"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Obama's Problem with Pastors: Round 2

Well, it turns out Barack Obama may have a problem with pastors. Wright was the most serious misstep in Obama's successful campaign for the Presidency. And Warren is the worst thing Obama has done - inviting Warren to give the inauguration invocation - as President-elect.

The only good news about this is perhaps Obama will learn from these experiences, and not do something similarly damaging when he's actually President, and his decisions have far greater consequences.

As it is, though, this two-for-two, with two very different but reprehensible pastors, should be more than enough to make us see the wisdom of separation of church and state in this country.

Warren sees brothers marrying sisters, polygamy, and adults marrying children as the same as gays getting married (see video below). In a genuinely free society, in which the government does not tell consenting adults what to do, the only business that government should have regarding any of the above is preventing and punishing child abuse.

We're apparently still a way off from that society. Maybe Obama is even doing its cause a favor by keeping it so prominently on the front burner.

My wife and I will still watch the inauguration with pleasure, but not when that bigot gives the invocation.

4 comments:

CKeefe.Shea said...

I have to disagree. Obama talked about reaching across the aisle. And this guy hasn't been on the progressive's radar except for a few soundbites, but Warren's a best selling author "Purpose Driven Life", has tried to bring the green movement and evangelism together.

He's not a bigot, just used a poor analogy. I don't think he was saying that gay marriage is the same as bestiality, he was just saying that if it's not between a man and a woman, it's not a marriage.

I saw commentary that Obama had taken for granted an important bloc of voters by inviting Warren, but there is the assumption there that has gone unquestioned. The assumption that LBGT movement represents an important voting bloc. Maybe they aren't really that important, but just very very vocal.

Paul Levinson said...

The LBGT movement is important, not because it is vocal, but because it represents a group of human beings who are being severely discriminated against.

And that's why I think Warren is a bigot. A person of the cloth, especially, should have a helping spiritual hand out for all human beings - certainly all human beings who cause no one any harm. Warren, instead, closes the door on gays, because they do not subscribe to his view of marriage.

Anonymous said...

Rick Warren may disagree with the homosexual lifestyle, but that does not necessarily make him a bigot. He merely disagrees with your worldview so you feel you need to label him.

What exactly is your definition of harmless human beings, anyway? I've never heard of such a thing.

Paul Levinson said...

I never said anything about "harmless human beings," Anonymous. I said that consenting adults, who, in their actions, cause no harm to anyone, are entitled to do what they please, without any adverse treatment from government. What do you not understand about that?

As for Warren, he likens gays who want to marry, who cause no harm to anyone, to pedophiles who prey on children. That, in my book, is bigotry. That has nothing to do with whether or not I agree with his or anyone's opinions. For example, I disagree with anyone thinks that we should not spend more money on space travel - but I don't think they're bigots.

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