The Orbis

Issue date: 1/21/09 Section: News/Features

Media Credit: AP Obama appears with Warren at a pre-election appearance.

President Obama sparked controversy this month when he selected influential evangelical pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his presidential inauguration. While Warren has been noted for his calls for action against the AIDS epidemic and world poverty, he has also been a lightning rod for criticism due to his opposition to gay marriage, abortion rights and right to die movements.

Warren, founder of the evangelical Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, is one of the most powerful religious figures in the United States. He is also well known as the author of the somewhat controversial and best selling devotional "The Purpose Driven Life," which preaches an active and mission-driven approach to faith.

Though progressive about the environment and social justice, Warren has been widely criticized for conservative social beliefs. Most recently, Warren outraged the gay and lesbian communities with his strong support of Proposition 8 in his home state of California. He has also fallen to the right of many notable social debates in the past, including the decision to remove the vegetative Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, which he compared to Nazi ideology.

Obama's election campaign was replete with dialogue about bipartisan cooperation, so some commentators have read Warren's selection as an olive branch to conservatives wary of an energetic liberal in the Oval Office. Others have expressed disappointment in what can be seen as a nod to contemporary bigotry and fear mongering rather than a much-anticipated political step forward. Regardless, it is likely that the selection of Warren will comfort some far-right elements of the Republican party as well as to distress the more progressive factions of the Democrats.

Perhaps anticipating criticism from the left, the inaugural committee has appointed the openly gay Episcopalian Bishop Gene Robinson to give the invocation at the posh inaugural opening ceremony, held two days before inauguration. Intimating some subtle commentary by the commission, it was Warren who was selected to perform this duty in 2004.

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