Following up on an item from last week, the religious right continues to be apoplectic about Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) speaking from Rick Warren’s pulpit at Saddleback Church in California, 30,000-member megachurch. The reaction is far more telling than the invitation.
Warren and Obama apparently became friends last year, and have kept in touch. When Warren’s Saddleback Church decided it would host an event on the international AIDS crisis, it made sense to invite two leading senators on the issue, one from each side of the aisle, so he extended invitations to Obama and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). Both accepted and the event will take place on Saturday.
In the meantime, the right is acting as if Obama planned to blow the church up. Kevin McCullough got the ball rolling two weeks ago with a bizarre World Net Daily column accusing Obama of advancing “inhumane, sick and sinister evil,” which may “represent the views of Satan.” Then the rest of the religious right joined in.
Christian leaders from across a wide spectrum of theologies and missions are rising up together to urge Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren to rescind an invitation to Sen. Barack Obama to speak from Warren’s pulpit. […]
“You cannot fight one evil while justifying another,” a joint statement from dozens of leaders of Christian groups said in condemning Obama’s support for abortion and Warren’s support for Obama.
“The evangelical church can provide no genuine help for those who suffer from AIDS if those involved do not first have their ethic of life firmly rooted in the Word of God,” the group said. “Accordingly, we call on Pastor Rick Warren to rescind his invitation to Sen. Obama immediately.
The Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, a spokesman for the Christian Defense Coalition, went so far as to say, “Having Sen. Barack Obama speak on issues of social justice is like having a segregationist speak on civil rights.” He wasn’t kidding.
These aren’t just fringe characters no one’s ever heard of. Among those calling on Warren to rescind Obama’s invitation are Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum, Judy Brown of American Life League, Janet Folger of Faith2Action, and Tim Wildmon of American Family Association, all of whom are pretty major players in the religious right.
The National Clergy Council issued its own denunciation. (thanks to reader E.S. for the tip)
Church leaders from Catholic, Evangelical, Orthodox and Protestant traditions today expressed disappointment and deep distress over the impending visit of Illinois Senator Barack Obama to the Saddleback Church of Orange County, California, pastored by leading Evangelical Rick Warren. […]
“If Pastor Warren cannot find the courage to rescind his invitation to Senator Obama, he must at least make clear through a public statement that the Senator’s support of abortion stands in contradiction to what the Bible teaches and what the Christian Church has historically taught on the sanctity of life,” said Rev. Schenck.
By railing against Obama’s appearance so vociferously, these religious right leaders and activists genuinely seem terrified of Obama speaking to an evangelical audience. Why else demand that Warren pull the invitation? It’s not enough for these conservatives to simply challenge Obama’s ideas, or critique his policy prescriptions; they want to make sure Christians in Warren’s church not hear what Obama has to say.
Based on the McCullough criticism last week, I suggested that that the right might be afraid that Christian evangelicals might like Obama, so he had to be stopped. Given the number and intensity of the criticisms since, I’m even more convinced that this is probably true. To his credit, Warren has not un-invited Obama, at least not yet, though conservative apoplexy is likely to get worse the rest of this week.
I guess these guys aren’t familiar with the saying, “Never let ’em see you sweat.”