I see it already among my friends. Anger that Pastor Rick Warren was given a leading role in the proceedings, ignoring the fact that Bishop Gene Robinson was there as well.
I actually think it's grossly unfair to cast anyone who is angry at the selection of Warren as displaying an "if you're not with us, you're against us" mentality.
I'm certainly very angry about Warren's selection, and the Robinson sleection did only so much to mollify me. Let me ask you this: how would you expect a black American to feel about an open racist giving a presidential invocation, and how mollified do you think that person would be if a black preacher were given a lesser speech, one that ended up not even being televised or broadcast over radio, on an earlier day?
Can you honestly tell me you think this hypothetical black person would simply say "oh, well, all right, then"?
Because that's a precise analogy. Bigotry is bigotry. Warren has said in public that he thinks homosexuality is equivalent to incest or pedophilia.
Nobody expects black Americans to make concessions to racism. And it is insulting to ask that GLBT Americans make concessions to anti-gay prejudice.
On the whole I do not think I see the world in anything like black-and-white terms. I'm a big fan of reasoned discussion and of considering all viewpoints, and that's what makes me happy about the idea of a President Obama after eight years of blind and rigid ideology.
But don't tell me to regard bigotry against me, or the honoring of an unrepentant bigot, as just a difference of opinion. Because I won't. Not ever. That's where I draw a line in the sand; this far and no further. Do you understand?
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I actually think it's grossly unfair to cast anyone who is angry at the selection of Warren as displaying an "if you're not with us, you're against us" mentality.
I'm certainly very angry about Warren's selection, and the Robinson sleection did only so much to mollify me. Let me ask you this: how would you expect a black American to feel about an open racist giving a presidential invocation, and how mollified do you think that person would be if a black preacher were given a lesser speech, one that ended up not even being televised or broadcast over radio, on an earlier day?
Can you honestly tell me you think this hypothetical black person would simply say "oh, well, all right, then"?
Because that's a precise analogy. Bigotry is bigotry. Warren has said in public that he thinks homosexuality is equivalent to incest or pedophilia.
Nobody expects black Americans to make concessions to racism. And it is insulting to ask that GLBT Americans make concessions to anti-gay prejudice.
On the whole I do not think I see the world in anything like black-and-white terms. I'm a big fan of reasoned discussion and of considering all viewpoints, and that's what makes me happy about the idea of a President Obama after eight years of blind and rigid ideology.
But don't tell me to regard bigotry against me, or the honoring of an unrepentant bigot, as just a difference of opinion. Because I won't. Not ever. That's where I draw a line in the sand; this far and no further. Do you understand?