This seems to be a classic case of "if everybody hates you, you must be doing something right." Not only are supporters of gay rights and gay marriage livid at the selection of Rick Warren for the Invocation at the Inauguration - especially following on Warren's role in supporting the odious Prop 8 - but so, apparently, are pro-lifers.
David Brody, who has as good access to the sentiment in the religious right as anybody, reports that pro-lifers have been flooding his in-box with outrage.
Reading some of those letters makes you realize how extremist the "pro-life" movement really is in this country.
Here's a sample:
"From Pat:
This is terrible; this man call's himself a Christian????Barack H. Obama is the most PRO-DEATH president America has ever elected!!!!! He has said that as president he is going to pass the "Freedom of Choice Act" how can our country get any better with this type of MURDER?????? Mr. Warren school be ashamed of himself, protection of the unborn is the MOST IMPERATIVE issue as a Christian!!!!! For without life do we continue to have a society at all??? I think not!!!!!
God Bless & MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
It seems, then, that Obama is thrilled to walk this tightrope between anger from supporters of gay rights and anger from militant anti-abortionists. As Obama elevates Rick Warren to virtual Billy Graham status, he actually splits the evangelical movement between hardcore Christianists for whom their faith IS their politics, and genuine Christians who can pray for those with whom they hold political disagreements.
We may see Rick Warren as a warmed-over Dobson. But followers of Dobson clearly do NOT see Warren that way.
The point here is not to say that we shouldn't be angry over Warren's prominent role at the Inauguration. His statements comparing gay marriage to pedophilia are disgusting. It's just to highlight just how precarious the religious right feels right now as the nation's most prominent evangelical "goes to the dark side" and "abandons" them. Expect more purging and extremism on the right after this and, hopefully, further abandonment of the religious right by genuine Christians.