A Rick Warren Counter Balance

Of course it has nothing to do with Pastor Rick Warren giving the invocation at the inauguration. It is entirely by coincidence. But now it seems that Vicki Gene Robinson has been invited to provide the invocation at a different inauguration day affair scheduled in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

Warren was an advocate of Proposition 8 in California that upheld a ban on gay marriage in that state. Robinson, being the first openly gay and proudly non-celibate bishop of the Episcopal Church USA, had a near cow when the Warren announcement was made. A breach cow. It was, said Vicki, "a slap in the face."

A couple of things concern me here. First, if Barack Obama believes he can get people to get along by pandering to everyone, he is dead wrong. This sort of pandering to all sides in all disputes will do little but make Obama seem directionless and get him criticized by both sides. As for its calming effects, we will have to see how this plays out.

What is most concerning about this announcement is Robinson's response to it.

Robinson, 61, said both Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden will attend the event, and Obama is expected to speak. As for himself, Robinson said he doesn't yet know what he'll say, but he knows he won't use a Bible.

"While that is a holy and sacred text to me, it is not for many Americans," Robinson said. "I will be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer. This is a prayer for the whole nation."

Regardless of any tiptoeing that Robinson feels is necessary to assuage the feelings of non-Christians, the USA was founded on high placed ideals that included a creator that gave rights directly to the people. The framers recognized that individual rights and liberty came from God above, and not from a government, a government that, if recognized as having granted those rights, would also have the power to remove those rights. It was a decidedly Christian viewpoint.

Many atheists and agnostics can see the wisdom in this vision. They do not pray to a creator or lean on him in times of need, but they accept the idea of a higher authority in order to bypass that dreaded middle man represented by the raw intellect of Nancy Pelosi and the handsome mug of Harry Reid.

V. Gene Robinson is going to give his invocation and it will be received pleasantly by his audience (assuming that democrat Fred Phelps doesn't sneak in somewhere.) This being said, how accepting should Americans be that the founding principles on which this country was formed are being slowly forgotten (and ignored) at the insistence of multiculturalists?

Certainly the debate on gay marriage and civil unions will not go away any time soon. It will be held loudly and for a long time. Why then should the intentional ignoring of founding principles go away with little more than a whimper?