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First Proposition 8, now this. When you sacrifice one of your strongest areas of support, you had better have a good reason. Barack Obama has tossed his gay constituents under the bus for the second time and he isn’t even in office yet. It must set some kind of record for biting the hands that support you.
Yes, I’m hot on the subject of Pastor Rick Warren delivering the invocation at the inauguration. And no, this is not nitpicking the president-elect, whom I supported from early on. I know there are lots of serious issues facing Obama as he enters the White House and, to most, Warren is just a symbolic bone the president-elect is tossing to the evangelicals. Pardon me if I disagree.
Sometimes symbols count. This is one of those times. Warren is considered fairly liberal by evangelical standards, but it says more about the right wing tilt of evangelicals on social issues than it does about Warren, who is against gay marriage, stem-cell research and a woman’s right to choose. He has compared gay marriage to pedophilia and incest. The fact he puts a smiling face to these attitudes does not make his views any less repugnant.
This is just Obama reaching out, we are told. But the crowd he is reaching out to just enjoyed eight years of prominence under George W. Bush. It enjoyed eight years where its Stone Age social views were treated with respect. Tolerance is a two-way street, which the evangelicals have refused to walk.
If Warren espoused some of the crude, anti-American comments of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, would Christian conservatives have tolerated him as the pastor delivering the invocation? I think Sean Hannity can give you the answer. If Warren had made offensive remarks about Jews or blacks or any ethnic group, would Obama be ready to reach out to him? Yet, when it comes to the civil rights of gay citizens, there is still a double standard in America. Having your most precious relationship compared to child molestation crosses the boundaries of decent discourse.
When Obama tries to play down the significance of the Warren selection, he must be told he can’t have it both ways. If the selection is important enough evangelicals view it as an olive branch, then you can’t claim the slight to gays is trivial.
The media is already trumpeting Warren as the new pre-eminent clergyman in America — the next Billy Graham. So, while it is true Warren will not be making policy for the new president, his views have been given added legitimacy by Obama.
It has been pointed out that in all fairness, Obama never supported gay marriage. This is a position espoused by most liberal politicians who rather talk about civil partnerships, but it is uttered with a wink and a nod to the gay community that says, "Trust us, we are your friends and we will support you."
The timing of the Warren selection couldn’t be worse. It comes on the heels of the new ban on gay marriage in California, which was pushed through with massive financial help from the Mormon Church and the votes of many African-American churchgoers, and without any effort by Obama’s people to sway the vote differently. The selection of Warren is rubbing salt in fresh wounds.
Gay marriage is being treated like drilling or not drilling for offshore oil, another topic in which a diversity of opinion is encouraged. But gay marriage is a civil rights issue. We didn’t treat segregation as a topic with two sides.
As a straight man who has been happily married for 45 years, I can’t look the gay couples I know in the eye and tell them they do not have the right to be married in a civil ceremony (the churches can do what they please). I can’t see the hurt in their eyes without knowing we have relegated them to second-class citizenship. It is not marrying that is so important, but the right to marry. Having seen these relationships up close, I have realized they resemble not pedophilia, but my own relationship, based on love, companionship and loyalty. Warren can listen to all the Melissa Etheridge records he wants to, but if he hasn’t grasped this simple fact, then he is not fit to give the invocation.
It is wonderful our new president is open to new ideas and wants to heal old wounds, but in doing so, there is a line that should not be crossed. The line was crossed when Obama picked Warren.
