Gay Activists Go Ballistic on Warren Invocation

Barack Obama has asked Pastor Rick Warren to deliver a religious invocation at the presidential inauguration. Perhaps this is an effort by Obama to "transcend partisanship" and end "the politics of division," or some other mushy sentiment to that effect.

I'm a little disappointed in Warren, actually. In the end Obama will satisfy the radical gay rights constituency by pushing all the big homosexual demands, eventually caving on gay marriage as well; in turn, getting chummy with folks like Warren won't help much on the conservative side, especially as Obama's administration proceeds to dismantle the right's substantial achievements on the pro-life agenda over the past three decades.

Already, as the Politico reports, gay rights groups are flipping their wigs over the announcement:

Barack Obama’s choice of a prominent evangelical minister to perform the invocation at his inauguration is a conciliatory gesture toward social conservatives who opposed him in November, but it is drawing fierce challenges from a gay rights movement that – in the wake of a gay marriage ban in California – is looking for a fight.

Rick Warren, the senior pastor of Saddleback Church in southern California, opposes abortion rights but has taken more liberal stances on the government role in fighting poverty, and backed away from other evangelicals’ staunch support for economic conservatism. But it’s his support for the California constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage that drew the most heated criticism from Democrats Wednesday.

“Your invitation to Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at your inauguration is a genuine blow to LGBT Americans,” the president of Human Rights Campaign, Joe Solomonese, wrote Obama Wednesday. “[W]e feel a deep level of disrespect when one of architects and promoters of an anti-gay agenda is given the prominence and the pulpit of your historic nomination.”

The rapid, angry reaction from a range of gay activists comes as the gay rights movement looks for an opportunity to flex its political muscle. Last summer gay groups complained, but were rebuffed by Obama, when an “ex-gay” singer led Obama’s rallies in South Carolina. And many were shocked last month when voters approved the California ban.

Folks should read some of the full responses themselves, for example, the Human Rights Campaign, which states:

Our loss in California over the passage of Proposition 8 which stripped loving, committed same-sex couples of their given legal right to marry is the greatest loss our community has faced in 40 years. And by inviting Rick Warren to your inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have a place at your table.

There's lots more unhinged gay outrage at Memeorandum.

This is the next battle of the renewed culture war unleashed by Yes on 8 in California. Gay rights groups will not rest until they browbeat and intimidate all sides, ultimately forcing Obama to capitulate on homosexual marriage and God only knows what else.

I don't see the upside for anyone here, neither Obama in the short run nor Rick Warren altogether; but there's no doubt the gay-haters are thrilled by another chance to launch a new wave of intolerance against mainstream Americans.