearful, hateful virulence and resistance to cure by Reason or empathy. Now the Democratic Party may succumb with Obama and his pitch-perfect religious rhetoric as their Typhoid Mary.
Somebody please give these guys their vaccinations before the new administration gets into office.