I suspect this is me not getting it again

[seldear]

I shouldn't. I really shouldn't. But...

Why does the appointment of Rick Warren to give the inauguration invocation mean Obama's turning his face against the GLBT community? Because Warren supported 'Yes on Prop 8', even if Obama didn't?

And yet clearly someone in his administration figured that, hey, we should include the GLBT community in the inauguration parade, because they tagged the Lesbian and Gay Band Association about being in it.

Exactly how is this disappointing campaign promises? Going back on his word? It's a damn invocation at the start of a ceremony, given by a man of the same faith that Obama lays claim to, even if they don't exercise their faith in the same way! And, yes, it can be considered a bone thrown to the right-wing conservatives.

However, last I knew, the USA had some 300 million citizens. In the end, Obama's gonna be POTUS for all of them, not just the ones you agree with.

Comments

[stargatedragon.livejournal.com]

he can't win for trying.

personally, I think he should have gone for the trifecta of a Rabbi, an Iman (Muslim, IIRC) and a Catholic priest in addition to Warren.

now THAT would have been something to see!

:D

[slm76.livejournal.com]

*shrug*

Warren DID invite both he and McCain to his church for that mega-interview thing. Some pundits said it was the best thing they saw all campaign season.

Fact is, Warren IS well-known. He's got that mega-church thing going on, and he and his wife do a lot of charitable work.

Plus, I suspect a lot of Christian ministers supported Prop 8 even if they couldn't state it publicly due to INS rules.

However, even having an invocation is a big no-no for some people, who believe it crosses the entire church/state divide. There's been controversy for years over the phrase "so help me, God," despite the fact that George Washington uttered it at the very first inauguration. Furthermore, there is also a huge thing in this country about whether or not a military chaplain should be able to "pray in Jesus' name." I wonder if Warren will invoke the name of Jesus in his prayer?

Finally, even in the campaign there were divisions between Obama and some of his staff. He would state something and then staffers would later say something like, "Obama actually means..." I suspect some staffers are upset that he is not going as much to the left as they wanted to believe he would. He's already upset a few folks just by keeping Robert Gates on as Secretary of Defence.

What's the adage about pleasing some people some of the time, but not all the people all the time?

[shallanelprin.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[lavidaessueno.livejournal.com]

The point is that Obama is supposed to represent, as you say, some 300 million citizens, and not just the ones he agrees with. Personally, I think Obama courted the American GLBT vote to get elected and has no intention of doing anything to change the current situation. The appointment of Rick Warren just confirms it.

I will say, though, that if Obama had chosen a minister who said that women or blacks or Jews were inferior and unnatural and not to be tolerated and didn't deserve the same treatment as everyone else, a whole lot more people might understand the anger that GLBT Americans feel over this.

[beatrice_otter]

Yes. Exactly. As for the suggestion in the comments that he choose a rabbi, priest, and imam to get the whole religious trifecta in--Obama, of all President-elects the US has ever had, can't do that. See, there are some really nutso redneck fundies (and a surprising number of them) who truly believe that Obama is Muslim and only pretending to be Christian because he is black and has a name that isn't a standard European name. And those idiots are unfortunately a lot more widespread than GLBT community, which congregates certain areas, and hence a lot more likely to influence people who wouldn't normally give them any credence.

(For those of you who aren't American and are unfamiliar with the ways in which race, culture, and religion intersect, here's where the idiots get their "proof": back in the early stages of the Civil Rights movement many of the more radical members of the movement pointed out that Christianity had been imposed on their forefathers and was thus another remnant of slave-culture, and that if they'd stayed in Africa they would probably be Muslims (Pagans of some sort would have been at least as likely, if not more so, but a lot harder to pin down and not anywhere near as easy to sell--Islam at least worships the same God). And they certainly wouldn't be named things like John, Peter, Michael, Sarah, Jennifer, etc. So there was a fashion for Black people to change their names to something that sounded exotic (or at least start naming their children that way), and many Blacks did it, particularly those radical enough to embrace Islam. Now, for all the press the "converting to Islam" thing got in the sixties, it was only ever a very small fraction of the Black population. And they at least started out building their muslim faith mostly from books and not from finding actual people to teach them (because at the time there were few Muslims in the United States and travel to learn more was expensive). So as time went on, the number of Blacks converting to Islam slowed way down (and it was never a huge percentage of the population to begin with), and as they got in more and more contact with the Islamic community the ones who had done it mostly to go with the flow and protest the oppressive social structure tended to get weeded out. Meanwhile, the number of Blacks who gave their children "weird" foreign or made-up names has continued to grow, and by this point many of the most popular ones are actually fairly common within the Black community. So assuming that a Black person with a non-European name is Muslim is both incredibly racist and betrays complete ignorance of Black culture in America. It also betrays almost complete ignorance of Obama's history, because the reason he's got a non-European name is that his father was from Africa. But try telling the redneck idiot fundies that.

[allisnow.livejournal.com]

Basically, Obama knows that the gay community, no matter how they bitch and whine, are going to support him in the end. Who else are they going to support -- a Republican? Hahaha. He can afford to piss them off, in other words.

As someone else pointed out, it's fairly easy to assume that most Christian ministers in the country supported Prop 8 at least in principal. Warren's opinion just made the news because he runs such a big church and is such a well-known guy.

Obama is a Christian, and Warren is a Christian, and has been 'courting' Obama for a while now.

And if I hear the gay civil rights = racial civil rights argument one more time, my head is going to explode.

[tracey-claybon.livejournal.com]

I personally think it's Obama's way of making good on that promise he made of being president for those who didn't support him...

Somehow, I don't see McCain, if he'd won, inviting a Unitarian minister, or a imam, to give the convocation, :)

Obama's in a lose-lose sitch here - if he gets a "liberal" minister then he'll be vilified as {paraphrased}"the communist liberal godless sympathizer" Limburger and his conservative cohorts painted him as -but if he gets Warren, he is betraying the left... IMHO he's close to right - both sides are unhappy with something he's currently doing right now... The left and the right tend to not like SOMETHING a centrist does, and that looks like where he will govern from for now.

Personally, I don't think he will turn his back on the GLBT community - the community will certainly have more of a voice now then they would have if McCain had been elected, and full sexual equality will come in time - I bet in 20 or so years we have a GLBT candidate running for national office and winning...

I certainly didn't think I'd ever see an African-American president before I retired. I have; now, I feel I might see any possibility happen now before I die. It will happen.



I *don't* agree with Rick Warren and his views at all, myself - but I kind of see what Obama is up to, letting him give the convocation at the inauguration - it's a gentle reminder that we do all need to remember that we are all Americans and love our country despite philosophical, spiritual and political differences. Bush's conservative supporters may have lost the election, but they are still part of the process, and since Obama has included them here. I feel he is saying that it's America for *everyone* - not just some subset of America like we just finished seeing for the last 8 years...


That's how I see it. Personally - I wouldn't have invited Warren to do the invocation - just proves he is a better person than me... I'd have left the majority of conservative right out in the cold myself... they certainly left the rest of us out there for the most part of 8 years.

Like you said - Obama will be POTUS for ALL of America - not just the ones that voted for him. I think this is his way of proving it wasn't all talk about governing *all* of America.