Barack Obama is a very intelligent man. Which is why his invitation of Rick Warren is such a confusing move. Its his latest fuck you note pinned to the hope that swept him into office (Jesus’ General has a short and brilliant synopsis). It would also appear to be a fundamentally naive misunderstanding of what Rick Warren represents. Rick Warren is an ultra conservative Christian who is actively working to put a mainstream spin on fundamentalist ideas. As Lindsey Beyerstein notes:
Giving Warren even more mainstream cred is not just a cost-free nod to evangelicals. It’s a boost for someone who actively opposes Obama’s agenda and who is eager to influence secular affairs.
That mainstream cred may be cost-free to the evangelicals, but it comes at a deadly cost to the LGBT community…
Arguments in favor of California’s Proposition 8 are a fascinating study in hate apologetics. Just as with the “life begins at conception” anti-choice movement or the pro-creationism lobby, from the start there is an intense pressure to hide the religious foundations beneath the nearest available logic-like substitute. It comes down to an often hilarious yet very sobering look into the kind of people who think discrimination belongs in the California state constitution.
The favored defenses of institutionalized bigotry are:
One of the most appealing qualities of being American is the role of the individual. Our culture glorifies liberty and with great reason. Coming from the state that hosts Walden Pond, I’ve always felt a strong connection to the tradition of writers and activists that continues to pour out of Massachusetts.
Massachusetts is also a state where Gay Marriage has been legal for quite some time. Looking over at the fight brewing in California makes me a little nostalgic. MA has its fair share of theocrats too.
This is something we need to be clear about. Anyone opposing the freedom of consenting adults to enter into the bonds of marriage with each other is doing so to impose their religious views on the entire country. This line from the Wall Street Journal caught my eye:
Mormon leaders, on the church’s official Web site, ask their followers to support the California ballot measure to reinforce church teachings that “marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God.”
There is just no justification on this green Earth for using a ballot measure – an instrument of state – to enforce church teachings. None. This shit burns me up. Sarah Palin, the Republican VP candidate is eating it up:
The issue has come up in the presidential campaign, with Republican Sen. John McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, suggesting this week that she would support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage nationwide.
She’s signaling just as clearly as she can that if elected, she’ll use her power as Queen of the U.S. Senate to begin pushing her Bible on our laws.
Its getting to a point where its just too much to take. Check out this video of a McCain/Palin supporter (via an especially pertinent and brilliant post at Pandagon):
Its marked the first time I’ve felt strongly “This person shouldn’t have the right to vote”. This thought startled and upset me as soon as I had it, since I strongly believe everyone has the right to vote (and ought to be encourage to). Faith in this sense is not a virtue. It is a liability. It is a knife through the heart of reasoned discourse. Watching that video, do you think it remotely possible to discuss positions and substance with that woman and get anywhere at all? Everything comes down to this black and white binary of whether it fits into her personal religious view, and there is no room for anything other than the comfortable dogma she knows by rote.
What it comes down to is this rage and this conviction I have. That however I feel about the election, I want with every ounce of me to resist a small but vocal segment of this country dragging us all deeper into their theocratic pit.
