The Long View

Another Obama pastoral kerfuffle.

This time involving a pastor on the Evangelical Right. Obama’s inaugural invocational invitation of Rick Warren (he of megachurch fame and The Purpose Driven Life franchise), a vigorous opponent of queer marriage rights in California.

Queer activists in a uproar. Let’s hope that this is something more than the mouse that roared or the arming motif of the Holy League of High Dudgeon.

 Now that the Children’s Crusade has reached its emotionally satisfying apogee, two realities are important to remember:

1. Obama is a politician.
2. Politics is the art of the possible.

As Joan Didion said at a post-election symposium at the NYPL hosted by the NY Review of Books:

“Irony was now out. Naivete, translated into ‘hope,’ was now in. Innocence, even when it looked like ignorance, was now prized. Partisanship could now be appropriately expressed by consumerism. I couldn’t count the number of snapshots I got e-mailed showing people’s babies dressed in Obama gear.”

If you want to register your concern, visit the Human Rights Campaign Web site:

http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/campaign/positivechange