12-19 Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Texas, has been chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to give the invocation prayer at the inaugaration on January 20, 2009. Some on the right and the left are having a cow over this.
Gay-rights activists are livid at Obama because they consider this a sellout move. Rick Warren goes against everything they believe. Members of the right are upset at Warren because they think he's rubbing shoulders too much with Obama, who stands against much of what they believe.
CBN senior political correspondent David Brody has listed some of the posts about Warren on his blog “The Brody File,” which includes the following:
“I just lost a lot of respect for Rick Warren. How can someone who professes to be a Christian put himself into a situation where other Christians would question him?”
“This is terrible; this man calls himself a Christian?”
“When I first saw this headline, I thought it was a joke. For a man like Rick Warren to give the invocation for a man that has pledged to sign the Freedom of Choice Act is beyond the pale.”
I would personally advise these conservative Christians, of which I am one myself, to hold off on the attacks against Pastor Rick Warren. Pastor Warren will probably never hear from Obama again unless he gets into trouble like President Clinton did with his sexual liaisons and needed religious leaders to help give the image that he was getting his life into proper order. Other than something like that happening, Rick Warren will only be another face in the crowd to Obama.
However, I would like to address the first comment from Brody's blog that rips into Warren. Does this person ever go out in public? Unless one is a monk or nun hidden away from the world's influence, we will inevitably be put in a place where we will be questioned. Jesus talked alone to a Samaritan woman at a well and was questioned by people. It happens!
I think the world is in the mess it is in because Christians (and conservatives) have not been more a part of our culture. We have not tried to shape the culture; we have only resisted it. Pastor Warren has written several books, the most popular one being "The Purpose-Driven Life." In that book, he talks about the ways in which we can follow God. This is not the talk from someone trying to cater to "the other side," and I don't think he is doing that now. He is trying to engage someone who (from what I can tell) will eventually not listen to the populace but put into place legislation and taxes that will hurt all Americans.
But Pastor Warren is trying, and for that I give him credit.
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