en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/285152 Comments by grassroots http://change.gov/page/content/discussservice#IDComment12773681 As a Californian who volunteered many hours and donated what little money I had to elect Barack Obama, I feel our President-Elect has gone out of his way to poke me in the eye by bestowing the honor of delivering the invocation during his Presidential inauguration to the homophobic, anti-woman, anti-equality bigot Rick Warren. I’ve not been one to carp about Obama’s cabinet appointments, preferring to see the logic of governance in his choices. But Warren’s selection, while not being a cabinet appointment and though purely symbolic, really hurts. It beats me how someone like Warren who has actively worked to impose second-class citizenship on large groups of Americans deserves such a great honor as to participate in an official capacity in the nation’s highest ritual affirming democracy. Does President Obama expect national unity to arise from the legitimation of a religious bigot with a Presidential seal of approval? Just because Warren advocates intolerance in a less vociferous voice does not make him less of a religious bigot. Warren’s selection reeks of political pandering to the evangelical right while it simultaneously suggests to the millions of Americans who slogged to help elect President Obama – including women, LGBT and anyone who cares about tolerance and equal rights in this country – that their sensitivities and votes are trumped by those of the evangelical right. Way to go for an historic inauguration. If I were in a more charitable mood, I’d say this was a diabolical plot by the Congressional inauguration committee, headed by the tone-deaf senior Senator from California Dianne Feinstein, to dampen enthusiasm and discourage the hordes of Obama supporters who were going to descend on the Mall for the occasion. Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:46:39 +0000 http://change.gov/page/content/discussservice#IDComment12773681