Radosh.net

Barack Obama is defending his invitation to Rick Warren with a plea for postpartisanship.

What I've also said is that it is important for America to come together even though we may have disagreements on certain social issues... That dialogue, I think, is a part of what my campaign's been all about, that we're never going to agree on every single issue. What we have to do is create an atmosphere where we can disagree without being disagreeable, and then focus on those things that we hold in common as Americans.

Greg Seargant asks "why campaigning against division and polarization by picking an equally radical choice on the left to give the invocation would be politically unthinkable?"

Meanwhile, consider how agreeable Warren himself chose to be -- how open to dialogue -- after the gay group Soulforce prematurely announced that leaders of Warren's Saddleback church, perhaps including Warren and his wife Kay, had agreed to break bread with gay Christian families on Father's Day:

We did not invite this group and I will not be meeting with them. They invited themselves to draw attention to their cross country publicity stunt. My staff has already told them that neither my wife nor I will meet with them for any discussion or debate.

Bear in mind that the Soulforce families were not asking to speak from the pulpit, or for Warren to publicly embrace them. They wanted a private conversation, to let Warren get to know some real people who were being hurt by his teachings and actions. And yet, not a chance.

Soulforce was traveling, by the way, with a mediator of sorts: gay-affirming pastor Jay Bakker. If Obama is really committed to having all Americans come together, he'll have Jay up there on January 20 too.

Finally, all this stuff about Warren is drowning out the other inaugural atrocity: a new musical composition by that hack John Williams! Is that really the pinnacle of contemporary American classical music? Maybe he'll reprise the theme from Jaws in time for a great white to bite Rick Warren's legs off.

Self-promotional update: Welcome, multitudinous friends of Andrew. If this topic interests you, I think you'll enjoy my book, Rapture Ready! Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture. NPR sez, "Highly recommended as a memoir, a meditation on American religious tensions, and a perfect example of why taking popular culture seriously is so important.”

Posted by Daniel Radosh

5:02 PM