QUESTION: Why doesn't President-elect Obama include in his historic inauguration program a speaker or pastor who fervently believes that African-Americans don't deserve equal rights and protections under the U.S. Constitution?
ANSWER: Because Obama, an African-American, would rightfully deem that viewpoint a contradiction of constitutional rights afforded all Americans, and therefore inappropriate for his presidential inauguration.
The president-elect would not choose to lend his inaugural pulpit to a speaker or pastor who openly espouses discriminatory behavior toward African-Americans.
QUESTION: Why wouldn't President-elect Obama consider the idea that African-Americans don't deserve the same rights and protections as other Americans just one more intellectual theory to be evaluated equally along with all other competing theories?
ANSWER: Because Obama would rightfully find the idea that African-Americans don't deserve equal rights to be morally repugnant and unacceptably discriminatory... and not worthy of debate.
QUESTION: Why would President-elect Obama invite to lead public prayer at his inauguration Pastor Rick Warren, who vehemently condemns the right of gay Americans to get married, who claims that homosexuality is not "a natural thing" and who strongly implies that homosexuals should and "can live without sex."
ANSWER: Because Obama does not find Warren's viewpoints about gay Americans to be sufficiently unacceptable as to be repugnant, discriminatory or immoral.
Obama finds Warren's stances to be just one of many equally acceptable intellectual viewpoints about the "issues" of the nature of homosexuality and gay marriage. Per Obama camp talking points:
"The President-elect disagrees with Pastor Warren on issues that affect the LGBT community. They disagree on other issues as well. But what's important is that they agree on many issues... "
QUESTION: What does this mean about President-elect Obama's view about the intrinsic nature of homosexuality?
ANSWER: Obama regards Pastor Rick Warren's views on homosexuality to be merely a stance on one of many equally important issues.
Yet Obama clearly would regard a pastor espousing unequal rights for African-Americans to be promulgating an unacceptably immoral viewpoint.
The possible implications of Obama's tin-eared inconsistency include:
- that Obama believes homosexuality is acquired, not genetic, and therefore is merely a controllable impulse, unlike skin color
- that gay Americans are not necessarily deserving of equal rights and protections
- that condemning language against the essence of homosexuality is acceptable.
SUMMARY: Barack Obama was elected to the U.S. presidency by cobbling together a new Democratic-voting coalition that includes Americans who hold socially conservative views on certain issues, including abortion and gay marriage.
In an effort to continue to appeal to Americans who are moderately liberal on economic and justice issues, but retain conservative views on religious-related social issues, Obama invited religious right Pastor Rick Warren to offer an inaugural prayer.
In fact, Warren spearheads admirable, hands-on work on a myriad of important justice issues. And at the Obama/McCain debate held at his church on August 16, 2008, Pastor Warren firmly queried both candidates about their economic proposals to help middle-class Americans. In many areas, I do believe that Pastor Warren is the very model of Christian leadership.
But in Obama's fevered, insecure rush to pump-up his post-election political popularity, the president-elect accidentally revealed his moral blindness about the unequal and often cruel treatment afforded gay Americans.
And again I lately wonder: Is Obama conviction-free and ideology-free, unless a value or condition pertains directly to the interests of him and his tight circle of family and friends?
- Related Reading
- Pastor Rick Warren Corrects Me About His Ministries to the Poor, and I Have Questions
- Is Obama Appointing Liberals to Take Bad-Cop Conservative Stances?
- Obama's AIDS & Faith Speech at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church
- About.com Guide to Lesbian Life
- About.com Guide to Gay Life
(Photo#! : David Paul Morris/Getty Images; Photo #2 taken on August 16, 2008 of Barack Obama and Pastor Rick Warren: David McNew/Getty Images)
Comments
This is sad. You’re absolutely right, Deborah.
WORD! Succinct and indisputable. The view from under the bus hasn’t changed much, Deborah. But this latest blow is especially cruel as it comes during the honeymoon period. We worked tirelessly and won of a hard fought election. The promise of change was intoxicating and we were high on hope. Then came Yes On 8 and we were slapped back to reality. It’s still OK to smear the queer in Cali. We still don’t rank full rights. Today our new pres-elect made it official nationwide. He’ll sympathize with us but he won’t stop others from bashing us while remaining perfectly acceptable in a civil, democratic society. Nothing has changed.
Question: Why compare someones views on homosexuality to theoretical views on the civil rights of African Americans in particular, why not something more comparable and pertaining to other types of relationships, like the rights of interracial couples, or the rights of heterosexual couples.
The truth is as much as we like to make ourselves, and others out to be one way or the other no one is completely liberal or conservative. Even the most liberal of us are conservative about some things, and vice versa.