Obama defends choice of invocation pastor

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This article was published 21/12/2008 (6368 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CHICAGO — Calling on Americans to “come together, even though we may have disagreements on certain social issues,” president-elect Barack Obama on Thursday defended his choice of conservative evangelical Rev. Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration, a choice that had angered supporters of Obama who see the minister as intolerant to gays.

“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,” Obama said during a Chicago news conference.

“There are going to be a wide range of viewpoints that are presented, because that’s what America is about,” he said. He noted that veteran civil rights leader Rev. Joseph Lowery, co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, would also speak at the inauguration.

Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., is widely known for The Purpose Driven Life and other books.

His selection this week to give the inaugural invocation drew protests from the Human Rights Campaign, a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights group.

“By inviting Rick Warren to your inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have a place at your table,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the group, in a letter to the incoming president.

This year, Warren angered the gay community by endorsing California’s successful Proposition 8, which amends the state constitution to declare that marriage is only between a man and a woman.

Obama opposed Proposition 8, even though he, like Warren, opposes same-sex marriages. Aides said Obama believes such state constitutional amendments can also threaten same-sex civil unions, which he does support.

The president-elect said that he had been invited to speak at Warren’s church in recent years despite the pastor’s “awareness that I have views that were entirely contrary to his when it came to gay and lesbian rights, when it came to issues about abortion.”

“That dialogue is what my campaign was all about,” Obama said. “The magic of this country is that we are diverse and noisy and opinionated. And so that’s the spirit in which we have put together what I think will be a terrific inauguration.”

— Chicago Tribune

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