Bigotry, Plain and Simple

I keep thinking about Frank Rich's column in today's New York Times about Obama's selection of Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration this January. Reading it was one of those uncanny experiences when I found myself thinking: Yes, yes. Exactly. This is exactly how I feel.

I have heard a few people I respect and some I do not claim that they are "okay" with Obama's choice of Warren to be the most significant religious figure at his swearing-in ceremony. The general sentiment among these people, Obama supporters all, is that the choice is perhaps disappointing but indicative of Obama's oft-stated belief in inclusivity, in bringing many different and differing points of view to the table.

Well, I agree with Rich: This is "too cute by half" as explanations go in terms of the statement this choice makes to the country, the world at large, in a year that has seen some real setbacks for gay Americans, Prop 8 in particular. Warren has compared homosexuality to pedophilia and incest. Until very recently his website made it quite clear that homosexuals were not allowed in his church. Now as a half Jew and a woman and a pro-choice advocate and a huge proponent of stem cell research, I am clearly not Warren's target audience. To paraphrase (nonsensically loosely) from that Tom Cruise sports agent movie, he'd have me burning in hell at "half-Jew." I'm also not naive about the evangelical movement and its millions of homophobic adherents. But pedophilia? Incest? Seriously? This is okay to utter out loud? This gets you invited to the White House? Have other presidents chosen religious leaders to deliver their invocations who espouse bigotry in many--more--forms? Sure. Of course. But I know I am not alone when I say I expected more from Obama. Much, much more.

Obama did not come down on the side of gay marriage when he was running for president. It would probably (although not certainly) have meant the loss of the election. I got this, Democrats got this, gay and straight Americans who would have rather lived in cardboard boxes in Canada than under a McCain/Palin administration and at least four more years of failed Bush policies got this. But Obama was elected. He won. By a lot. And he would not have been unelected if he had chosen a more open-minded, tolerant, accepting, positive role model for Christian Americans to stand up with him and pray for our country's future. There are plenty of options that would not have involved a tacit endorsement of the worst kind of hate-mongering, would not have involved sending what will be taken as a wink by people who really deserve a smack in the face.

I don't really care what Obama thinks of Warren and his weird, cult-like bands of purpose-driven followers in his private life. I am glad that Warren apparently does much to fight poverty and "believes in" global warming, I guess, although the children in my daughter's preschool class understand the science well enough to explain it to an adult. I am not so glad that the millions of children in his church are being taught that homosexuality contradicts, and therefore disproves, Darwin's theory of evolution. I am glad that Obama believes everyone deserves a "voice at the table." I believe this too. I believe the KKK has the right to exist under our Constitution. But I am not inviting a Klansman to dinner.

This was not the right time for Obama to make this gesture. It is the right time for him to do what we elected him to do, what I actually--surprising myself sometimes how much--believe he can do: Change the world. But this requires action, not acquiescence. Words and gestures are powerful, actions more so. And one transgendered marching band does not cancel out a viewpoint that in my humble opinion really doesn't need any more airtime.