The Purpose Driven Inauguration

Rick Warren

Michael Bérubé‘s letter to Barack Obama about Rick “The Evangelical Jimmy Buffet” Warren is so good from start to finish that I don’t want to blockquote any of it. Just go read it all. [via ts at Instaputz]

CREDITS: Image and “The Evangelical Jimmy Buffet” taken from my pal Robert Lanham’s The Sinner’s Guide to the Evangelical Right ... a book you should all own. It’s got a full chapter on Warren. Title of this post came from JP Stormcrow in Bérubé‘s comments.

RELATED: Sam from I’m Not Feeling You, who traveled to Dayton, OH to work for Obama’s campaign for over three weeks, isn’t pleased either and has a good idea:

I was gonna maybe go down for the inauguration but instead I’m going to donate the money I would have spent that weekend to People For the American Way’s Marriage Equality Campaign.

Posted by Kevin K. on 12/18/08 at 04:00 PM • Permalink

Categories: Politics • Election '08 • Barack Obama • Nutters • Poliblogs • Polisnark • Relijun •

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Wasting away again in Homophobic-ville?

Abortion-burger in paradise?

Comment by Noah on 12/18/08 at 04:04 PM

That’s his sack, no?

Comment by ts on 12/18/08 at 04:05 PM

Kudos to Mr. Bérubé for telling it like it is. I get the value of pragmatism, but like MB, I don’t see the upside for Obama in this. Unfortunately, I feel the downside; it’s called disgust.

Comment by Betty Cracker on 12/18/08 at 04:22 PM

CREDITS: Image and “The Evangelical Jimmy Buffet” taken from my pal Robert Lanham’s The Sinner’s Guide to the Evangelical Right ... a book you should all own. It’s got a full chapter on Warren. Title of this post came from JP Stormcrow in Bérubé’s comments.

Kevin, I think the reason Rob didn’t come to the Wedge’s tree trimming party last night is because his head exploded after hearing the Warren news. Rob claimed he had a cold or something but I’m guessing he was trying to get a hold of Mike Gravel so they could start the revolution early.
Also why is Warren sitting on a tortoise? Perhaps alluding to evolution (read Galapagos)??? Clever, very clever.

Comment by iceberg wedge on 12/18/08 at 04:30 PM

Also why is Warren sitting on a tortoise? Perhaps alluding to evolution (read Galapagos)??? Clever, very clever.

Could also be a reference to the “turtles, all the way down” theory of the cosmos. But then you’d expect to see more than one—kind of like Yertle the Turtle.

Comment by Betty Cracker on 12/18/08 at 04:58 PM

Perhaps the deal with the devil was made before the election and Obama is just keeping his word, being the honest man he is.

Comment by poputonian on 12/18/08 at 05:03 PM

Oh, and is the moratorium on Obamabitching over now? Cuz I hate it when he pulls shit like this.

Comment by poputonian on 12/18/08 at 05:07 PM

I think the turtle reference is to the “box turtle” speech written by Ben “Box Turtle” Domenech on behalf of John Cornyn (R-TX). relevant passage:

It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right… Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife.

Comment by the farmer on 12/18/08 at 05:16 PM

hey wait… i shoulda wrote: I like to think the turtle reference is to… (the box turtle).

It probably ain’t. It don’t look like a box turtle. I just like to think so. Just sayin’.

Comment by the farmer on 12/18/08 at 05:20 PM

Betty, Farmer, you both might be right, but I think that it is a tortoise and not a turtle. Either way I am disturbed by the fact that I have been staring at a drawing of Rick Warren’s crotch.

Comment by iceberg wedge on 12/18/08 at 05:33 PM

I wouldn’t have chosen this Warren guy to give the invocation. But that’s a SPEECH, at one event. When the speech is over, he goes away. The speech won’t shape policy. At most, it’s bad symbolism, a bad association. A bone tossed to the fundamentalists.

Thus, I just don’t understand why this seems to be a bigger deal to some progressive/liberal folks than some of President-elect Obama’s picks of warmongers and arch-corporatists for high positions in his administration. Those people presumably WILL be shaping policies and events over the next few years.

This morning I read a piece on Huffington Post by that Sam Stein guy, who, IMO, was that site’s prime Clinton shill all through the primary campaign. In that, Stein was pitching the notion that “progressives” will (or should) be truly up-in-arms with O about Warren’s part in the inauguration, while other instances of “prog” disaffection over official picks were pretty much invented by the media. See
’
Rick Warren, Obama Invocation Choice, Causing First Real Rift With Progressives,’ at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/17/rick-warren-ob ama-invocat_n_151877.html

I took this as an attempt to distract people from stuff that matters a lot more than Warren’s bit. Like, for starters, the prospect of military actions that kill a whole lot of people, American soldiers and others.

Not that we ordinary little voters can actually DO anything about whatever prospects lie before us, at this juncture—just wait and hope for the best, I guess. I sure don’t know what else to do. Obama apparently didn’t get my email about the HRC pick, even…

Comment by pete on 12/18/08 at 05:50 PM

I think they are looking for someone to replace Billy Graham as evangelical mountebank in chief. Why every president seems to feel the need to pander to such flamboyant fundamentalist bigots by hoisting one up the flagpole every four to eight years - or shove them out in front of a dead presidents funeral procession to deliver some tedious postmortem homily - is beyond me. But they do it. Hillary went scampering off to visit with Warren about a year ago as I recall - where she delivered her own little tribute to purpose driven prayer - and there is u-toob video of Bill, ringside at Saddleback, clapping and dancing like a whore, front row for the big event.

I guess this is all just par for the course considering the Billy Graham legacy. Not exactly any kind of change worth a halfwits pocket of cents… but it doesn’t surprise me either. Throw another fag on the bonfire of stoopidity and call it a pep rally.

Comment by the farmer on 12/18/08 at 06:31 PM

I liked Berube’s piece. I do think at minimum he could’ve picked a slightly less—Jim Wallis is smarmy and not exactly satisfying on Teh Gay Marriage either, but at least he’s not -as- bad…

meanwhile, as if to drive home the point that no matter how much Obama did, is, and will piss us off, January 20 cannot come fucking fast enough:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article /2008/12/18/AR2008121801556.html?hpid=topnews

The Bush administration today issued a sweeping new regulation that protects a broad range of health-care workers—from doctors to janitors—who refuse to participate in providing services that they believe violate their personal, moral or religious beliefs.

The controversial rule empowers federal health officials to cut off federal funding for any state or local government, hospital, clinic, health plan, doctor’s office or other entity if it does not accommodate employees who exercise their “right of conscience.” It would apply to more than 584,000 health-care facilities.

“Doctors and other health care providers should not be forced to choose between good professional standing and violating their conscience,” Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said in a statement.

The regulation, which was issued just in time to take effect in the 30 days before the change of administrations, was sought by conservative groups, abortion opponents and others as necessary to safeguard workers from being fired, disciplined or penalized in other ways.

Women’s health advocates, family planning proponents, abortion rights activists, members of Congress and others condemned the regulation, saying it would create major obstacles to a variety of health services, including abortion, family planning, end-of-life care and possibly a wide range of scientific research.

The 127-page rule is the latest in a flurry of federal regulations that the administration is implementing before President Bush’s term ends, including a number that would weaken government protections for consumers and the environment.