"Evil Cannot Be Reasoned With, It Can Only Be Defeated"

[Prophet 451]

I've been trying to figure out for a few days now, what President-Elect Obama hoped to achieve with the invitation to Rick Warren. Even now, I honestly don't know what the intention was and I think, in the hullabaloo (rightly) surrounding the Warren pick, that question needs to be asked: P-E Obama, what the hell do you hope to get out of this?

Do you imagine that Warren is an olive branch to the Religious Right? Sorry to disappoint you but the Religious Right can't stand Warren. You make the common mistake of assuming that the religion of the Religious Right is Christianity; it is not, it is Republicanism. The Religious Right do not follow Christianity as you or I would understand it. Rather, they have created a new faith which melds extremist Christianity with extreme-right political views. To them, their faith has not become entwined with politics, their faith is politics. They believe wholeheartedly that all of the Founding Fathers were fundementalist Christians who intended a "godly" nation. No, don't bother trying to reason with them. Like the anonymous source who spoke to Suskind (Kuo?), they do not live in the reality-based community but in a world they alone inhabit, where the way things are becomes "The Way Things Ought To Be". They already detest Rick Warren. The fact that he admits the reality of man-made global warming makes him anathema in their eyes. He violates one of their core doctrines of faith.

Even if it were not so, the Religious Right are not interested in compromise with you. The quotation I used as a title here is how they feel about you. You are a Democrat and therefore evil. They are not interested in compromise, only in capitulation. Their idea of compromise is the same as that of George Bush: The left abandons most of it's principles, the right doesn't budge one iota and we'll call the result a compromise. Mr Obama, SIR, you will not win these people over, stop trying.

Do you believe that Rick Warren will be an olive branch to the religiously moderate? I'm afraid, sir, that I have to disappoint you there as well. Firstly, Warren isn't a moderate. On social issues (gay marriage, creationism, abortion, etc), he is identical to Pat Robertson (or Sarah Palin, which should scare everyone). Secondly, religious moderates are not the sheep that the Religious Right are, they are unlikely to be swayed by such symbolism. Finally, the religious moderates are likely to have voted for you anyway. They may or may not agree with all your policies but they probably voted for you anyway. Rick Warren has spoken of the spirit of inclusion (an especially unfunny joke) in your inviting someone you "do not agree with on every issue". Sir, forgive me stating the obvious but you barely agree with him on any issue.

And speaking of symbolism, sir, what the hell kind of signal are you sending here? In your books, you wrote eloquently and movingly on the power of symbolism, you clearly understand and appreciate the uses of symbols and signs so what on earth is this pick going to say? Many gay people voted for you, volunteered for you, gave you money. No-one is suggesting that you should now be indebted to those people but it would seem sensible to avoid actively pissing them off for no good reason. We already knew that you were against full marriage equality but Rick Warren actively campaigned to snatch that equality away from couples in California, he has compared same-sex marriage to paedophilia and incest, he has argued that the definition of marriage has been universally constant for five thousand years (which is just flat wrong, he's entitled to his own beliefs but not his own facts). He has argued, in so many words, that 8-12% of the population, most of whom voted for you, should be second-class citizens. These things matter.

Sir, what were you trying to achieve with this pick? Your explanation that Warren had invited you to Saddleback makes no sense at all. As candidate and president, you have been and will be invited to numerous functions, are they all to have the favour returned? Rick Warren wasn't your only choice here. Even if you were determined to have the invocation be delivered by someone of your own faith, there are numerous tolerant, uncontroversial Christian preachers who would have been delighted to oblige. If Warren were a personal friend, it would be easier to understand. We all have friends with some whacko views but as I understand it, you barely know the man. So really, Mr President-Elect, we come back to the same question: What are you trying to achieve here?