So I've said I would be supportive of the new administration. I said I wouldn't rant and rave for a while. I wanted to see how it would all play out. I want them and us to succeed. I have thought the choices for the cabinet were way too conservative but you have to understand that anyone who isn't left of Dennis Kucinich is too conservative for me, so I've waited. But then I heard that Rick Warren is going to give the invocation at President Obama's inauguration.
I think Kathryn Kolbert, president of the People for the American Way, best sums up why I am disgusted and dismayed with this choice. (And she is more articulate then I am right now. I've just been mumbling "grrrrrr" since hearing about it.)
Kolbert writes, "Warren...campaigned for Proposition 8, the initiative that stripped same-sex couples in California of their right under the state constitution to get legally married...In an interview with Beliefnet.com, (Warren) has since equated allowing loving same-sex couples to get married with redefining marriage to permit incest and pedophilia.
"And he has repeated one of the Religious Right's big lies: that somehow allowing marriage equality to stand would have threatened the freedom of preachers like him to say what they thought about homosexuality. That's not remotely true, but it's a standard tool of Religious Right leaders trying to resist the public's increasing support for equality...He adamantly opposes a woman's legal right to abortion and dismisses common-ground efforts to reduce the need for abortion by comparing them to accommodating the Holocaust. He is disrespectful of progressive people of faith, suggesting that they are tools of the Democratic Party or more Marxist than Christian."
This is how we want to start a new era?
Friday, December 19, 2008
Are You Kidding Me?
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4 comments:
Dear friend,
I thought of you yesterday as I heard more about the cabinet choices and this choice. I wondered if you'd be able to keep your pledge to be supportive -- even when you disagreed; or how long it would take for your candidate not to be perfect enough. I guess the answer is before inaugaration.
Remember, it is not the Religious Right that opposes same sex marriage. It is 60+% of the Democratic party at the last poles; it is your candidate, your party. Obama is just being a mainstream American.
While I fully support same-sex marriage, I also realize that the rest of the country is very, very slowly moving in that direction. Honestly, it's tough to find a minister who supports same-sex marriage; so, when you select a prominent preacher you're likely to get someone who has spoken against it. Perhaps he should have chosen a Unitarian Universalist; a liberal faith that supports GLBT rights across the board. (Mine, I might add)
Take a deep breath and follow your initial instincts for a while. The "honeymoon" is supposed to last at least until after the inaugaration.
Susan
Warren doesn't believe in evolution! Add that to his anti-gay and anti-women sentiments and I think that's enough to say he represents the fringe. I was so looking forward to the inauguration.
Wow, I didn't get the evolution bent. That definitely doesn't jibe with Obama's emphasis on science, picking advisors who will let science be science, etc.
That is a little distressing. You don't have to add that belief to anything to make it non-mainstream.
Okay, new tactic: imagine your husband has really screwed up (though we know the Marster wouldn't do that), do you show love and support and give him a chance to come around on his own, or do you lose faith, slam him and decide not to celebrate your anniversary?
Enjoy the inauguration; just think who could have been up there on the podium -- the administration who will allow physicians to determine what reproductive information their patients should hear beginning Jan 1 -- and not be fired for withholding information or services. Now that's a policy against women. Please write about that.
Susan
I haven't lost faith and I'm not slamming Obama. There will be many things I won't like. There already are. But I will still encourage them all. And all of us. But I will continue to point out things where I think they've gone too far--or where they are out of step with what I think is decent, fair, wise and good. Now I shall get back to work...
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