The Inaugural Invocation
I am disgusted beyond belief that President-elect Obama has selected the Hawaiian-shirted gasbag Rick Warren (R,Corporatist) to give the “invocation” at the inauguration. My disgust goes way beyond his gay and lesbian hatred. He claims to be not of the right but thinks that women are property that he, through the oh so familiar means of claiming special knowledge of God’s wishes, should be able to tell what to do with their bodies. Not to mention how horribly offensive it is to compare abortion to the Holocaust.
I wasn’t going to talk about Rick Warren. FAIL.
He’s a smarmy religion-based capitalist who makes a ton of money off of his book(s) (Amazon.com Sales Rank: #339 in Books) and assorted products. He does good works and smiles in that phony condescending way no matter what he is saying. (Why are their wives always bleached blondes with way to much makeup?) And then there is that “mega-church” thing that has been popular of late. He’s smart, I’ll give him that. He updated the country preacher thing and made it acceptable to a generation reared on television and short attention spans.
I know I’m blithering. Go read the piece in The Nation entitled “What’s The Matter With Rick Warren?” wherein they say, on point,
Warren represents the absolute worst of the Democrats’ religious outreach, a right-winger masquerading as a do-gooder anointed as the arbiter of what it means to be faithful.
Obama, when questioned about his choice, argued that this represents outreach to those who disagree and besides, Obama was invited to Pastor Rick’s church. (Yeah, he really calls himself Pastor Rick. Must be that California thing where everybody pretends that they are casual and familiar instead of remembering that manners exist for a reason.) These are pitiful arguments. Ok, invite him to the White House. But the inauguration is a representation of the nation’s ideals and ought not serve as a platform for a bigot. I know I’m not the first to note that Mr. Obama surely wouldn’t have a KKK member give the invocation arguing for inclusion. It give the imprint of approval to Pastor Rick. Billy Graham was the pastor who appeared to advise presidents for years. That didn’t set so well with me but at least he didn’t act like a political pastor.
I started out this rambling post to make a point. Finally.
Why do we still have an invocation and a closing prayer for the inauguration? Isn’t this a civil matter? Don’t we have a nation composed of many religions and none? Yet we have a Christian opening and closing — Joseph Lowrey of the SCLC will give the benediction. Insisting on bracketing this event with Christian symbolism seems to be eliminating a lot of Americans who don’t participate in this particular brand of religion. So why not just drop it?
Mr. Obama, his family, and those who choose could very well start the day or precede the ceremony by attending a church service. Or by inviting in a religious leader of his choosing to pray together. But why can’t that be a matter of personal choice? Why the need to impose his religious preferences on all of us during what is clearly a civil matter? Isn’t it time to end this vestigial practice?
Posted: December 19th, 2008 under Obama, The Obama Administration.
Comments: 5
Comments
Comment from Bob
Time: December 19, 2008, 9:38 am
I’m with you, I don’t get this at all, no matter how Obama tries to justify his decision.
Comment from Josh Hammond
Time: December 19, 2008, 10:07 am
It’s payback for Righteous Rick going easy on him during the charade they held during the campaign, the one McCain cheated on. But I agree with you. Of course, the US Senate does the prayer thing every day they are in session.
The problem here is he can’t do this just once and then blow them off. That is real troubling. I’m seeing a disquieting pattern starting to happen here.
Comment from Sandy
Time: December 20, 2008, 6:54 am
This, on top of the endless requsts for money, and the wall street economic team has left me very , very disappointed with Obama etal.
I am waiting to see what they actually do but my joy and enthuiasm have all but evaporated.
Comment from timr
Time: December 20, 2008, 12:48 pm
My observation of the “mega xristians”-like rev rick- comes from watching them for the last 40 or so years. They are all the same type. First they are con men who preach to the masses of sheep about how everyone except their group are heathens who will go to hell. 40 years ago they preached against blacks and mixed marriages, then when it became “unxristian” to be against blacks they became the antiabortion party, with a side hate of just about the only group that they could rant against, gays. Then came the new century and the new hatred, arabs and islam. Then they discovered the deep vein of hatred ready to be mined so they came out against “brown people or mexicans” who as they discovered to their dismay, are not really a minority that they can hate, but are rapidly becoming the majority-thus the plea for all the evangelical sheeple to go out and have lots of kids.
Warren is one of them, a smooth talker who pours his hatred of all “others” into the minds of the sheeple. Who, unfortunately not only believe every word that he says, but parrot it endlessly.
I have no idea why Obama did what he did, but I will have to go along with John. Warren spreads hatred of certain minority groups, but his sheeple do listen-my wife knows many of them here in SA- and I have found that you can not penetrate the lies told to a true believer, however, if the chosen authoritarian leader changes his message, then the sheeple will change their beliefs.
Yes, I believe that the rev rick is an authoritarian leader. The gospel that he preaches has little to do with christianity, but everything to do with building up rev rick. The sheeple remain as always, sheeple who believe everything that he says. It really doesn’t mean a whole lot when the “experts” claim that any evangelical preacher has little or no influence. I look at the people around me, I listen to conversations while waiting in VA hospitals, I listen to what people say and what I see is people terrified of the future, people who feel that they have little or no control over their own lives, people who see everything changing and going faster, people who wish for the time when we were all like the people in Mayberry-which we never were-so they place themselves into a belief system that tells them that the end of the world is near, but if they are right with their version of xristianity then they will survive the rapture. I have spoken with many people who I thought were realists, but they all have this big blind spot, they believe without critical thought everything that their leaders tell them. So Obama giving this preacher-who has reached out to over 7 million people with his book-a very small spot in the limelight is also reaching out to his natural enemies,(keep your friends close, but your enemies closer) the evangelicals-who are also against the rev rick appearing with Obama(who is, after all, according to many mega preachers, the antichrist) OH, BTW, according to the latest that I have been hearing, the world will end in Dec 2012.-I listened to several “operation rescue” people who believe this with all their being-funny how these same people could not care less about those children after they are born, they always vote against programs to aid poor children, against head start programs, against childrens health insurance, against everything that will help the poor, amazing, isn’t it
Comment from Sasha
Time: December 20, 2008, 2:07 pm
Friday December 13, 2012 from what I hear.
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