{"id":369,"date":"2009-01-15T10:15:55","date_gmt":"2009-01-15T10:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2009\/01\/gene-and-rick-post-partisan-pa.html"},"modified":"2009-01-15T10:15:55","modified_gmt":"2009-01-15T10:15:55","slug":"gene-and-rick-post-partisan-pa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/01\/gene-and-rick-post-partisan-pa.html","title":{"rendered":"Gene and Rick: Post-Partisan Parable 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few days ago, the Obama team announced that Bishop Gene Robinson, the Episcopal bishop who is an openly partnered gay man, will pray at Sunday’s Inauguration rock concert on the National Mall.  <\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

On the Rachel Maddow Show, Bishop Robinson shared that initially he had been disappointed–if not angry–that Obama had chosen conservative mega-church pastor Rick Warren to offer Tuesday’s Inauguration prayer.  <\/span>Then, he confessed, that he realized that Obama was doing what he said he would do–trying to create a “big table” around which a variety of people with different perspectives could sit.  <\/span>Sitting with Rick Warren, as difficult as that might be for a religious leader like Robinson, signaled the beginning of a new “post-partisan” vision of faith in the public square.  <\/span>So, while Robinson may not love Warren’s inclusion, he said that he “gets it.”<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

Inclusion, of course, works both ways.  <\/span>Bishop Robinson was also invited to be one of Inauguration Week’s most visible religious leaders–something that will not please hosts of religious conservatives.  <\/span>I hoped that Robinson would have been invited to give the benediction following the swearing in–a challenging pairing to Warren’s invocation.  <\/span>Instead, Robinson was recruited for the Sunday event (with Bono!), a high-profile celebration that kicks off the Inauguration.  <\/span>Thus, Robinson has been given pride-of-place–the first spiritual voice at the big Obama party.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As the Obama team announced Gene Robinson’s participation, Rick Warren responded.  <\/span>Not directly, of course.  <\/span>Pastor Rick has been in “no comment” mode since his inclusion stirred so much controversy.  <\/span>But he has responded in a more subtle, less noticed, and insider-baseball kind of way.  <\/span>Pastor Rick’s church has offered “shelter” to Episcopalians who are trying to shatter their denomination over Robinson’s canonically-correct election as bishop.   <\/span>In a letter to anti-gay Episcopal leaders, Warren wrote: “We stand in solidarity with them, and with all orthodox, evangelical Anglicans. I offer the campus of Saddleback Church to any Anglican congregation who need a place to meet, or if you want to plant a new congregation in south Orange County.”  <\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font> <\/p>\n

Put simply, Warren has invited those Episcopalians who have–for six years now–have dehumanized and politicized Bishop Robinson in an overt attempt to lead a denominational schism to establish rival churches using Saddleback as a base.<\/font><\/p>\n

This is where the Rick Warren saga stands.  <\/span>Rick Warren, who campaigned against gay marriage in California and has been no friend to LGBT persons, is invited to Obama’s post-partisan “big table,” as is–eventually–Gene Robinson, who is the nation’s most public gay religious leader.  <\/span>Bishop Robinson has every right to be angry by Warren’s genial, Hawaiian-shirted anti-gay politics.  <\/span>The bishop told Rachel Maddow that he was hurt, but that he understands what the President-elect is trying to do.  <\/span>He says that he trusts Barack Obama and is willing to sit at the same table as Pastor Rick.  <\/span>He knows that including Pastor Rick, a conservative evangelical, means that Obama will also include him, an openly gay bishop–all are welcome at this table.  <\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

After being caught in a tirade of anti-homosexual views, Rick Warren posts a retraction of sorts on his church website saying that homosexuals aren’t really bad and that he actually “loves” homosexuals.  <\/span>He gets Melissa Etheridge to autograph his favorite CD.  <\/span>Then, he creates a haven for the same Episcopalians who have done everything short of physical violence against Bishop Robinson and the church who chose him as a leader.  <\/span>His public acts of “love” don’t jive with this less-public invitation to Episcopal leaders who are working to split a 400-year old denomination.  <\/span>Pastor Rick has decided, evidently, that it isn’t even enough to meddle in the business of LGBT persons, or the politics of Californians, but he also has to meddle in Bishop Robinson’s 80-million member Anglican Communion.  <\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

If you are invited to sit at table with someone, if you break bread with them, is it–in any way–morally right to behave in such a way?  <\/span>Creating a big table means that people develop relationships, they look in each others eyes, they come to understand the issues, concerns, and problems facing their fellow diners.  <\/span>It really isn’t fair to sit at table and use the knife to stab someone else in the back.  <\/span>Pastor Rick, evidently, likes to sit at tables with different folks, but doesn’t seem to be very trustworthy once he leaves the dining room.  <\/span>Maybe he doesn’t really hear the conversation.  <\/span>Maybe he thinks the conversation is about him.  <\/span>Maybe he thinks everybody will convert to his point of view.  <\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

So, a simple question begs:  <\/span>What would Jesus do with Gene and Rick?  <\/span>And what would Jesus expect of them?   <\/span>Who best embodies Jesus’ command to love God and love their neighbor?<\/font><\/p>\n

When it comes to Gene and Rick, it doesn’t seem like much of a contest.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days ago, the Obama team announced that Bishop Gene Robinson, the Episcopal bishop who is an openly partnered gay man, will pray at Sunday’s Inauguration rock concert on the National Mall.    On the Rachel Maddow Show, Bishop Robinson shared that initially he had been disappointed–if not angry–that Obama had chosen conservative mega-church…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1,13,20,14,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christians","category-election-08","category-evangelicals","category-homosexuality","category-mainline-protestants","category-religion-in-the-public-square"],"yoast_head":"\nGene and Rick: Post-Partisan Parable 2 - Progressive Revival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/01\/gene-and-rick-post-partisan-pa.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gene and Rick: Post-Partisan Parable 2 - 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She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of seven books including A People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s History of Christianity: the Other Side of the Story (HarperOne, 2009) Her best-selling Christianity for the Rest of Us (2006) was named as one of the best religion books of the year by Publishers Weekly and Christian Century, won the Book of the Year Award from the Academy of Parish Clergy, and was featured in a cover story in USA TODAY. Diana regularly consults with religious organizations, leads conferences for religious leaders, and teaches and preaches in a variety of venues. She regularly comments on religion, politics, and culture in the media including USA TODAY, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, CNN, FOX, PBS, and NPR. From 1995-2000, she wrote a weekly column on American religion for the New York Times Syndicate. She has written widely in the religious press, including Sojourners, Christian Century, Clergy Journal, and Congregations. From 2002 to 2006, she was the Project Director of a national Lilly Endowment funded study of mainline Protestant vitality\u00e2\u20ac\u201da project featured in Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. Diana also serves on the board of directors of the Beatitudes Society. Diana has taught at Westmont College, the University of California at Santa Barbara, Macalester College, Rhodes College, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. She has taught church history, American religious history, history of Christian thought, religion and politics, and congregational studies. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia. She is a member of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in downtown Washington, D.C.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/dbbass"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}