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Hollywood's bitter reaction to Obama's Rick Warren pick
By April MacIntyre Dec 20, 2008, 16:51 GMT
Liberals no like: U.S. President George W. Bush (R) is awarded the International Medal of Peace by Dr. Rick Warren (L) of Saddleback Church during the Saddleback Civil Forum on Global Health at the Newseum in Washington, DC, USA on World AIDS Day, 01 December 2008. Bush was honored for his contribution to the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS worldwide. EPA/MATTHEW CAVANAUGH
Liberals in Hollywood are baying over President-elect Barack Obama's choice of pastor Rick Warren for the invocation at his swearing in.
Obama's choice of the Orange County-based bestselling author Rick Warren to deliver the invocation displeases many liberal Hollywood titans.
The Los Angeles Times reveals that source of the friction is over the passage of Proposition 8, California's ban on gay marriage, which Warren supported.
The LAT claims Warren "has compared same-sex nuptials to approving polygamy and pedophilia."
"Barack Obama is a very smart student of history," said gay activist and publicist Howard Bragman.
"He saw that Bill Clinton did damage to his early presidency by appearing to pander to the gay and lesbian community. Obama has chosen a different tack.
"What he didn't realize was how much untapped energy there was in the gay and lesbian community because of the passage of Prop. 8," said Bragman. "Obama didn't realize, after all the support he got from the gay and lesbian community, we feel betrayed right now."
Democratic political consultant Chad Griffin wants Warren "to let Obama off the hook and withdraw," per the LAT.
"Rick Warren needs to realize that he is further dividing us at a time when the country needs to come together," said Griffin, whose Hollywood clients are Rob Reiner, Steve Bing and more. "I think he needs to gracefully step aside."
Griffin added: "He (Obama) has a long history of standing up for and defending equal rights. I believe and hope that calling on Warren was just a innocent mistake by the transition team."
Warren agreed with Hollywood over global warming issues, sitting alongside many liberals at the Los Angeles premiere of Al Gore's award-winning "An Inconvenient Truth".
Warren also won praise from the same community for his church's work helping the HIV-positive Africans with medical aid.
The Times claims that the group People for the American Way were "profoundly disappointed" that Warren was asked to play a key role in the inauguration.
"I'm sure that Warren's supporters will portray his selection as an appeal to unity by a president who is committed to reaching across traditional divides," said Kathryn Kolbert for the organization.
"Others may explain it as a response to Warren inviting then-Sen. Obama to speak on AIDS and candidate Obama to appear at a forum, both at his church.
"But 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."
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Older Talkback
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I think Rick Warren was a great pick and Obama has earned the right to pick whoever he wants to pray. I am glad that he is willing to have a prayer to open his presidency. RWF Georgia
As Andrew Sullivan said, anyone who thought that Obama was going to advance equality for gays and lesbians should now sober up. Obama is already running for re-election, and he and the Democrats know that gays are in their pockets (while they are the gays' pocketbooks). What are gays going to do--vote Republican?
Obama is pandering to the leader of a mega church. He is starting the campaign for his second term with this caraven pick of Rick Warren. Obama stands to loose more than just gay supporters, though. Moderate christians have had eight years of the Bush administration panding to the far right and expected better from Obama. Obama may have foolishly tarnished his message of change and hope simply to play up to a man that teaches intolerance and hate. It is an image that will not fade any time soon.
Isn't it queer that everyone seems to expect Obama to resolve every grievance, everywhere. And if he doesn't, he's either a failure, or he's maneuvering for votes, or engaging in some other sinister behavior. He just can't catch a break and he's not even sworn in yet!
And gay people should disregard any speculation that they will go to hell when they die...It is completely booked for the foreseeable future with conservative republicans.
I guess equal rights in the LGBT community are only valid if they equal their beliefs. I commend Obama for stepping across lines and attempting to bring everyone together. And really, who cares what 'Hollywood' thinks.
Should be clear by now. We gave our votes for hope and change. We got small change and no hope.
> What are gays going to do--vote Republican?
No, but they may very well just stay home in november 2012.
One of the main ways Obama succeeded in winning the presidency was by inspiring people who were already liberal, but perhaps jaded at the hope that the political process could actually accomplish anything, that there was a point to voting and to turn up at the polls. He inspired many of these to donate money and volunteer time to his campaign. I chipped in, in both ways, myself.
Now, he's spit in all of our faces and told us that our concerns... our fundamental civil and human rights... have no place at the table in his administration; and that he's sided instead with the forces of hate, discrimination, and bigotry.
Well, I guess I've been had. I'm certainly not self-destructive enough to vote for any republican. But he'll get neither time nor money from me in 2012. I'll probably simply leave that section of my ballot blank, and just vote on local issues. And a good number of my friends feel the same way.
I think Barack Obama should rescind the invitation to Rick Warren
because all men are created equal.
'We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights...'
-from the Declaration of Independence
Live the equality Barack Obama
rescind the invitation
The Warren pick was the Obama planners' deliberate, arrogant, and insensitive decision to send a distancing message to the gay community.
For them to have any sense of how it feels to gays, someone would need to book a John Hagee to help initiate the Obama era.
As a gay senior man who worked many hours in the hot Florida sun campaigning for Obama, I am more than disappointed. In fact, I'm afraid the earlier comment about this being a 'deliberate plot to distance Obama from GLBT' folks may unfortunately have truth.
If he means well, then Obama could do one easy thing right now: announce that as soon as he is President, the U. S. will sign the UN declaration against the criminalization of homosexuality that every advanced nation in the world supported last week except for our departing Bush regime.
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Perhaps...Dec 20th, 2008 - 17:44:17
Based on this issue, along with the recent passage of Prop 8, and other initiatives like it, it seems clear the the effort to 'mainstream' homosexuality is just not as far along as some had thought.
Under the circumstances, it probably doesn't help for the gay and lesbian community to now throw rocks at everybody.
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