Choice Of Rick Warren For Inaugural Is Wrong

On Wednesday, December 17, President-elect Obama's transition team, along with the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies announced the inaugural program. The invocation is to be given by Dr. Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, California.

The program includes the following profile of Dr. Warren: "Dr. Rick Warren founded Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, in 1980 with one family. Today, it is an evangelical congregation averaging 22,000 weekly attendees, a 120-acre campus, and has more than 300 community ministries to groups such as prisoners, CEOs, addicts, single parents, and those with HIV/AIDS. He also leads the Purpose Driven Network of churches, a global coalition of congregations in 162 countries. TIME magazine named him one of "15 World Leaders Who Mattered Most in 2004," and in 2005 one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World."

But there's another side to Dr. Warren. The Christian Post website stated, "Attempting only to make abortions “rare” is not much different than saving some of the Jews during the Holocaust when all could be saved, according to megachurch pastor Rick Warren." Warren himself is quoted as saying, “For these people who believe life begins at birth, all right, at conception, it’s an American holocaust. They believe that there’s 40 million people who should be here." Comparing legal abortions to the Holocaust is absurd and is indicative of someone with a not quite hidden 'Christian' right-wing agenda.

Dr. Warren has compared same-sex marriage to pedophilia and incest. He has claimed that had Proposition 8 in California (which restricted marriage in California to one man and one woman) not passed, pastors who speak their mind on certain issues would have had silenced - their free speech rights severely restricted. Obama should refrain from having Warren, who attempts to prop up this intellectually barren philosophy by guilt by association with pedophilia and incest, be anywhere near the inauguration. click here to listen to Dr. Warren.

He has called Christians who advance a social gospel Marxists. Not exactly a bridge-builder, is he? Divisive, hypocritical, and cruel are terms more apt.

This is not a person that President-elect Obama should showcase during his historic inauguration. Why was the decision made to include Warren? Was it political? Thinking about 2012? Would the choice of Warren drain Christian right-wing votes from the Republicans? Unlikely. Those votes will flock to Palin in 2012.

It is not too late. Obama can still change the man or woman who will give the invocation. Or he could be really bold and eliminate it altogether. You know, something about the separation of church and state.