Rick Warren: To give inaugural invocation for Obama
Rick Warren is the pastor of Saddleback Church, in Lake Forest, California.
This pastor is not very gay friendly : He Supports ban on gay marriage.
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USA Today
Warren could be Obama's Booker T. Washington
By DeWayne Wickham
Some excerpts :
If you're looking for an explanation of President-elect Barack Obama's decision to invite conservative evangelical preacher Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration that goes beyond the desire for a kumbaya moment, I've got one: Obama wants to make Warren his Booker T. Washington.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Washington was one of this nation's most influential black leaders. His willingness to try to find common ground with whites who viewed — and treated — blacks as an inferior race made Washington someone presidents reached out to.
Theodore Roosevelt, especially, turned to Washington for advice on "the Negro problem." Taking counsel from "the great accommodationist," as Washington was called, was an act of steam control by the Republican president at a time when the racial divide was undeniably this nation's most explosive problem.
"In all things purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress," Washington said in an 1895 speech that established him as a black leader who was willing to temper the demands of blacks for racial equality.
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Theodore Roosevelt believed that blacks were intellectually inferior to whites and as president did little to protect their civil rights. Even so, Washington became one of his advisers on matters of race — and a conduit for the few patronage appointments given to blacks.
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Just as Roosevelt used Washington to keep blacks from deserting the Republican Party, Barack Obama's effort to befriend Rick Warren could prevent evangelicals from massing in opposition to his presidency.
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Some excerpts :
If you're looking for an explanation of President-elect Barack Obama's decision to invite conservative evangelical preacher Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration that goes beyond the desire for a kumbaya moment, I've got one: Obama wants to make Warren his Booker T. Washington.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Washington was one of this nation's most influential black leaders. His willingness to try to find common ground with whites who viewed — and treated — blacks as an inferior race made Washington someone presidents reached out to.
Theodore Roosevelt, especially, turned to Washington for advice on "the Negro problem." Taking counsel from "the great accommodationist," as Washington was called, was an act of steam control by the Republican president at a time when the racial divide was undeniably this nation's most explosive problem.
"In all things purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress," Washington said in an 1895 speech that established him as a black leader who was willing to temper the demands of blacks for racial equality.
................
Theodore Roosevelt believed that blacks were intellectually inferior to whites and as president did little to protect their civil rights. Even so, Washington became one of his advisers on matters of race — and a conduit for the few patronage appointments given to blacks.
................
Just as Roosevelt used Washington to keep blacks from deserting the Republican Party, Barack Obama's effort to befriend Rick Warren could prevent evangelicals from massing in opposition to his presidency.
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The comparison between T. Booker Washington and Reverend Rick Warren is not an accurate comparison, IMO.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do see a connection between wanting to befriend or seek counsel from, someone who will help prevent a group from "massing in opposition to his presidency", that is as far as the comparison goes.
The difference between blacks in the Republican party during Theodore Roosevelt's time, versus today's white evangelical christians in our time, is that the latter group is not an oppressed group of people fighting for basic civil rights. Plus, Reverend Warren as some sort of "great accommodationist" just doesn't quite ring true.
If Washington was a black leader reaching out to find common ground with whites who thought of blacks as inferior, who is Rev. Warren reaching out to? Do you see the discrepency in the comparison? And where does the LGBT population fit in with all this? What would be more accurate is to compare Roosevelt and Washington with a hypothetical Republican president seeking someone who is a gay clergy for his/her invocation, as a symbol of reaching out to others and coming together to unite the nation. That would be hypothetical of course, because that wouldn't happen, but if it did, that would be in keeping moreso with Obama's theme of tolerance and unity and setting aside differences, blah, blah, blah, than what Rev Warren symbolizes today.
Here's a stronger opinion I found from the same article link on USAtoday:
ReplyDeleteThis comparison of Rick Warren to Booker T. Washington is an insult to African American people AND to LGBTQ Americans! This editorial seems to affirm that Booker T. Washington sought or accepted connections with presidents who were unenlightened about African American people's rights and, we might extrapolate, acted as a bridge of healing and reconciliation between presidents who struggled with racism and the African American people who were disenfranchised and oppressed. In contrast, Rick Warren serves not as a bridge of healing and reconciliation between a homophobic president and oppressed and disenfranchised LGBTQ people, but rather an appeasement to those who are so hateful of LGBTQ people that they not only relish the opportunity to oppress LGBTQ people, but they seek ways to write discrimination into constitutions around our nation, and continue to perpetuate a climate of hatred toward gay people that fuels hate speech against LGBTQ people, hate crimes against LGBTQ people, and sometimes even the death of LGBTQ people. Washington and Warren could not be more different. And by comparison in this situation, Roosevelt and Obama could not be more different.
Dave :
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments, that are well informed, and that shed light on the past and the present.
I feel very little sympathy for Rick Warren or for Pastors or Priests in general, and if I posted this note, it was because I am very strongly interested in T. Booker Washington and I am really very ignorant, but I consider that this Black Leader and the President, a hundred years ago, are important for the present times.
I ask forgivance of Black People and Gays if I have offended them. I consider them my allies and friends. And a gay friend wrote me that it was a natural alliance : Blacks, Gays and Latinos.
So forgive me, I am just pointing at an article and feel assured of my sympathy and interest in the betterment of Blacks and Gays, all around the World. They are also victims of unjust violence.
Have a Nice Christmas and thanks again for writing. Do not forget our site and comment very freely.
Vicente Duque