Electronic Cerebrectomy is one of my favorite, if not my favorite blogs. The administrator, who calls himself SamuraiFrog gave a great assessment of something that's been bothering me recently in a post earlier today.
"I’m very unhappy when it comes to Barack Obama’s decision to ask homophobic hatemonger Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration. This is a hurtful choice. Many of us don’t find Warren’s hate speech acceptable in a civilized world. And for the gay population, this is an affront. Warren successfully spearheaded legislation to strip a segment of one state of their civil rights because they don’t line up with his religious agenda, and he’d like to do the same for the country. Imagine that this man has been telling you that your lifestyle is sick and wrong, that you’re marriage is invalid, that your feelings of love for someone of the same sex are morally the same as pedophilia, bestiality, and incest... and now the next President of the United States is legitimizing those words by putting him in a place of high honor at his own inauguration. Now, I will admit that Obama is more inclusive of gays and lesbians than any president has been before. But Obama is wrong when he calls himself “a fierce advocate” of civil equality and his view on gay marriage amounts to, let’s just say it, separate but equal. That’s not civil equality. That’s backward thinking. And, frankly, Obama’s attempt to defend this by saying he was invited to speak at Warren’s church (as were many others) is weak and lame. Bringing people together doesn’t mean you invite the Grand Dragon to a national audience. And once again gay people have been put in this disgusting position, as they were with the protest of Mormons, of being made to look as if they’re solely liberal and solely against faith. It’s a distortion that Warren keeps returning to, and it denies the diversity of gay and lesbian Americans; this is not a protest against faith and the political right, this is a protest against the language of hate. As a non-believer and a supporter of equal rights for all and as a human being, I’m offended that Rick Warren has been invited to participate. Gay bashing is not acceptable, and nothing is going to change that. And to see Barack Obama, the first black president, the man who liberals kept telling me was symbolic of a new era of acceptance and tolerance and equality and diversity, asking a man who represents oppression and hate to speak the words of a deity that so many believe in, it makes me sad and angry."
-Samurai Frog.
And really, what else is there to say? Well, I have something to add. This whole thing about Barack Obama and Rick Warren really angers me for all of the obvious reasons. But one aspect of this whole fiasco, which I think people have really failed to hit on, is how stupid and avoidable it was. Why did Obama have to pick Rick Warren to give the invocation? He could have picked anyone and he chooses this guy? And at a time when gays are (rightly so) furious about the state of affairs in this country that came to a head with the passing of Proposition 8. AND when black people are (wrongly) being assigned blame for said passing. Obama could have easily chosen a more progressive, inclusive Christian minister. Wouldn't that be representative of the change he purports to personify? At the very least, he could have chosen a preacher who isn't so vocally bigoted and hateful. Obama winning me over has been a slow process, like I've stated on this blog. I'm for him. I want him to do well. But I have a healthy critical attitude about him. But he was showing a shrewdness and an intelligence when it came to choosing his cabinet, and other decisions about his presidency. He was slowly pulling me in. But this Rick Warren thing really and truly gets to the heart of what I DON'T like about Barack Obama. His desire to please everyone. It's such an obvious ploy to pull the religious right onto his side, maybe sink in a few of those people who still doubt whether or not he's truly a Christian or a "MOOZ-LAM." There's playing the game, and then there's playing into people's hatred and fear. Obama did the latter.
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