Thursday, January 22, 2009

Warrin' Over Warren's Words

Rick Warren's inaugural invocation received mixed reviews the other day-- raising eyebrows by invoking Jesus' name and concluding with the Lord's Prayer -- both distinctly Christian practices on an occasion that Obama said should be for Muslims, Jews and Hindus as well.

The choice of Warren to deliver the invocation generated controversy from the start -- triggering protests by civil rights groups angered by his support of Proposition 8, the California measure that banned same-sex marriage in the state.

Americablog.com wrote:
You'll notice that Warren also went out of his way to talk about Jesus, even naming him in different tongues. That was again Warren's way of taking a poke at Jews, Muslims, and probably even non-evangelical Christians, who aren't Christian anyway, according to evangelicals. Rev. Lowery, on the other hand, gave a benediction about God that could have been given by any person of faith, that could be read in a mosque, a synagogue, or a church, and fit right in. That's what a true religious leader does. That's why Lowery is a civil rights hero. And it's why Rick Warren will be remembered as nothing more than a smooth-talking pop preacher who couldn't resist using Obama's big day to take a dig at whoever he was busy judging on that particular day.

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