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Sunday, January 4th, 2009 
No rx tramadol online no rx, President-elect Barack Obama has ignited a firestorm over his invitation of Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation prayer at his inauguration on January 20. Many pro-gay rights Obama supporters feel disgusted and betrayed by this choice, viewing Obama's invitation as a tacit endorsement of Warren's anti-homosexual views. Protest groups are popping up on Facebook, and gay bloggers such as Dan Savage, John Aravosis, Pam Spaulding, and Rachel Maddow are up in arms.
It's not that I can't relate. People concerned with equality and civil liberties have every right to take Warren to task for his views. However, I think the degree of despair and outrage is perhaps somewhat overblown, and the people who feel that Obama has betrayed his gay and gay-friendly supporters by this invitation might want to take a second look before jumping back into the comfortable rut of knee-jerk cynicism.
Rick Warren has many faults. A conservative Christian and bestselling author of The Purpose-Drive Life, Warren has a huge national audience and has been a key supporter in mobilizing his California-based church community to turn out for Proposition 8, which cheapened marriage by tearing apart loving families and adult soulmates who just want a quiet domestic life like normal people. (Arguments against gay marriage that equate it with incest or pedophilia are deeply flawed. Gay marriage does not grant new rights to anyone who could not get married already, it simply permits anyone who could get married already to marry anyone else who could also get married already. Marriage remains the domain of consenting adult humans. When it comes down to it, it's just not as radical a change as some make it out to be.) Besides being a homophobe, Rick Warren is anti-woman and a young-earth Creationist with a problematic relationship to science.
But there's more to this picture than the cookie-cutter battle between right-wing bigots and the people they oppress. I'm afraid people on both sides have oversimplified this controversy by failing to see the complexity inherent in the situation. And so, I think some additional information that often gets overlooked might help to put this in perspective.
First of all, Warren's role at the inauguration has been greatly exaggerated. He's been called "the prime-time player". While Warren is indeed giving the opening prayer, he's not the only one praying at the ceremony. Arguably more important is the role given to civil rights legend (and fierce gay-rights supporter) Rev. Joe Lowery, who is giving the benediction: the closing blessing, the prayer that truly sets the tone for the new administration, which bookends Warren's mainstream conservative views. How do you think Rick Warren will feel going on after the San Francisco Boys' Chorus, or when Aretha Franklin takes the stage immediately after him? Take a look at the event schedule for the day, and you'll quickly see that Warren's voice is merely one of many, a voice representing the formidable constituency of conservative Christianity in this country. No matter how much we disagree with them, Mg Tramadol, excluding them doesn't make them go away; they're a part of this country too, and this invitation says that Obama won't treat them the way they treated us when they were in power.
Moreover, unlike traditional right-wing asshats such as James Dobson, Jerry Fallwell, and Pat Robertson, Rick Warren is a great choice to represent conservative Christians. He has shown an openness to dialogue and a willingness to both listen to and work with people who disagree with him. Not only has he drawn fire from the Left, he has been harshly criticized by many on the Right. In a 2006 article titled "Why is Obama's evil in Rick Warren's pulpit?", WorldNetDaily commentator Kevin McCollough criticized Warren for inviting Obama to speak at his church, saying:
...Warren is ready to turn over the spiritual mantle to a man [Obama] who represents the views of Satan at worst or progressive anti-God liberals at best in most of his public positions on the greatest moral tests of our time.
Contrast that with a current screed against Rick Warren, coming from People for the American Way's Kathryn Kolbert:
...The sad truth is that this decision further elevates someone who has in recent weeks actively promoted legalized discrimination and denigrated the lives and relationships of millions of Americans. No rx tramadol online no rx, Rick Warren gets plenty of attention through his books and media appearances. He doesn't need or deserve this position of honor. There is no shortage of religious leaders who reflect the values on which President-elect Obama campaigned and who are working to advance the common good.
Though Kolbert's rhetoric is much milder in tone (for instance, she's not associating anyone with Satan), there's an astonishing similarity in the fundamentalist rhetoric on the Left and on the Right. That's because there's a deep psychological similarity to all mindsets that shut out dissenting viewpoints. These disagreements are not rational, they are emotional, and these reactions are indicative of people letting their emotions get the best of them.
Obama's own response to this controversy has frequently been dismissed out-of-hand, but I think it's worth taking a minute to parse:
I think that it is no secret that I am a fierce advocate for equality for gay and lesbian Americans. It is something that I have been consistent on, and something that I intend to continue to be consistent on during my presidency.What I've also said is that it is important for America to come together, even though we may have disagreements on certain social issues, no rx tramadol online no rx. And I would note that a couple of years ago, Acetaminophen Hcl Par Tramadol, I was invited to Rick Warren's church to speak, despite his awareness that I held views that were entirely contrary to his when it came to gay and lesbian rights, when it came to issues like abortion. Nevertheless, I had an opportunity to speak. And that dialogue, I think, is part of what my campaign's been all about; that we're not going to agree on every single issue, but what we have to do is to be able to create an atmosphere when we -- where we can disagree without being disagreeable and then focus on those things that we hold in common as Americans.
So Rick Warren has been invited to speak. No rx tramadol online no rx, Dr. Joseph Lowery, who has deeply contrasting views to Rick Warren on a whole host of issues, is also speaking. During the course of the entire inaugural festivities, there are going to be a wide range of viewpoints that are presented. And that's how it should be, because that's what America's about. That's part of the magic of this country, is that we are diverse and noisy and opinionated. And so, you know, that's the spirit in which, you know, we have put together what I think will be a terrific inauguration, no rx tramadol online no rx. And that's, hopefully, Online tramadol from canada, going to be a spirit that carries over into my administration.
Read what he said: giving people an opportunity to speak, listening to their concerns. Because, like it or not, agree with them or not, opponents to gay rights have deep-seated emotional concerns that are only going to get worse by yelling at them, telling them they're wrong and they need to shut up. Nobody reacts positively to that. It feels good, but it's completely unproductive. Do what you're going to do. Live your life as you see fit, and don't let them tell you what to do, don't apologize for yourself for a second or let them hold dominion over you. But at the same time, see them with pity, not with malice: these are deeply unhappy people, warped by emotional forces beyond their control, clinging to an ideology they don't entirely understand, shaped by evolutionary pressures they don't even vaguely grasp. View them as you would have them view Palestinian extremists.
Remember, the force holding us back from equality and civil rights is not an evil corporation. It is not a political faction. It is not a corrupt politician or a fringe radical group. It is a built-in element of the human psyche that has been overstimulated by a traditional fundamentalist ideology. The problem is deeper than gay rights or any other political cause. This problem is itself the very deep rift in our society, and the solution calls for healing the American propensity toward fundamentalism of all stripes. Have you taken the plank out of your own eye first.
In the fundamentalist mindset, those who disagree with us are evil. But evil is not an explanatory concept. It helps us feel good about our right(eous)ness, but it does nothing to address the concerns of the Other or the root causes of their sometimes violent distress; as we have seen in right-wing American rhetoric around Iraq and 9/11, it dangerously oversimplifies. There will be some individuals who are unreachable, who are so calloused and so cowed by fear and hatred that they may never come around. The work of love and compassion always takes longer than we want it to; it demands more of us - more understanding, more patience, generic tramadol online, more kindness, more self-sacrifice - than yelling and picketing. This is not a war that is won by fighting, because it is a war that has gone on for centuries, for millenia. As our economy is on the brink of a collapse, we risk seeing our society lose a lot of its hard-earned civil rights gains to the emergency of the moment, to a despairing public heading back to church in bad times.
And so it is incumbent on us - and on smart, post-partisan people like Obama - to reach out to those we disagree with with love and compassion, even as they lash out against us. (It's a lot more fun to get outraged at people who fight back, and this is why it's helpful to turn the other cheek.) Of course, we should still hold Obama's feet to the fire to move legislation where it counts; we can't take for granted that he will in fact carry through on his promises. While Obama sadly does not support marriage equality, his plans for LGBT rights are more ambitious and detailed than any national candidate's before him. So if you were surprised by Obama's choice of someone you don't agree with, if you wish you could take back your vote, if this action is inconsistent with the Obama you thought you were getting, then you haven't been paying attention to what he's been saying all along. This is what it looks like to sit down with your enemies without preconditions. This is what it looks like to set an example for the path forward: not to give in to people who would do you harm, but to understand them, and hopefully speak to their fears and concerns. This is not about compromise. This is not giving in. This is about persuasion.
...The truth is: if we cannot engage a Rick Warren on the question of our equality, we may secure a narrow and bitter victory in some states (just as the Christianists won a narrow and bitter victory in California in November). But we will not win the bigger argument and our victories will lack the moral legitimacy they deserve.
Only we can do this. We cannot expect people given over to small-minded ideology to be able to figure out how to heal this country, or understand the causes of their own discontent. Only we - not trapped by ideological constraints, What Chemicals Are In Tramadol, viewing the world through the eyes of our enemies, availing ourselves of the full spectrum of human experience, knowledge, and expression - can figure out how to build a bridge for these frightened, trapped people, and lead them to the other side.
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