Here's what I would like/hope Obama was saying to Rick Warren.

[CTyankee]

By inviting you to give an invocation at my Inaugural, I am putting you at the table. I am putting you there because I want none of this "opposition in exile" business in our country when I become President. I am the President of you and your followers as much as I am President of those who agree with me. I won't let you go off sullen and huddle in your misery with the others who cannot see the light of the new day in America. You, and every one of your followers, are part of the "one nation, indivisible," a nation that I am the leader of, like it or not.

I am not only inviting you to the Inaugural, I will be putting you on committees to help solve the problems our country faces, and they are serious indeed. Don't be afraid. You might -- you probably will -- develop a friendship or two with some of your co-committee members who happen to be gay. Hell, they may even invite you to dinner in their homes and you'll be able to meet their partners and kids and see that they have lives like everybody else.

Then maybe you'll go back to your fold and have a few doubts next time the tirade starts against gay people getting married. Oh, you may not say anything then but you may start to think about it. You'll think to yourself, "That's not the way I see my friends Joe and Bob or Mary and Ann."

And that will start your journey...

[Starry Messenger]

1. This is the most sensible explanation I've seen here in the last 24 hours.

Rec. I still hate it. The opposition in exile concept has all of my attention though. Good point.

edit out repetition.

[knixphan]

2. Ditto!

:kick:

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

4. Absolutely. I like it. n/t

[mwei924]

3. I think the two get along well because they each find the other persuadable.

Neither is ready to outright reject the other because they have differences.

[rpannier]

7. Rick Warren the "Moderate"

One of the biggest cheerleaders for Prop H8

Yeah, he's about as persuadable as a statue

[mwei924]

8. Well, unforunately Prop 8 passed even in "liberal" CA..

..so the number of people who share Warren's view on that is quite large. Perhaps in our current political climate, it is considered "moderate" since all the gay marriage bans passed in November.

[CTyankee]

11. A ballot question aiming to do that failed in CT, soundly defeated.

I can't understand why states even have these questions on the ballot. Individual rights should NEVER, I mean NEVER, be put to a majority vote. Can't the CA state lege just say NO to any initiative that denies rights to a minority?

Our ballot question in CT asked whether we should hold a Contsitutional Convention. The whole idea, though, was to ram through primarily an overturn of our wonderful gay marriage state supreme court decision, but also to weaken Roe v. Wade and union rights. We had a strong coaltion of pro-choice, pro-gay and pro-union people (I was all three!). That's how you do it. That's how you win...

[rpannier]

5. No way

People who believe strongly in something do NOT change their views for "a seat at the table."

They know that the Presidency not a permanent thing.

Their group/flock/fold/etc is.

[CTyankee]

6. You may be right, of course. This is just my rendering of what I think Obama what thinking.

I think we can take some instruction from the way gays have been perceived in our society over the years. By getting toknow gays in the workplace and other places, younger people have become far less prejudiced against them. Maybe Obama is thinking in this light.

OTOH, I have REAL reservations about Warren and his ego. THAT may be the biggest problem...

[Critters2]

9. EXcept that Obama doesn't support marriage equality, either. nt

[CTyankee]

12. Well, this is my rendering of what he was thinking, FWIW. I don't know any better than anyone

else. I voted for the guy so I have to give him some credit and this is what I hoped he was thinking by doing what he did.

I don't know any more than anyone else...:shrug:

[Maven]

10. Anti-gay hate is an industry. It's a cash cow. People like Warren can't be "convinced"

They know exactly what they're doing. They don't need more credibility - they need to be put out of business.

[nichomachus]

13. Sorry -- it's silly pipe dream

Right wingers have no problem having friendships with gay people, employing gay people, and using gay people and still screwing them over.

For Christ's sake -- Karl Rove's father was gay and lived here with his partner of many years. Karl professed to love him and came here to visit him and his partner -- even as he was working overtime to screw over his father, his partner, and all other gay people.

[CTyankee]

14. See my post above about CT's ballot question and how we stopped it.

I would like to see this in every state: No voting on people's rights by Initiative, like we have in CT.

All the Karl Rove's and all the Rick Warren's and allthe others would be stopped. Their campaigns against gays would be stopped, at least at the Iniative level. That way, people's craziness over gay issues would face a dead end when it comes to Initiatives and that would be a huge step.

I do think, however, or maybe I wish, that Obama was trying to send a message to the bigots that HE was president now and we are all in this together. I think he believes in a nation's healing.

Like you, I don'tknow if it will work. We'll see...