Warren's Presence Taints Inauguration

Sharon Brous (writes)
“the idea that precisely in that moment, as we witness the breathtaking beginning of a new era for our nation, we will now, at the same time, be forced to grapple with the very real persistence of some of the old ways of thinking and living as an American.”

One wishes to ask: Should we depart with the “old ways” and embrace these “new ways” … What would the illegitimacy rate be in that glorious new future?

Sharon Brous (writes)
“There is no denying the power of the moment we are living through. This election has proven that indeed, as Martin Luther King, Jr. claimed, the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice.”

Indeed that is the Reverend Martin Luther King referencing St. Anselm. I’m afraid though that this moral arc is longer than Ms. Brous suspects.

"Marriage is neither a conservative nor a liberal issue; it is a universal human institution, guaranteeing children fathers, and pointing men and women toward a special kind of socially as well as personally fruitful sexual relationship. Gay marriage is the final step down a long road America has already traveled toward deinstitutionalizing, denuding and privatizing marriage. It would set in legal stone some of the most destructive ideas of the sexual revolution: There are no differences between men and women that matter, marriage has nothing to do with procreation, children do not really need mothers and fathers, the diverse family forms adults choose are all equally good for children. What happens in my heart is that I know the difference. Don't confuse my people, who have been the victims of deliberate family destruction, by giving them another definition of marriage."

Walter Fauntroy-Former DC Delegate to Congress, Founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Coordinator for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s march on DC

In some ways what was most troubling was Obama's justification for the selection of Warren. Obama said "it is important for Americans to come together even though we may have disagreements on certain social issues." This implies a certain moral relativism that is troubling, especially in the context of civil rights. Certainly, if Warren preached that racial or religious intermarriage should be outlawed (again), Obama would not have selected Warren, notwithstanding that his purported justification could easily apply. The reality is that this decision presupposes that the propriety of gay marriage is still up for debate. This is, of course, ludicrous. For a man with such progressive ideals this was a truly disappointing decision by Obama, realpolitik aside.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 states, "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens." I tend to think that there is a season for those things we work positively and proactively for. The beauty and brilliance of Barack Obama's campaign for the Presidency of the United States was not just that the time was right for a black man to reach the highest office in the land, but first, that THIS man, irrespective of his race, had the right message for the right time. Obama was not a candidate in search of a message that might be pleasing to public sentiment. He came with his message, and delivered it unwaiveringly, over and over. He stayed on message, a message worthy of the man and the people he would come to represent. Second, he created and ran a campaign that was classic in design, grass rooted, hard working. A finely honed organization that was united, campaigning in States where no Democrat had won before, returning time after time, leaving nothing to chance, seeking multiple opportunities to bring home the message and gain support everywhere they went.

I was an active supporter of the defeat of Proposition 8 here in California. I strongly believe that loving consensual adults have the right to legally santify their commitment to each other. I do not believe that my heterosexual marriage is diminished in any way because gays and lesbians might also have the Constitutional right to marry. But I believe that Prop 8's successful passage was not due in part because the time wasn't right, but rather lies in the fact that enough time wasn't spent in bringing home the message. The issue was not about gay and lesbians. The issue was about dignity and equal human rights. The very wording of the Proposition was incredibly confusing. If you were for equal human rights for everyone you needed to vote 'no'. How could we have allowed such a confusingly worded Proposition to even be set forth?

August 26, 1920 the 19th Amendment to the Constitution granted the right to vote to women. The struggle to gain this right was hard fought for 72 years. If you do the math you see that it was only 78 years ago. Today 20% of our United States population still remembers this struggle well. How far we have come. Was it the time? Was it the message? I believe that it was both. Today everyone will agree that no one was diminished because women now vote.

Next time we'll do better. We will take a page from Barack Obama's campaign play book. We've got the right message but we need to do a better job with its delivery. We need to be relentless, leaving no stone left unturned and no citizen uneducated. And, at some time in the not too distant future even the Rick Warrens of this country will be on board because the only way to protect our rights is to extend those same rights to all.