The Ongoing Story of Rick Warren and Barack Obama

2008 December 23

by Tyler

I know, I know…I’m a week late on this story. But people are still talking about it, so I thought I would share some thoughts of my own while including the good thoughts from others.

About a week ago Barack Obama announced Rick Warren would be giving the invocation at the Inauguration in mid-January.

There are plenty of people who are upset (that might be a kind way to say it) about this choice of Warren by Obama. HERE is a good post on why people are upset. The obvious reasons are that Warren is against gay marriage and Obama supports it. Warren is also against abortion and Obama is for it in almost all cases. Essentially Obama has invited someone to his inauguration that cares about things that are generally associated with the Republican party.

There are also people who are confused. The choice seems to contradict Obama in some cases (especially those 2 key issues). HERE is a good blog on being torn about whether to be upset or to like the choice.

Now finally for 2 posts that I basically agree with everything said. Both Tony Jones and Scot McKnight really nail it for me.

Tony basically says that we are all political experts (or so we think) after a long election season, that the gay marriage issue is a lot bigger than most think, and that many conservatives are starting to realize they don’t like the idea of Rick Warren being the next Billy Graham.
Scot says that an inauguration is about celebrating democracy and not about domination of an agenda.

My thoughts:

What baffles me is that NO ONE complained when Rick Warren called Obama a friend of his when the forum went on at Saddleback.
I also don’t understand the uproar against Obama with this. From the very beginning he ran his campaign as more of a centrist than his record showed.
We see from his Cabinet and even from this choice of Warren that he remains liberal on the issues but a centrist as a leader. This shouldn’t be viewed as something negative I don’t think.

Your thoughts?

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http://ash-nits.blogspot.com ash

i think it’s a fine choice. he’s showing his appreciation for rick warren. of all the debates and in all the harsh campaigning, warren was the only one who decided to have a fair, open, discussion with each candidate about issues that the evangelical community wanted to know about. further, i think it’s obama’s attempt to reach out toward the very people that might despise him. rick warren is a respected pastor and christian leader, and has influence. obama is not an evil guy, he is the winner of presidential race and will be our president. we’re not always going to agree with him on this or that issue and we should make our voices clear, but he is our leader, the majority won. so let’s give him the chance to show us what he’s really made of, we’re not going to really know right now, b/c he hasn’t done anything yet!! warren recognizes obama is a man, and warren never gave a public endorsement and he respects the office and i think obama is trying to show that he’s not going to turn his back on the evangelical community.

the billy graham comparison? well, that might be silly. no one will ever be billy graham, himself. but we are in a new generation w/ new people and we need a fresh voice. i also think graham probably applauds the choice and we shouldn’t put him on a ped-a-stool.