Rick Warren … Again

I'm a devoted listener of NPR. It's my primary source of news and analysis. (I listen to it during the day, then flip over to PBS at night.)

On All Things Considered this evening, they announced they have asked poets to write on the upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama. The first poet up was Calvin Trilling. He read his poem this evening, and you can hear or read it here. Now, I must say this poem did not strike me as great literature. Nothing like Maya Angelou's powerful "And still we rise." He seemed to make a game of finding lines with something that could rhyme with "ay." Doggerel, actually. But there was one part that made me laugh. Here's a snippet from the beginning:

Inauguration is the day
The nation's hopes go on display —
When through one man we all convey
Our dream that things will go our way.
His résumé we can't gainsay.
In politics, we know, his play
Is worthy of the NBA.
He proved that in the recent fray,
Though he had help from Tina Fey.
And now this solemn matinee
Awards the winner's bright bouquet.
First, Pastor Warren's going to pray
For everyone who isn't gay.
Obama then will stand and say,
"I take this oath that I'll obey
The statutes of the U. S. A."

It goes on and on. It ain't good poetry. In fact, it's very bad doggerel.

But I loved his line about Rick Warren's invocation. "Pastor Warren's going to pray / For everyone who isn't gay. " That's the only thing that matters about Rick Warren: that he hates gay people. That has become Rick Warren's trademark. Even the mainstream media is beginning to characterize him as "the anti-gay pastor."

And then my friend Ann alerted me to this news snippet. Rick Warren is actively supporting the Anglican schismatics yet again. You may recall he wrote that fawning hagiography of Nigerian Archbishop Akinola a while back in Time. [01/10 update: A belated hat-tip to Mark Harris for providing the link to the Time article; it's here. And thanks to one of the commenters at Mark's site for reminding me that Warren was one of the keynote speakers at the ACN's "Hope and a Future" shindig in Pittsburgh in 2005.] Now Warren is offering his huge facility as a haven for the orthodites. In the week that the California Supreme Court said the schismatics don't have a leg to stand on, Warren is giving them haven. Here's part of the letter he sent to "leading conservative Anglicans":

... [The Episcopal Church has] already considered me an adversary after partnering on projects with Kolini, Orumbi, and Nzimbi, and writing the TIME bio on Akinola.
But since last summer... I’ve been on Gene Robinson and other’s attack list for my position on gay marriage. ....[Our] brothers and sisters here at St. James in Newport Beach lost their California State Supreme Court case to keep their property.
We stand in solidarity with them, and with all orthodox, evangelical Anglicans. I offer the campus of Saddleback Church to any Anglican congregation who need a place to meet, or if you want to plant a new congregation in south Orange County.

I'm not surprised. Let us remember that Warren is an avowed enemy of the Episcopal Church and of gay/lesbian people. He hates queers, and he hates the mainstream Episcopalians who might accept queers.

That much is clear.

Now … I remain hopeful about the inauguration of President Obama. But my zeal and joy is significantly reduced by the knowledge that Obama has embraced this hateful Christianist "pastor" and given him such a cameo role at the inauguration. That decision has reduced my hopes for Obama as "just another politician." Time will tell what his leadership will reveal.