US President-elect Barack Obama has not even got himself behind the large oak desk in the Oval Office and some of his decisions are already being scrutinized.
Throughout his campaign to become Leader of the Free World, perhaps the most powerful office on the planet, Obama’s image has been that of a Kennedy-like liberal, a new style politician replacing the old style epitomized by the Bush dynasty (both Bush Sr. as well as Dubya), Reagan, even Clinton whose administration was originally heralded as a New Camelot before his peccadilloes took the sheen off that. I believe Obama may well be another Kennedy. Certainly his presidency holds out considerable promise and hope after the debacle of George W. Bush’s eight years of office.
Obama is an unabashed liberal Democrat. If I were an American, that would certainly be someone I would enthusiastically get behind and would have voted for. I also believe Obama’s presidency will be characterized by attempts to bring Americans together, to rebuild a nation back to being the shining light of democracy and all that is good and true in the world, an image many Americans cherish and still believe themselves to be but which has become tarnished in recent years.
Having said all that, his choice of Pastor Rick Warren to be the cleric who swears him in on Inauguration Day January 20th is an odd choice, to say the least.
Warren is the founder and senior pastor of the 22,000 member evangelical Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. One of the most famous and influential churches in the US, Saddleback is the fourth largest “mega-church” in the country. It was Warren’s Civil Forum for the Presidency on which presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama appeared in August 2008. Warren is bit of an anomaly within the highly conservative evangelical Christian movement.
While he holds traditional evangelical views on homosexuality and abortion, he is also noted for his work around HIV/AIDS and poverty in Africa. He is, however, a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage. He recently campaigned in favour of California’s Proposition 8, the controversial measure banning equal marriage. The measure was approved on November 8th, 2008. His church’s website, until recently, also had anti-gay views posted on it and Warren stated homosexuals could not be members of his church.
Meanwhile, Obama is on record as being personally pro-choice and in favour of civil unions for gay and lesbian couples, although his position on same-sex marriage, rather than civil union, is unclear. I suspect, like many heterosexual liberals, he gets tripped up over what “marriage” means and believes a civil union is adequate. We faced similar difficulties in Canada during our equal marriage debate, with many straight liberals advocating civil unions and leaving marriage alone because, gosh, isn’t it a sacrament/religious institution or something?
While allowing a civil union rather than a full-out marriage seems like a reasonable compromise – and, again, this was something dealt with ad nauseum during our own struggle to bring about equal marriage in Canada – instituting civil unions for gay and lesbian couples and marriage for everyone else is not equality, it’s only partially equal and partially equal isn’t equal at all.
Obama’s choice of Rick Warren is fraught with problems, although less so than if he had chosen his own pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It can be recalled that he created a firestorm of controversy during Obama’s campaign for the presidency last March after ABC News uncovered some highly inflammatory comments made by Wright during several of his sermons at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, wherein he suggested 9/11 was an example of “America’s chickens coming home to roost”. This referred to a quote made by Black Power activist Malcolm X in regards to the past actions of the US Government in bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and apparently suggesting 9/11 was the fault of US Government policies and of the US itself. In a later sermon, he accused the US government of creating the HIV virus, and then lying about that creation, in order to enact a campaign of genocide against black Americans and other people of colour. Obama was eventually forced to distance himself from Wright and resign his long-standing membership with Trinity United.
Obama’s choice of Warren to solemnize his Inauguration has elicited strong reaction from many Obama supporters. Kathryn Kolbert, president of the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way, was recently quoted as stating, “The sad truth is that this decision further elevates someone who has in recent weeks actively promoted legalized discrimination and denigrated the lives and relationships of millions of Americans,” referring to Warren’s high-profile opposition to same-sex marriage and other gay rights initiatives. “[He] gets plenty of attention through his books and media appearances...he doesn’t need or deserve this position of honour.”
Warren does seem a peculiar choice for someone with the ideals and beliefs that Obama holds. Obama has stated he believed choosing Warren would help unite the country after a divisive campaign and election in which the Right, as personified by McCain and Palin, was pitched against the liberal (some would even say “Left”, although I think that is carrying Obama’s liberalism too far; he is certainly a liberal but he is a centrist liberal and not leftist in his policies at all).
Obama said at a news conference in Chicago he believes it is no secret he is a “fierce advocate for equality for gay and lesbian Americans.”
“It is something that I have been consistent on, and I intend to continue to be consistent on during my presidency,” he stated, adding, “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.”
I think Obama was genuinely trying to create a balance of views in his selection. It should be noted he also chose Dr. Joseph Lowery, considered by many to be the dean of the American Civil Rights Movement, to deliver the inaugural benediction. Lowery was, along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the seminal organization behind much of the civil rights actions during the 1960’s.
Warren appears to be increasingly seeking to position himself as the leader of a new generation of American evangelicals, and possible heir to Billy Graham’s role as the unofficial spiritual leader of the nation. He has been attacked by elements within the Christian Right movement for placing HIV/AIDS at the centre of ministry (albeit African HIV/AIDS, where it is a predominately heterosexually-transmitted disease) and for entering into a dialogue with Democrats and especially pro-choice, pro-gay Democrats like Obama.
Is Warren sincere in trying to bridge the abyss between the Right, characterized by Republicans as being predominantly rural, evangelical and fundamentalist Christian; and the “Lib-Left” characterized by Obama and Clinto Democrats as urban, Episcopalian (Anglican), Methodist, United, or Congregationalist, if churched at all? Or is he just out to gain notoriety and fame? It remains to be seen.
If he is sincere, he will serve as an effective balance to Obama’s bridge-building. Both men, working from opposite ends of the socio-political spectrum, and working together to heal a wounded nation. If he is not sincere, Obama will have yet another controversy to tackle and quiet down.
I suspect his presidency will not be an easy one for either him or the US.
