How’s this for a “sop to the left”? said John McCormack in The Weekly Standard. President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Gene Robinson, the controversial gay Episcopal bishop, to deliver a prayer at one of several inaugural events. Robinson has promised to be inclusive by avoiding anything “aggressively Christian,” but more Americans will surely feel evangelical megachurch pastor Rick Warren’s inaugural invocation is “their prayer.”
Obama is clearly trying to “balance religious symbolism,” said Andrew Brown in Britain’s The Guardian. Picking Warren was “a very necessary piece of bridge building” that pleased religious conservatives, but many liberals, angry over Warren’s opposition to gay marriage, found this “unforgivable.” The question now is whether picking Robinson to lead prayers at the opening inaugural event will restore Obama‘s “relations with the secular left.”
Article continues belowThe Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.