Inclusion

Posted on 12/18/2008 at 2:15 pm by JumpyPants

Posted by JumpyPants

I’m with Bob on this one 100%. Obama and his team should get Rick Warren to step aside today. And if they want to be all about inclusion, here’s an idea: have a Christian minister, a Muslim cleric and a rabbi TOGETHER do the invocation. That would say a lot more about “inclusion” than having a homophobe standing up beside the new president.

UPDATE: I was picking those 3 religions based on them being the big 3 in the US of A. But as a lay Buddhist myself, I’d of course be more than happy to think further outside the American clerical box.

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  • Kyle W.

    But that’s not very inclusive. Last time I checked, there are more than three religions in the world. And I guess us secular humanists would just be out of luck, since we don’t grant undue authority with titles like cleric, minister or rabbi.Best bet: leave religion out of the thing altogether. I can dream, right?

  • http://unrelatedcontent.com Travis D

    Yeah, where’s the priest of Dionysus in this theoretical?

  • Lee Stranahan`

    As a Buddhist, you ARE Rick Warren…

  • PackyJ

    Jumpypants:With all due respect to those objecting, I think clerics representing the “Big 3″ religions in the US are an excellent compromise… if one can’t leave religion out of it altogether, that is.

  • PackyJ

    In fact, it sounds like the start of a joke:A Minister, an Imam and a Rabbi walk into an inauguration…

  • JumpyPants

    Love that response, Lee! Yes, you are so right, but AS Rick Warren I do object to my own hate-speech, and as Buddhist Rick Warren, I feel a deep need to speak out against it. The Buddha is compassion, which is in part removing pain.

  • steve

    Maybe Obama picked Warren in order to distract the media from their interminable discussions of Blagojevich taint.

  • PackyJ

    Jumpypants:For the fun of it, do you ever ask the hot-dog vendor to “make you one with everything?”

  • Kyle W.

    ^And after you get the hot dog, do you stand there waiting for your change, only to be told that change comes from within?

  • JumpyPants

    There are probably more sects/forms of Buddhism than there are of Christianity, but the one I practice is based on the Lotus Sutra, the essential teaching of which is that everyone has the potential to be enlightened in this lifetime, and is thus far more practical and less esoteric than the more commonly known (in America) Zen or Tibetan schools. That being said, the hot dog jokes are not lost on me.

  • ceu

    I’m with those objecting. It’s like inviting Phyllis Schafly to read a poem at the inauguration. Ya think a few women, erm people, might be upset by that? I do.Can you imagine the outcry if Jeremiah Wright was asked to do it?? Or Gene Robinson?It doesn’t even matter what Warren has or hasn’t said – it’s how he’s perceived. And to many gays & lesbians, he is not perceived well!If they absolutely must have a minister or some sort – and I still don’t know why they do (and I’ve been asking for a hell of a long time!) have someone non-denominational…or maybe the House chaplin. Or whoever is in charge of the National Cathedral these days (is it John Danforth?)JMO, of course.

  • ceu

    fuck. I hate it when I spot the typos while I’m waiting for the comment to post…

  • Mark

    I’m amazed that Rick Warren is dominating the liberal blogs right now when Chrysler closed down all of their factories for 30 days….Priorities people. There are bigger fish to fry than a pastor who opposes gay marriage speaking at the inauguration.The closing of these factories are going to affect many more businesses than just Chrysler….

  • ceu

    and Ford extended their shutdown an additional week.

  • Larry

    Again I must ask – Why must there be an invocation? We have a constitution and separation of church and state. Loose the religious leaders from the ceremony all together. Problem solved.