A Christian Liberal is NOT an oxymoron.

Posted by XT on January 4th, 2009 in Progressive Faith

A psychologist I used to work for often told this story:

A man went next door to borrow his neighbor’s lawnmower. However, his neighbor refused. “My wife is making meatloaf,” the neighbor said. “What does that have to do with me and the lawnmower?” the man asked. “Oh, nothing,” the neighbor said. “But if I don’t want to let you use it, any excuse will do.”

Late in December, I sat and listened to a person talk about how Barack Obama was not an American citizen because it had be “proven” that he was actually born in Kenya and then “smuggled” into Hawaii a couple of days later. Oh yeah, his mother also claimed that he was an Indonesian citizen when he attended school as a child in Indonesia. This crap is easily debunked, but when one wants to believe the worst about a person, facts just don’t matter.

As bad as that is, we now are getting this sort of drivel from the left about Rick Warren. Full disclosure: Rick Warren is the kind of pastor that made me leave the Southern Baptist church. I don’t like his theology and I find him personally to be more than a bit self-bloated and smarmy. But that’s why I belong to the Episcopal Church.

The idea that Barack Obama has had a fundamental theological shift, with no more evidence than the fact he asked Rick Warren to say a prayer at the Inaugural, is just stupid. There’s no other word for it. After all, in the very same ceremony, Rev. Joseph Lowry will be offering a prayer, too. As I said in an email to several people – does this mean there is a double-shift? A head fake? A double arm-pump with a flea-flicker?

I see that Aretha Franklin will also be performing. What does this say about Obama’s theology? Perhaps that he endorses the theology of CL Franklin (Aretha Franklin’s father)? Since that would be in direct opposition to Warren’s theology on any number of points, then what are we to make of it?

Maybe we are to make of it that Rick Warren has sold upwards of 20 million books, is a known leader among conservative groups, and has worked hard to expand the agenda of the religious right to include issues of poverty and environmentalism. Regardless of what other views he holds, it is worth working with Warren to undo the environmental antagonism of the Bush era, not to mention the view of poverty as a personal failing that has been prevalent since Reagan’s vilification of “welfare queens.”

And when I say that, someone on the left always says, “Well, why not invite David Duke?” First, David Duke is not associated with environmental or poverty issues, he is involved solely with racial supremacy issues. Second, he hasn’t sold twenty million books, so bringing him onto the team does nothing. In other words, it’s a stupid comparison. It’s like saying, “If we let this apple sit in the bowl, then what will we do with the carrots?”

But let’s look at the issue of racism. What do you think got Rev. Wright ditched? It was his Afro-centric message and the endless looping of “God damn America.” Of course, “God damn America” was aimed at enumerating our historical sins of racism, but that doesn’t matter. He was perceived as being a racist and he was ditched. Racism and gay rights are simply not on the same playing field for the vast majority of Americans.

This does not mean that gay rights are not the premier civil rights issue of our day. I think they are. But it means that we are very far from being at the point where we can claim the moral high ground and have it ceded to us. There is a lot of work left before that happens. Throwing a fit and demanding that someone who does not agree with a distinct minority view is simply not the way to build a majority.

It has been pointed out to me that Warren’s Saddleback Church has changed its webpage spiel on gay rights. It is no less offensive to people to see homosexuality compared to alcoholism, but it has been changed. This indicates that even Rick Warren is susceptible to public pressure. And perhaps it was the people who called for him to be dropped from the Inaugural lineup that forced that change – but it was not them alone. After all, Warren’s church has had their views for a very long time. It was the chance to be included in the Inaugural that got the ball rolling towards change.

Obama has been fairly consistent on his stance towards gay rights. He thinks gay marriage is wrong. He’s said that bluntly. But he also believes that individual states should be allowed to decide whether or not to allow it. At best, I see President Obama stopping the “don’t ask; don’t tell” stupidity in the Armed Forces and perhaps repealing DOMA. I wouldn’t be surprised, however, if he did neither. But those who haven’t paid much attention will be claiming betrayal.

Maybe it’s the meatloaf.

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