Some Episcopal Leaders Criticize Obama for Choosing Pastor Warren

The Episcopal Church's first consecrated non-celibate homosexual Bishop V. Gene Robinson described Dr. Warren's selection "like a slap in the face."

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Virtue on Line) - Two revisionist Episcopal bishops, one of whom is openly homosexual, as well as the lesbian leader of the Episcopal Church's LGBT pansexualist organization Integrity, have come out blasting President-elect Barack Obama for his choice of Evangelical author and preacher Dr. Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation saying he is unqualified to be "America's Pastor."

Washington Episcopal Bishop John Bryson Chane said he was "profoundly disappointed" by Obama's choice, accusing Warren of being "homophobic, xenophobic, and willing to use the machinery of the state to enforce his prejudices-even going so far as to support the assassination of foreign leaders."

"In his home state of California, Mr. Warren's campaigned aggressively to deny gay and lesbian couples equal rights under the law, relying on arguments that are both morally offensive and theologically crude. Christian leaders differ passionately with one another over the morality of same-sex relationships, but only the most extreme liken the loving, lifelong partnerships of their fellow citizens to incest and pedophilia, as Mr. Warren has done," wrote Chane in a press release from Episcopal Church House on Mount Saint Alban.

Chane said he is "deeply troubled" at the president-elect's willingness to associate himself with a man who espouses these views as a means of reaching out to religious conservatives. It suggests a willingness to use the aspirations of gay and lesbian Americans as bargaining chips, said Chane.

"While acknowledging Warren's fight in the AIDS epidemic and global warming, it does not justify the repression of others."

"I understand that in selecting Mr. Warren, Mr. Obama is signaling a willingness to work with both sides in our country's culture wars. I appreciate that there is political advantage in elevating the relatively moderate Mr. Warren above some of his brethren on the Religious Right. But in honoring Mr. Warren, the president-elect confers legitimacy on attitudes that are deeply contrary to the all-inclusive love of God. He is courting the powerful at the expense of the marginalized, and in doing so, he stands the Gospel on its head."

The Episcopal Church's first consecrated non-celibate homosexual bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire described Dr. Warren's selection "like a slap in the face."

Bishop Robinson had been an early public endorser of Mr. Obama's candidacy saying he had helped serve as a liaison between the campaign and the gay community. He said he had called officials who work for Mr. Obama to share his dismay, and was told that Mr. Obama was trying to reach out to conservatives and give everybody a seat at the table, according to an article in The New York Times.

"I'm all for Rick Warren being at the table," Bishop Robinson said, "but we're not talking about a discussion, we're talking about putting someone up front and center at what will be the most watched inauguration in history, and asking his blessing on the nation. And the God that he's praying to is not the God that I know."

Robinson joins Bishop John Chane of Washington and other Episcopal Church leaders who have criticized President-elect Brack Obama's choice. Warren has been accused of being an ally of high profile African archbishops who are trying to break up the Episcopal Church and claim its property.

The Washington National Cathedral, an Episcopal church, is hosting Obama's inaugural prayer service.

Lesbian priestess Susan Russell in an "Open Letter to Barack Obama" said, "Rick Warren is not only a vocal opponent of LGBT equality who does not believe in evolution, he has compared abortion to the Holocaust and backed the assassination of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. His views are far outside the religious mainstream and his credentials are steeped in an 'Old Time Religion' of narrow exclusionism that ill prepares us for the challenges of the 21st century."

Obama defended his decision to invite the evangelical Saddleback pastor, citing the "magic" of a diverse nation.

At a news conference in Chicago, Obama called himself a "fierce advocate for equality for gay and lesbian Americans" and said he will remain so as president. He also said it's important for people who disagree on social issues to work together.

"We're not going to agree on every single issue, but what we have to do is be able to create an atmosphere ... where we can disagree without being disagreeable and then focus on those things that we hold in common as Americans," Obama said.

He noted that Joseph Lowery, the dean of the civil rights movement and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, will deliver the benediction on Jan. 20.

An editorial in the National Post praised Obama's choice saying that he promised he'd reach out to his opponents. And guess what? He's doing it.

"Throughout Barack Obama's run for the presidency, much of his appeal centered on his professed desire to move past the partisanship and dogmatism that afflicts both of America's major parties. Now, as President-elect, he is making good on that pledge - staffing senior positions with experts who buck Democratic orthodoxies in important ways.

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"This is greatly to the man's credit. Yet Mr. Obama's approach is proving to be a disappointment to the outer reaches of his own party, which find him far too inclusive and non-partisan for their tastes."

The Post editorial then ripped the Left, "In the United States, as in Canada, the left side of the political spectrum always talks a good game about diversity, pluralism and inclusiveness. The catch is that they don't really intend to indulge these values, except in alliance with people who share their opinions. Diversity is great when it means affirmative action and speech codes. But it goes too far when it strays into friendly relations with conservatives."

True. The Left's obeisance towards America's sexualized Culture of Death (Pope Benedict XVI) and its capitulation to a post-modern morally bankrupt culture comes as no surprise to orthodox Episcopalians and newly minted evangelical Anglicans who have broken away from the Episcopal Church.

It is precisely this kind of uninclusiveness and sexual fascism that runs rampant throughout The Episcopal Church, even as its most notorious pansexualists preach "inclusivity" Sunday by Sunday from parish pulpits.

On hearing of his participation at Obama's inauguration, Warren had this to say: "I commend President-elect Obama for his courage to willingly take enormous heat by inviting someone like me, with whom he doesn't agree on every issue, to offer the Invocation at his historic Inaugural ceremony. Hopefully individuals passionately expressing opinions from the left and the right will recognize that both of us have shown a commitment to model civility in America. The Bible admonishes us to pray for our leaders. I am honored by this opportunity to pray God's blessing on the office of the President and its current and future inhabitant, asking the Lord to provide wisdom to America's leaders during this critical time in our nation's history."

The eccentric lesbian bitchiness of Russell and her hatred of those upholding Proposition 8 in California proves the lie to any kind of via media for orthodox folk who still sit in Episcopal parish pews every week. For her, the choice of Warren is nothing short of ideological treason. For the rest of Christendom, it might be viewed as ideological reason.

The Episcopal Left has long learned that tolerance is a useful word for orthodox "idiots" who play along with them until they are cast into ecclesiastical ovens where consciences are finally subdued for mandatory obedience to the Episcopal zeitgeist.

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Obama's choice of Warren is both strategic and brilliant. Republicans and Democrats alike can and should applaud the president-elect's decision. Former Democratic President Bill Clinton had Tony Campolo, a left-leaning Evangelical social activist as his pastor. Warren, who is to the right of Campolo will bring a thoughtful evangelicalism to Obama in an age dominated by that other famous evangelical Dr. Billy Graham.

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Virtue Online, edited by David W. Virtue, is the Voice for global orthodox Anglicanism.