Progressives are up in arms over the Obama transition team’s announcement that the Reverend Rick Warren has been selected to deliver the invocation at his inauguration in January. Warren, the founder and senior pastor of California’s Saddleback Church, was a vocal supporter of Prop. 8.
Moments after the announcement was made, Huffington Post went wild with Op-ed’s calling for Obama to remove Warren from the inauguration. The Human Rights Campaign sent a letter to president elect Barack Obama Wednesday expressing their disappointment in the selection of Warren.
“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,” the letter reads. “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.”
Equality California followed with an email blast to supporters with a petition calling on Obama to “immediately rescind this despicable invitation.”
Early in his campaign, Obama ran up against criticism from LGBT Americans for his inclusion of antigay political figures in his faith tour and on campaign stops. “Reformed gay” gospel singer Donnie McClurkin performed at an early event for Obama, drawing jeers from LGBT activists.
McClurkin has long claimed that God saved him from homosexuality.
Weeks later, the press latched on to Obama’s friendship with antigay minister James Meeks, from whom Obama had long claimed to seek regular “spiritual counsel.” This association led a number of on-the-fence LGBT voters to rally behind Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries.
The HRC’s letter to Obama goes on to say, “Rev. Warren spoke out vocally in support of Prop. 8 in California saying, ‘there is no need to change the universal, historical definition of marriage to appease 2 percent of our population … This is not a political issue — it is a moral issue that God has spoken clearly about.’”
