Brilliant or dastardly?

Satanic homosexual icon
or pretty butterfly?
[from prismcomics.org]

Several people have flattered me by asking my opinion on Barack Obama’s decision to invite preacher Rick Warren to invoke the evangelicals’ God at the inauguration. The many interesting anecdotes, comments and other reports about this move form part of an evolving response and an evolving situation.

I turned eagerly to read what Paul Schindler, editor of the consistently excellent Gay City News, had to say about it in this week’s issue. Schindler, a well-informed, thoughtful and nuanced voice, wrote a lengthy, front-page news story about it, recording the various statements and positions staked out so far.

Schindler includes an illuminating anecdote from an LGBT outfit called Soulforce, which tried to reach out to Warren’s Saddleback Church in 2008 to discuss family issues. [Check out the details here.] The clear impression from that story is that while Warren started out willing to engage in discussion, he soon backed off when the political/media fallout of the encounter became uncertain and later was extremely careful about managing and controlling the message. This is consistent with a modern religious entrepreneur who is perhaps more eager to play the political game than to engage in meaningful dialogue with his adversaries.

Of course, we’re now expected to meaningfully dialogue with Warren, so it will be interesting to see if that is possible or if he’s a close-minded bigot. Several observers have noted that Warren has backpedaled on some of his most egregious statements and that his website took down an offensive text stating that gays would be unwelcome at Saddleback.

Curiously, Schindler, who normally publishes a signed editorial on the burning issue of the week, is silent. That suggests he’s taking a wait-and-see attitude, which strikes me as exactly the right response for now. Negotiations are a tricky thing, and Obama could find himself outsmarted and exploited by Warren for narrow purposes. On the other hand, Warren is taking a big risk in the Bible-thumping camp by joining forces with the Antichrist baby-slaughterer.

In any case, we are probably seeing a prelude to how Obama plans to govern, pulling in potential adversaries and seeing if they can offer partial support for his program. Given that every time in the past two years that I have said he was going about things all wrong, he turned out to be right, modesty thus requires me to maintain an open mind and wait to see the results.