The outcry from the gay rights crowd over Rick Warren's appointment to deliver the invocation at the Presidential Inauguration next month (separate from the outcry that Lord Obama's Cabinet, chock full of Leftists, is desperately short of Leftists) is certainly a sign of the times. Barack Obama, a socialist of the deepest hue, recognizes that despite his decisive victory over John McCain and strong majorities in the Congress and state legislatures, he must reach out to the Right to avoid Bill Clinton's mistakes of 1993-1994, when the Fornicator in Chief decided to govern without Republican support and paid a steep price. Thus Obama seeks opportunities to mollify his political rivals, displaying magnanimity where he can afford to do so, opportunities that include asking a well-known, amiable, center-Right pastor to speak at his Inaugural. Rick Warren is no fire-breathing battler of Satan like Billy Sunday, nor a soft-spoken but unwavering Southern Baptist like Dr. Charles Stanley, nor a towering evangelist like Billy Graham, but as Rev. Graham withdraws from public life, Mr. Warren is the closest thing we have to a national pastor. His Christianity has a distinct California flavor, flowered shirts, flip-flops and a friendly smile, but the thought of him on the podium on January 20 has inflamed the Left. Magnanimity, you see, is the last thing they have on their minds. They prefer revenge, they prefer payback for forty years of conservative resistance to the homosexual movement, they prefer to have their enemies' heads on a stick, and Rick Warren speaking anywhere is to them the most egregious betrayal imaginable. How dare His Serene Loftiness do such a terrible thing?
Beyond his tanned and outgoing exterior, Rick Warren's faith is founded on bedrock. His best-seller, The Purpose-Driven Life, emphasizes that God should be at the center of our lives, that life is not about what we can gain for ourselves, that acknowledging sin and accepting Christ as our personal Lord and Savior is integral to a happy, satisfied life. He supported Proposition 8 that established marriage as one-man, one-woman in California law, a position also rooted in Biblical principles and consistent with his overall message. This is what is so objectionable about Rick Warren as far as the homosexual lobby is concerned, that a laid-back, T-shirt and jeans preacher from Orange County won't budge from the Bible. They would prefer someone more pliable, more flexible in their interpretation of God's Word, some stooge who will tell them what they want to hear. They want someone to say that God doesn't condemn homosexuality as an abomination but rather approves of it and encourages it, that God doesn't care who marries who as long as it makes you feel good, and they know that Rick Warren isn't that guy. They see any adherence to traditional Christian values as a return to the Spanish Inquisition and anyone resisting them as Torquemada himself, and overreact accordingly - paranoid doesn't quite capture their attitude. Like the pagans of ancient Rome who hated Christians not because of any harm the Christians caused them but because of what Christians did not do - sacrifice to false gods, worship the emperor's genius, attend gladiatoral games, engage in public depravity - the gay lobby isn't satisfied if they are simply left alone. Everyone must accept them, everyone must approve of them, they must have everyone's full sanction and support, and if a Christian doesn't assail them but only refuses to yield his principles, then that Christian must be crushed, in which case I say: Have at it. Whether or not the gay community crushes Rick Warren is completely under God's power. They can crush him if it fits God's plan but they can never, and I say again, never crush His Word.
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