THE PURPOSE DRIVEN SELECTION?

Nationally known author and pastor Rick Warren has accepted an offer to deliver the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural swearing-in ceremony, drawing fury from gay rights activists and opponents of Proposition 8.

Earlier this year, as the debate over same-sex marriage raged in California, Warren publicly endorsed Proposition 8, which amends the state Constitution to declare that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."Since the proposition passed in November, hundreds of protesters have gathered near his Orange County church to condemn the stance (just for the record, they are not doing drugs, fornicating in the garden, or molesting cub scouts).

Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, a gay rights organization that worked against Proposition 8, called the decision to include Warren in the inauguration ceremony a "slap in the face to millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who donated for, worked for and helped elect Barack Obama president."
The Human Rights Campaign, a nationwide gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, issued a letter calling the invitation a "genuine blow to LGBT Americans."
This is a surprising pick for many reasons; one, he represents the mainstream white evangelicals, which heavily favored John McCain in the election. Secondly, he is vehemently anti-abortion, and anti-gay marriage rights. Thirdly, many Obama supporters have not forgotten last summers candidate summit which Warren presided over, when both candidates were supposed to be kept in the dark about the questions Warren would be asking. With Warren sitting down with Obama first, the pastor asserted that McCain was being kept in a "cone of silence" that prevented him from hearing the questions. It turns out that McCain wasn't even in the building and that he might have had an opportunity to catch wind of the questions. Some Obama supporters were pretty sore over it.

And yet, the Democratic evangelical outreach marches forward, setting its sights on the movement's biggest players, like Warren. It is one thing to reach out across the aisle, but it is entirely another to select someone who is diametrically opposed to one of your most fervent groups of supporters. Who will be next? John Hagee?