Should Barack Obama have invited Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural prayer?
Is it a good idea to invite someone who has many core beliefs that are strongly opposed to yours to lead such an important event?
Is it insulting to the folks who got you elected to invite someone they disagree with so strongly in such a prominent role?
Your intelligent comments and insights are welcome below.
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M$18 Answers
We must consider context; we must consider what we knew about Barack Obama before in order to decide if this is a betrayal. We must consider the possible results.
One of the things we learned because of the scandal with Rev. Wright is that Sen. Obama is ultimately more concerned about the good a religious leader does overall than the opinions that leader might state and cultivate.
One of the things Sen. Obama received the most grief about from his opponents on the campaign trail was his willingness to sit down with dangerous leaders without precondition.
The main argument I heard Sen. McCain make against this strategy was that it validates these leaders and the very worse things they have said. Many liberals disagreed, saying it was this total-rejection and no-compromise attitude that got the U.S. to where we are at internationally today.
What President-elect Barack Obama has done by inviting Rick Warren to give the inaugural prayer should not surprise us, because it is in line with everything we have heard from Sen. Obama on the campaign trail. He is more concerned about the good that he can do by working with Rick Warren -- a man who is concerned about rallying the evangelical base to work on issues of the environment, and area where we desperately need unity -- than the areas in which they disagree. They still disagree, but President-elect Obama recognizes that there will be people in the world we disagree with and we must learn to work together.
My concern, along with that of many liberals, was that inviting Mr. Warren to speak in this platform legitimized his hateful messages against the LGBTQ population of this country. It was only in realizing how much this paralleled Sen. McCain's concern about his meeting with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without making him take back every horrible thing he'd ever said against the U.S. or the Jews that I was able to take a wider perspective.
Our country is horribly divided. It does not help us move forward as a nation if we are in a stand off, unwilling to discuss anything with the other side unless they become entirely like us. It is easier to stay in our ideological bubbles if we shun all those who are unwilling to agree, but it is much more difficult to move forward.
It may be idealistic to think we can dialogue more openly and that such dialogue will change the way we interact and soften our opinions, but it's exactly the kind of thinking that made President-elect Obama so popular. This is a divided country; let's take hope from the fact that President-elect Obama is already opening up the conversation.
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M$1. His book has sold more than 20 million copies over the past two years and is the best-selling hardback in U.S. history.
2. In 2004, he met with 15 Senators, from both parties, who sought his advice and heard his plan to enlist Saddleback's global network of more than 40,000 churches in tackling such issues as poverty, disease and ignorance.
3. Many believe that Warren, 51, is the successor to the elder Graham for the role of America's minister.
4. Rick Warren said Saturday that he loves Muslims, people of other religions, Republicans and Democrats, and he also loves "gays and straights."
5. Obama has invited Joseph Lowery, a Methodist minister and civil rights leader who supports same-sex marriage and gay rights, to deliver the benediction.
So, considering that there is a balance, yes it is fair.
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M$
I think he's going to spend some time fighting his own party, and I hope this helps defuse the situation a little after the polarization of the past 8 years.
I personally would have been fine with him saying, "We're not going to have an official inaugural prayer."
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M$
Thank you for your question.
The invitation to Rick Warren has upset a lot of people on the left.
However, it is a reach out to people in the Midwest and South especially social conservatives who voted for Obama due to the state of the economy.
It is also consistent with his campaign message as he recently stated:
“It is important for Americans to come together, even though we may have disagreements on certain social issues … . That dialogue, I think, is part of what my campaign´s been all about; that we´re not going to agree on every single issue, but what we have to do is to be able to create an atmosphere where we … can disagree without being disagreeable and then focus on those things that we hold in common as Americans.”
http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/12/22/davis_warren/
Joe Biden explained it this way:
"Barack Obama said you've got to reach out. You've got to reach a hand of friendship across the aisle and across philosophies in this country.
We can't continue to be a red and blue country. We can't be divided like we have been. And he's made good on his promise."
It is part of Obama's strategy to recover the so-called Reagan Democrats who supported the Democrats on economic issues but disagreed on social issues. This is an important swing group who supported George W. Bush in 2004 and Obama in 2008. Presumably, Obama thinks that the liberals will be happy with his economic, health and welfare programs to accept a reach out to social conservatives.
Regards
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/biden_on_rick_warren_invitatio.php
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M$
As a more traditionalist, I might have preferred someone with a more conservative (and shall we say "tasteful") religious demeanor, but Mr. Obama has won me over in other areas of policy and preference, so I don't mind the Warren thing. Religion has played a ridiculously disproportionate centric role in politics over the last eight years and in the coming years, I hope it will be less seriously regarded as we grapple with many, many more demanding and critical political issues of the moment, such as the management of two horrible wars and a crumbling economy.
In short, I don't mind because it doesn't really matter to me, as much as do other much more crucial and impending issues.
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Hold on. I challange this response. The best is the Dalai Lama?????? Are you kidding me. Millions upons millions upon millions of people do not consider his view on morality or the world for that matter a serious view. On the other side millions probably do consider him to be the best. This is the point he is not the single most favored representative to speak at the inaguration. Not to mention the fact that he is from another country. Look, however right or wrong the best available speakers for this event are from America as this is an american event for an american president.
On the subject of diversity... I would contend that oppossing diversity is in and of itself a diverse view among many views and Pastor Waren's views fall easily into this category as any americans' would. You really need to check your feelings at the door if you want to have a genuine discussion about these kinds of topics. To not check those feelings is disengenuous.
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
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M$
Barack Obama will be Rick Warren's president just as he will be yours or mine.
He represents a significant portion of this country, and it's a sign of respect for the electorate that he was chosen, in spite of some of the hatred one could argue he represents (specifically towards gays). Some people with similar views as Warren even voted for Obama (Maybe not many as a percentage, but probably millions through the whole country).
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M$
Here is a link to Rick Warren's video explaining his position on recent discussions. http://www.saddlebackfamily.com/blogs/newsandviews/index.html?contentid=1720
to get elected, now that he is elected he is set out on creating a dynasty.
He owns the middle, and America is the middle. America isn't going to be defined by a left or right from this year forward.
He is creating a new political philosophy, one which makes judgments based on what American needs both now and in the future
my opinion
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M$
I think it's a shame that this decision has been so politicized by Obama, the media, and special interest groups. Obama chose a celebrity like Warren to gain favor with the Christian right. The media jumped all over it to fill time on the evening news. Special interest groups are using the choice as leverage to advance their own agendas.
Why can't we focus on the invocation itself rather than the person who's giving it? It is a dedication of the upcoming presidency to the service of God. In that light, the person who gives the invocation is not as important as what is said in that invocation.
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M$
If God did exist I would image that such things as pride and emotion would be easy to be put aside to hear someone from an opposing viewpoint lead prayer to God for the Nation..
But than again asking to lead prayer in the hope to commit sin by killing ones enemies always did seem damn lacking of logic and common sense. Two Bush Presidents did such illogical things.
Rick Warren leading prayer is no more insulting than two Bushes leading payer to ask to be allowed to commit sin in killing ones enemies in war.
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M$
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M$
At least Obama didn't invite his own oersonal spiritual adviser, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who is is far more extreme and fringie than Rick Warren will every be. Rick Warren by contrast is no different than the vast majority of Christians in the US - which makes him rather normal. Jeremiah Wright on the other hand is an America hating racist.
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M$The majority has no monopoly on hate on intolerance. Interolerant speech can come from any group or individual. Before a genuine claim of Christian interolerance can be made the group making the claim should ideally be viewed as intolerant themselves. Obviously this is not the case, because to put it quite simply, the gay and lesbian community are intolerant of Pastor Rick Warren and all Christians on the whole. To be fair this intolerant view is somewhat tempered by the fact that some Christian groups promote gay and lesbian relations inside the church community.
It is clear that Obama has reached across the divide and extended a hand to the Christian community as a President of all Americans should do from time to time.
Instructional Systems - Teaching about religion with a view to....Diversity
http://www.teachingaboutreligion.org/Demographics/map_demographics.htm
Barry A. Kosmin, Egon Mayer, and Ariela Keysar at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
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M$
The preacher does not have to be from the majority religion any more than the President has to be from the majority race. Warren is specifically intolerant in his sermons; there are quite a few tolerant Christian preachers but he is not one of them. The President has to be American but the benediction does not have to be from an American; religion is deliberately international in scope. Does the bible he is swearing in on have to be made in the USA? Obama has chosen one from England. Of the world class holy men living, the Dalai Lama is the only one whose reputation extends across religious boundaries. He would have been a more unifying choice.
Good point, except that there is a great diversity of Christian pastors, many less controversial, so you can't use the "Christians need to be represented" argument against some of the specifics of the situation.
Evangelicals have offended and hurt many by their misuse of power over the past 8 years, and their power has misused them. But Rick Warren stands out as an exception in many ways. I disagree with him, but in Obama's America, everyone has a voice. And it seems wise that our President chose this voice instead of others. Whether we like it or not evangelicals a big part of American life, part of the mosaic. And I think Warren is one of the more sane and decent voices from that segment of our culture. Obama was indeed wise to choose him.