Apocalypse! Eschaton!

Finally figured out why this kerfluffle over Rick Warren bothers me so much. The argument against him is basically this:

"Pastor doesn't have the same ideas I do. Therefore, Pastor is not fit to pray in public or otherwise worthy of any public recognition."

Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt franchise. I don't like Rick Warren's ideas, either. On the other hand, he isn't my pastor, and his ideas don't make him unfit to pray in public, or at a public ceremony. Depending on the content of his prayer, I may or may not even like what he says in his invocation. However, I don't expect him to ask God to make all the gaii straight, or give them the "Mark of Cain," the better so we can identify them, or any such.

But whatever he says, I expect I'll find it insipid and maybe insulting; that's if I even pay attention to it. Some will still say this platform gives him credibility he wouldn't otherwise have. Well, that has already come from his mega-church, his best-selling book, and his purpose-driven institution, none of which I was familiar with before this brouhaha erupted in left blogistan.

Ironic, no? What's sad is that we never see the head of a mainline denomination chosen for this honor. The Rev. John Thomas of the UCC, for example, Obama's denomination? Why not? Because they aren't rich white men with good press agents?

I don't like Warren's ideas. But I like even less declaring another human being unfit for human society, or a place in human society, based solely on their ideas. It's a pernicious and slippery slope. And having been the victim of it more than once, well....maybe that makes it personal.