President-elect Barack Obama continues to show his faithfulness to ruling-class politics with each decision he makes. Last week, he announced that right-wing evangelical pastor Rick Warren would deliver the invocation at the presidential inauguration ceremony on Jan. 20, 2009.
 Bigoted and proud: Rev. Rick Warren is Barack Obama’s choice to deliver the inaugural invocation. |
Warren’s record is clear. His long-held views on LGBT people are completely backward. Gazing through the narrow prism of fundamentalist Christian ideology, he considers homosexuality a “sin” and believes that gay people can—and should—magically become heterosexuals by turning to prayer. Warren has said publicly that gay marriage is an abomination equivalent to incest, pedophilia and polygamy. He spoke out in favor of California’s bigoted Proposition 8, which stripped same-sex couples of the legal right to marry.
Warren hosted a “town hall” event in August 2008 featuring then-candidate Obama and his opponent John McCain. Warren led a discussion with both candidates about vague, abstract subjects like “faith” and “vision.” Obama and McCain also discussed their stances on issues like the “war on terror,” abortion and same-sex marriage. It was a cordial affair steeped in religion, and both candidates went out of their way to reach right-wing evangelical voters.
On abortion rights, Obama failed to defend strongly a woman’s right to choose. On same-sex marriage, both Obama and McCain declared their firm belief that marriage is between a man and a woman. Obama went out of his way to oppose same-sex marriage.
So, the shameful decision to anoint Warren as “the new Billy Graham” should not come as a complete surprise.
But Obama and his transition team did not anticipate the mass, angry backlash from LGBT organizations and their supporters. Progressive people and LGBT organizations immediately voiced their outrage at Obama’s pick for the inaugural invocation. After the Warren announcement, Equality California launched an email and letter-writing campaign demanding that Obama revoke the invitation. Demonstrations were organized in cities across California. Some have urged a boycott of the inauguration.
This forced Obama to respond publicly. He defended himself as a “fierce advocate of equality,” and then said “no matter our differences we must work together.”
His words, however, ring hollow. The decision to feature a right-wing bigot in the official, government-sponsored inauguration ceremony is a blow to the LGBT community, the same-sex marriage struggle and people who fight for equality of any kind everywhere. It is a nod to reaction and antiquated ruling-class notions of marriage. Obama’s basic agreement with Warren’s stance on same-sex marriage—they both oppose it—reveals his true agenda. In the realm of same-sex marriage rights, Obama aims to maintain the status quo. There is nothing progressive about that.
It is clear that the LGBT community and the working-class in general have nothing in common with Rick Warren. This right-wing preacher would not be speaking at a government-sponsored function if the separation of church and state were more than an illusion. Reactionary church leaders work hand in hand with the state to perpetuate backward ideologies that divide the working class.
Tens of thousands of people have flooded the streets in the weeks after the passage of Prop. 8, showing that the LGBT community is willing to continue the decades-long fight for equality.
The struggle for same-sex marriage and other LGBT rights is not over. Standing up against all forms of bigotry and hate is more necessary than ever before. Revolutionaries and progressives should support the efforts of LGBT organizations to remove Warren from the inauguration ceremony. Genuine hope and change comes from below—not from politicians at the top.
