I’m reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.

I’ve been getting a lot of email expressing outrage at the selection of Rick Warren to offer up his prayers for our new president. One friend has sent me a laundry list of outrageous videos showcasing the offensive comments Pastor Rick has made about gays and lesbians. For instance:

His logic evades me. Yet there are a lot of people who listen to this guy and give him credit. Most pastors I know, even progressive ones, have a copy of Warren’s Purpose Driven Church and many have his more recent and more popular Purpose Driven Life. He’s had an enormous impact on the church in the US. But his language on homosexuality is laughably ignorant and blatantly homophobic. I have both his books. The “church” one is a helpful book for pastors to think creatively about church structures. But the “life” one reads more like a laundry list of do’s and don’ts, and expresses his right-wing agenda in a no-compromise way. I understand that Warren had done much to help victims of AIDS and has tried to reach across boundaries of “liberal” and “conservative.” Nevertheless, he has also expressed hateful opinions about gays and lesbians, comparing homosexuality to child rape and bestiality. Sadly, he doesn’t get it. I’d like to put a reading list together for him, and I’d include the following for his information and enlightenment:

“Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe” (John Boswell)

“Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century” (John Boswell)

“Queering Christ: Beyond Jesus Acted Up” (Robert E. Goss)

“Jesus Acted Up: A Gay and Lesbian Manifesto” (Robert Goss)

Now, I realize he isn’t going to read that stuff, but those books, along with a host of others, really helped my perspective on these issues. More to the point, though, is the fact that the media has almost totally ignored the man Obama has selected to give the benediction. Rev. Joseph Lowery has a distinguished career as an advocate for the outcast. A civil rights leader, he has been in the trenches for a long time working for justice. He is a United Methodist pastor, which of course makes me proud. But he is also a clear voice for justice for all God’s people, and has publicly called for the full-inclusion of gays and lesbians in the church and beyond. I wish progressively-minded people would focus as much attention on Lowery and his message as they have complaining about Warren. Heck, we should all just ignore Warren and turn our attention to a man who has really struggled, advocated, fought and risked for the least and the lost – a man who has embodied the gospel message with his whole life.

Here is Lowery speaking controversial yet prophetic words at the funeral of Coreeta Scott King – embodying the spirt of MLK:

And here is some more information about Lowery at Wikipedia.

For the first time in my adult life, this truly is a historic election.

Every four years they tell us how “historic” the election will be. And they always seem to tell us that the “young people” will be “rocking” the vote. And every four years I think “what a bunch of hooey.”

But this year is different. We really do have a historic moment on our hands. We could elect the first black man to the highest office in the land and the most powerful position in the world. That is truly amazing. Barack in the White House will truly transform the way our nation perceives “black people” in a way that nothing else could. Young black boys and girls today will live in a world where they can honestly believe that anything is possible for them.

That’s not to say that racism is going away. Far from it. But it is to say that today, our nation could model for the world what it really means to be a pluralistic democratic society. Considering the last two elections that is quite an accomplishment.

Today is not only a great day for ethnic and racial minorities. It’s a great day for the idea of the American Dream. The dream is worth preserving, but it is also worth amending. Obama does both for us, in one pull of the voting booth lever. He reminds us that here, unlike most other places in the world, people can rise from anywhere to achieve greatness. And he also reminds us that all of us are in this thing together. Obama will be our president – my president – as much as he is anyone else’s – because he exemlifies what it means to dream that dream. And the dream is not about a big house or a new car. It is about acheiving greatness through the bountiful opportunity our nation has always tried to provide. Greatness will mean more than making money or becoming famous. With Obama in the White House, we can hope that the American dream will be about making our nation great again – with liberty and justice for all.

….for gays and lesbians to enjoy the full benefits and challenges of marriage.

….for the people of Afghanistan to live in peace.

….for the American global imperial agenda to end.

I wonder sometimes if Obama is trying to unite that which needs to unravel. It was a great speech. But it also cheapened the legacy it claimed to embrace. What I remember: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

Martin Luther King, Jr., on 8/28/1963

The “I have a dream…” part is the most quoted. But the reality is that MLK was much more radical than we generally admit in public discourse. He never wavered from his clear path to justice as he understood it – and his dream is yet to be fulfilled. Nonetheless, one can’t help but wonder if the “promises of democracy” have been made slightly more real tonight.