Time for Rick Warren to step aside
It's time for Rev. Rick Warren to find some face-saving excuse to step aside from delivering the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural.
Obama got bad advice on this one. Either that or he was over-compensating for his own former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. But in any case, Warren has no place on the program. Not with his far right views on gay marriage, the place of women, and other topics important to Obama's base, as outlined so well in this piece by Katha Pollitt.
Warren is not the new Rev. Billy Graham. Graham was piece of work at times, and is most associated with President Richard Nixon, but at least he knew when to avoid divisive social issues and stick to the Gospel. In the age of the Internet, a pastor's every utterance, whether to 'friendly' audiences or not, is often available at the click of a mouse. Will Warren pray "in the name of Jesus," as many evangelicals insist on doing in all instances, and thereby offend Jews and Muslims?
There are many good and decent pastors out there who support both Obama and the issues important to a majority of Americans. Pick one of them, Mr. President.