Rick Warren - Front And Center

From Susan Russell's open letter to President-elect Barach Obama:

I believe that reaching across the divide to include a strong, evangelical voice in the opening moments of your presidency is not just a good political move, it is a considered policy choice that helps bind up the wounds of a divisive campaign and eight years of polarization, preparing us as a nation to move forward together to solve the many problems that challenge us. This effort to begin your administration by representing differences of opinion in the selection of a pastor whose theological perspectives are different than your own is something I enthusiastically applaud.

The choice of Rick Warren is not. I agree with my Episcopal brother Bishop Gene Robinson, who said yesterday, "I’m all for Rick Warren being at the table, but we’re not talking about a discussion, we’re talking about putting someone up front and center at what will be the most watched inauguration in history."

Leave it to Gene Robinson, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, to articulate so well my own thoughts on Obama's choice of Rich Warren to give the invocation. The rest of Susan's letter is well worth reading. She explains further her objections to the choice of Rick Warren.

I believe that Obama will not back down from his choice of Warren, because he fears the backlash from the religious right more than that of the religious progressives. He believes that he will bring some of them around by this choice. He has much hard work to do, and he will need the cooperation of many of us of different ideological persuasions. However, I don't think this tactic will work with the hard core religious right. Is Obama channeling the Archbishop of Canterbury?

The Rev. Susan Russell is Senior Associate at All Saints Church, Pasadena, president of Integrity USA, convener of "Claiming the Blessing" and a member of the HRC Religion Council.

H/T to Mark Harris at Preludium.

Message From The Archbishop Of Catterbury

The Cat's Carol

Poem: Canon Eddie Hughes - Once vicar of All Saints' Church, Oystermouth (Mumbles), Swansea in Wales. Rowan Williams' vicar when he was young.

Tune: Once in Royal David's City

Come you cats of ev'ry colour,
Kittens too of ev'ry size;
See the Lord who made the tiger,
Low within the manger lies.
Praise him all his little tigers
Let your joyful purring rise.

Siamese and stately Persians,
Homely black and tabby gay,
Leave your cushions and your saucers
Make your peace with mice today.
Swift and silent, velvet-footed,
Hasten now down Bethlehem way.

See, He smiles to see you coming,
Mary welcomes you within,
Joseph with a friendly finger
Gently rubs a furry chin;
Ox and ass will kneel beside you,
Sheep and camel peering in.

We, and angels, sing His praises
In our varied sharps and flats.
Join the chorus, cats and kittens;
Praise him just by being cats:
Join the chorus, cats and kittens,
Praise Him just by being cats!

Thanks to Ann.

Bold Solution To The Housing Crisis

OKLAHOMA CITY—In a year that saw a record number of mortgage defaults and home foreclosures, part-time landscaper Ben Foster, 34, was publicly vindicated in his bold decision, made back in the spring of 1996, to continue living with his parents.

Hmmm. I hope my children don't read this.

From the The Onion.

Suirprise From Jerry Brown On Prop 8

From the L. A. Times:

In a surprise move, state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown asked the California Supreme Court on Friday to invalidate Proposition 8. He said the November ballot measure that banned gay marriage "deprives people of the right to marry, an aspect of liberty that the Supreme Court has concluded is guaranteed by the California Constitution."

It is the attorney general's duty to defend the state's laws, and after gay rights activists filed legal challenges to Proposition 8, which amended the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, Brown said he planned to defend the proposition as enacted by the people of California.

But after studying the matter, Brown concluded that "Proposition 8 must be invalidated because the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification."

Read the entire article. Sounds about right to me.

Thanks to Susan S.

The Way To Inner Peace

I am passing this on to you because it definitely works, and we could all use a little more calmness in our lives. By following simple advice heard on the Dr. Phil show, you too can find inner peace. Dr. Phil proclaimed, 'The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and have never finished.'

So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos, and a box of chocolates. You have no idea how freaking good I feel right now.

Pass this on to those whom you think might be in need of inner peace.

From Stringer Doug.

Carl Levin and John Dean On Torture

Apparently, today is to be video day.

Sen. Carl Levin with Rachel Maddow.



Maddow: "One of the things I think has been so I guess challenging to the American debate about this is that President Bush and Vice President Cheney have essentially argued that they have legalized waterboarding. That they have legalized torture. They think that the actions of their Justice Department made things like waterboarding not war crimes any more. Are they right?"

Levin: "You can't just suddenly change something that's illegal into something that is legal by having a lawyer write an opinion saying that it's legal. Things can't work that way or else someone could get a lawyer to say a crime is not a crime and then that would be a defense. That is not a defense and I just, I was astounded frankly when I heard the Vice President of the United States sort of just blandly, blithely saying that oh he thought that was an appropriate thing and yes he was involved in the discussions about it."

Senator Levin, why are you shocked about this when no one who has been paying any attention to what this administration has done is shocked? And can we get a straight answer that there should be prosecutions and not hedging?

From Heather at Video Café

John Dean with Kieth Olbermann on Countdown.



Keith talks to John Dean about whether we might ever see prosecutions for war crimes after Cheney's public admissions and the findings from the Senate Armed Services Committee. He rightfully notes that a commission to determine if there were any crimes committed is just a way to kick the can down the road and make sure no one is prosecuted for anything before the statute of limitations runs out. It's a sad state of affairs when we have to be wondering yet again if this country is going to allow crimes to go unpunished for political reasons rather than caring about the rule of law. We still have a two tiered system of justice in America. One for the rich and politically connected and another one for everyone else.

Again from Heather at Video Café.

UPDATE: For one reason (excuse?) or another, I predict that there will be no prosecution of the top officials of the Bush maladministration for the crime of ordering torture techniques. The statute of limitations will be allowed to run out.

If a commission is set up, as John Dean says, it will kick the can down the road. However, if there are no prosecutions, then perhaps a commission would, at least, shed light on the dark deeds of those at the highest levels of government, just for the record.

Amazing Grace - Just The Black Notes

This man explains the song's history first, so for those of you
who already know the history, be sure to stick with it or fast
forward until he sings. You will never think of the song Amazing
Grace the same way again after you have heard him sing it. Gives
you goose bumps! I promise you will rewind to hear it again.

From Doug.

Obama On His Choice Of Rick Warren

Had Obama asked me, I'd have suggested the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Alas! He did not ask me, and I know he would never do that anyway.

Rick Warren Obama's ChoiceTo Give Invocation

Scott had it first.

Then from The Huffington Post:

On Wednesday, the transition team and Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies announced that Rick Warren, pastor of the powerful Saddleback Church, would give the invocation on January 20th.
....

"My blood pressure is really high right now," said Rev. Chuck Currie, minister at Parkrose Community United Church of Christ in Portland, Oregon. "Rick Warren does some really good stuff and there are some areas that I have admired his ability to build bridges between evangelicals and mainline religious and political figures... but he is also very established in the religious right and his position on social issues like gay rights, stem cell research and women's rights are all out of the mainstream and are very much opposed to the progressive agenda that Obama ran on. I think that he is very much the wrong person to put on the stage with the president that day."

I'm Grandmère Mimi, and I agree with the Rev. Chuck Currie's message.

UPDATE: Letter sent by Paul, the BB:

Dear Mr. Mehta:

I have noted, via several blogs, that Rick Warren is being asked to give the invocation at the inauguration.

I am sure you will hear many voices, pro and con, about this. Here are my thoughts.

Rick Warren is famous and comes across as affable. He is also, that veneer notwithstanding, not all that different from Don Wildmon or James Dobson. He is a well-known homophobe who equates gay relationships with incest and bestiality. His thinking in this area is ignorant and, because of the influence he wields in conservative circles, harmful to the LGBT community as it undergirds their oppression and continued second-class status among the American citizenry.

He is entitled to his view, of course, but that the Obama team would give a man like this such a platform and validation is a slap in the face to all LGBT Americans.

Make no mistake about it; this is a visceral insult.

I have had to cope with my own sister putting a Yes on Prop 8 sign up on her lawn. She is a conservative evangelical and a Republican, so although this was a gratuitous insult to her own brother it was not surprising.

But to have a Democratic transition team that proclaims "hope" and "change" to sponsor an affable bigot really comes as a surprise, a disappointment, and an insult. We would expect this of a Republican administration catering to the religious right.

I urge President-elect Obama and the transition team to reconsider. You should not be inviting distrust, disappointment, and a feeling of betrayal in such a large segment of your supporters so early on. This hits us where we live, it is an issue of millennia of injustice being perpetuated in our own time, and you will lose huge amounts of good will.

It may be too late. I hope it is not.

Please do not betray your friends and supporters.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

The Rev. Paul E. Strid

O Radix Jesse

December 18

O Root of Jesse, which standest for an ensign of the people,
at Whom the kings shall shut their mouths,
Whom the Gentiles shall seek,
come to deliver us, do not tarry.

Latin

O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum,
super quem continebunt reges os suum,
quem Gentes deprecabuntur:
veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.


Isaiah 11:1, 11:10

A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
....

On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

Antiphon sung by the Dominican student brothers at Oxford.

Text from Fish Eaters.