Over at the washingtonpost.com, E. J. Dionne Jr. makes the point in his column that:
By inviting Pastor Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation, President-elect Barack Obama has alienated some of his friends on the left. By accepting, Warren has enraged some of his allies on the right.
Obama and Warren have helped each other in the past, and both know exactly what they’re doing.
This makes sense. Perhaps it’s a good move although, based on what he’s said in the past, I find it hard to buy into Pastor Warren’s version of spiritual integration:
‘I’m a pastor, not a politician,’ Warren said. ‘People always say, ‘Rick, are you right wing or left wing?’ I say ‘I’m for the whole bird.’
Dionne continues with an interesting point:
Many liberals hope — and a lot of conservatives fear — that the rise of “whole bird” Christianity will break up right-wing dominance in the white evangelical community.
Might Warren use this opportunity to approach things differently? The HuffPo reports:
John Aravosis of Americablog noticed on Friday that Rick Warren’s church website explicitly bans gay people “unwilling to repent of their homosexual lifestyle” from membership at Saddleback. (They are allowed, however, to attend services.)
Now Warren has removed the anti-gay language from the church website.
Evolution of faith, perhaps?
