Nathaniel Salzman

On hearing the news that Pastor Rick Warren will be delivering the invocational prayer at Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration, I am not outraged. I am, however, highly disappointed. The Purpose Driven Life author’s public support of California Proposition 8, although perfectly within his rights of both free speech and religious liberty, do in my opinion disqualify him for such an honor. Mr. Obama ran on a platform of inclusion, of populist government, and of a United States of America. Mr. Warren is one of many divisive figures in this arena and as such, I question the wisdom of tasking him with this honor. What signal does that send to our non-heterosexual citizens? Is this not their country too? Could not someone pray to God on their behalf as well as Mr. Warren’s? Just as Mr. Warren is a poor choice for this, so also would Jay Bakker — a christian pastor and outspoken defender of LGBT rights. The solution — the inclusive thing to do — is having someone grinding neither axe. A neutral prayer giver in this case would have avoided this entire controversy.

But rather than just bitch or brood about it, I’ve submitted a letter to Mr. Obama via change.gov, which I’ve included here. If you feel strongly one way or the other, I encourage you to do the same. I highly doubt this will ever pass in front of Mr. Obama’s eyes, but I highly appreciate the venue all the same.

Dear President-elect Obama,

I wish to add my voice to those expressing profound disappointment in having Rick Warren lead the invocation at your historic inauguration. Although many of his church’s outreaches seek to end poverty and truly care for many people, that good will is apparently not extended to the civil rights of non-heterosexuals. I understand that the evangelical movement and those at its forefront are a valuable and legitimate part of our nation and that the freedom of religious expression is fundamental to our nation’s founding impulse. However, I must urge caution at their involvement in matters of state — even something small like this. Theirs is a fundamentally intolerant subculture, which as a Christian myself, is a sad thing to say. I am not alone in my feeling that the influence of the evangelical christian right helped shape many of the most negative aspects of the Bush Administration and the last eight years. If reform is truly your task at hand, I must again strongly urge caution. We certainly cannot exclude, or attempt to sideline, this valuable constituency. However, these places and moments of honor, such as a President’s Inauguration, should exclude bigotry, intolerance, hate, and those who would by action and word deny that all men are indeed created equal. Invite them to the table with open arms, but let’s not have them say grace.

With so many neutral or even gay-friendly christian pastors and ministers available, I just can’t help but feel like we went with name recognition and best-selling author popularity over more inclusive choices. Frankly I’m surprised that there wouldn’t be representatives of all our major faiths. Perhaps there is. Regardless, I’m surprised and highly disappointed and can’t help but feel that had <em>The Purpose Driven Life</em> sold only 12 copies, this well-intended man and his intolerance wouldn’t be anywhere near this inauguration.

Thank you so much for your leadership and I look forward to where our nation can go in these next 4-8 years. Above all thank you for caring what we the people think.

Sincerely,

Nathaniel Salzman

p.s. Please stop sending me fundraising emails. The election is over and we’ve got other work to do. The next campaign and the DNC coffers will have to fend for themselves for a while. 

I admit that the irony of this response isn’t lost on me. I’m expressing a preference of exclusion against Pastor Warren. Ultimately, I’m not <em>offended</em> by his involvement in the Inauguration, and in the grand scheme of things it’s not going to steer our nation one way or another. As I say in my letter, I’m simply disappointed. It’s a poor choice, in my opinion. I have a desire to see not a christian, a muslim, an agnostic or atheist public space, but a pluralist one — a public and political environment where a diversity of ideas about faith, morality, and justice converge on their common points. A place where my beliefs do not take precedence over yours or vice versa. I understand that this is simply my point of view, but a pluralistic public space is perhaps the only way we can all truly coexist in this diverse nation. When one religious or moralistic way of thinking outweighs all others, you eventually get the Taliban. You get the Inquisition. You get the Holocaust. You get the Crusades. You get Proposition 8. Sadly, we cannot rely only on the church for our national direction. For much to our shame, we Christians have found “Biblical” grounds for slavery, anti-semitism, segregation, genocide, imperialism, and hate throughout the ages. Which is why our nation’s public space, and our public policy, must look beyond even just my own point of view. 

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Beyond the sheer hilarity of it, I wanted to post this because some news outlets are refusing to replay it. As protest gestures go, I think it’s fantastic. The President was in no actual danger, which is for the best, and I’m hoping that this guy will get set loose sooner rather than later. The gesture of it, in my opinion, is just such a perfect encapsulation of what so many people around the world would love to do: huck something at George W. Bush. I can just imagine the catharsis. I really feel for that guy though, as he’s probably had a very rough couple of days since then. His fate aside, little would amuse me more than for this to become some kind of pattern — if everywhere Mr. Bush went from now on, someone flung a shoe at him.

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Sol Sender, from VSA Partners, takes us on a tour of the thinking, the process, and the runners up in designing the logo for what is easily the biggest brand of 2008. Part two of the video is after the jump.

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I’ve been behind on my blog writing lately, but this is one thing I wanted to be sure wasn’t simply lost to the internet ether. I’m really not any sort of die-hard Keith Olbermann fan. I don’t even watch his show. But when he’s right, he’s right. This “special comment” was in the wake of the passing of Proposition 8 in California, which outlawed gay marriage on November 4, 2008 — the same day we elected Barack Obama as President. My response after the jump, but here’s Keith Olbermann first.

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Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.

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I’m entirely too young to appreciate this song in its original context, but I’ve come to really appreciate it lately. Today is palpably exciting. The outcome is still unknown, but one way or another the times, they are a changin’.

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This shouldn’t come as a shock to regular readers. I’m not going to spend any time trying to convince you to vote as I will. I’ll just simply say why I made the choice. 

Why I’m not voting for John McCain:

• Eight years of disastrous Republican leadership, a trampled constitution, two wars, less safety, failing economy, and horrid inflation
• The Republicans have put greed and staying in power above the interests and needs of most Americans
• The John McCain running for President is not the sensible, moderate man I came to respect in the Senate
• The choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate is unforgivably irresponsible, and the assumption that she could draw in women voters simply because she’s a woman insults our intelligence. What’s more, beyond the typical “attack dog” job of the VP candidate, Palin has all but openly brought racism and fear-mongering into this election in a wholly unacceptable way
• The McCain campaign has set a new standard for negativity and outright deception. Also a new standard in pandering and downright Machiavellian tactics — doing anything to win
• A McCain Presidency plus a Democratic Congress means a lot of deadlock and very little change in Washington is likely
• At 72 years of age, McCain is both out of touch and a real danger to die or go senile in office. That leaves Palin as President, which is completely unacceptible
• More than anything, McCain has positioned himself not in terms of who he is or what he seeks to do in office. Instead, his campaign has existed in the purgatory between trying to look more moderate and sensible than George W. Bush, but greatly more conservative than Barack Obama. The result has been a blurry, vague campaign thin on concrete policy or philosophy, but thick on fear and bizarre claims about Obama ranging from being an Arab, to a Muslim, to a terrorist, to a socialist — all while then recounting and “defending” Obama when pushed.

Why I’m voting for Barack Obama:

• He essentially laid out his rather sensible vision for America back in 2005 with the publishing of his book, The Audacity of Hope — long before he started running for President.
• After nearly two years of campaigning, Obama has kept his promise to run a different kind of campaign
• Obama’s acceptance speech at the DNC — most specifically his vision of a United States of America, and his summation of the principle flaw of neoconservatism: that we’re all “on our own”
• Obama is a constitutional law professor — which means he is uniquely in touch with our founding principles
• Obama is eloquent and intelligent — the world listens to us. It’s time we started using complete sentences again
• Obama has built a ground swell of support from the bottom up — which not surprisingly is also the basis of most of his policies
• Obama is not dynastic Democratic royalty ala Clinton, Gore, or Kennedy, but rather someone who has inspired the people around him to action and change
• Obama is actually a great choice for someone with conservative values
• An Obama Presidency, plus a Democratic Congress means that real change is actually possible
• Obama’s vision for an Apollo-like program for energy independence
• Obama wants to actually talk to other countries who disagree with us 
• More than anything, Obama is intelligent, thoughtful, and unflappable. He’s an actual leader, not just a politician. He’s shown himself over and over to be someone who cuts to the core of a matter and tells the truth, rather than canned responses and knee-jerk reactionary statements.

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I’ve heard a handful of people over the last few weeks, some who I know, others just in NPR or CNN interviews, who say “I’d vote for Obama, except that he’s pro-choice.” 

The abortion issue is tricky. Wherever you land on the spectrum — from after-the-fact contraception all the way to murder — the subject isn’t easy. I’m too young to fully appreciate just exactly how abortion became such a central voting issue. I don’t know. Perhaps it’s that ignorance that has me asking why, with all that’s going on with our economy, our very difficult foreign affairs, and the growing environmental crisis, are we really going to decide who our leader should be on this one issue? 

Beyond that, this is the point I really want to make. For all of you out there who would see Roe v. Wade overturned, don’t be so quick to put your faith in the Republicans to do so. I appreciate your opposition to abortion, but if there were ever going to be a move made to overturn it, wouldn’t George W. Bush (an overtly and devoutly evangelical christian who made his faith the cornerstone of both of his elections and much of his policy) and six years of Republican controlled congress have made some sort of move in that direction. All congress would have had to do is pass a law with very exact language making some form of abortion illegal and have president Bush sign it. Sure, it would go to the Supreme Court, but isn’t that the point? Whether it would have overturned Roe v. Wade or not, they could have taken a stand on the subject.

What I’m getting at is that if Bush and a Republican congress wouldn’t or couldn’t take on abortion, how on earth could John McCain get something done on that subject with an overwhelmingly Democratic congress? Following that logic, unless there’s evidence that Obama intends to somehow expand abortion rights or make abortions easier to get (which would actually be against the Democratic Party platform of wanting abortion to be “rare”), then the practical outcome of who our next president is — at least on the abortion issue — is a wash. A candidate’s stance on the subject of abortion, and their willingness to actually put their neck on the line and do something about it, are not one and the same. 

Now that’s just abortion. I don’t think I need to explain how there’s a whole lot more going on in our country and our world that makes who our next president is a highly critical choice. So I would suggest that as you make your voting decisions, consider the very pressing issues facing our nation right now and who is better suited to impact them for the greater good. If John McCain is really your man, then more power to you, but if the abortion issue is truly the only thing keeping your from voting for Barack Obama, I hope you’d seriously reconsider. 

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The most recent, last-ditch tactic of the McCain campaign is trying to paint Obama as a socialist. Phrases such as “Obama is the most liberal senator in congress” and “he favors the redistribution of wealth” are at the forefront of the latest fear mongering attempt by the campaign. Sadly, it’s also being vehemently repeated by the unfortunate souls buying into this line of horse shit rhetoric.

“Most liberal.” What does that even mean? Is he especially pro-choice? The “redistribution of wealth” argument first showed up on my radar in the final presidential debate where McCain cited Obama’s conversation with the now infamous Joe the Plumber as proof positive of Obama’s socialist, wealth sharing agenda. In the last few days, the actual word “socialism” has been added. McCain’s socialism tack is actually pretty ironic given that the current Republican administration has just literally socialized the majority of our banking system — a piece of legislation that McCain himself voted for and defends as necessary government intervention. Additionally, Obama has a long list of Republican endorsements. If he’s so liberal or so obviously a socialist, why does he have such a strong conservative following? Yet the McCain campaign continues to insist that we essentially trust them on this — “Obama is a socialist! Just look what he told Joe!”

With all the coverage that Joe’s gotten (ironically having now given more press conferences than Sarah Palin), what I missed was the actual conversation between Joe and Barack Obama. I’m kicking myself for not looking this up sooner. Here’s the conversation — a far cry from the socialist manifesto it’s been made out to be.

This to me is pretty much proof positive that the “trust us, he’s bad” point of view of the McCain campaign doesn’t hold a drop of water. Obama’s use of the phrase “spread the wealth” is obviously colloquialism, not socialist agenda. This is a great example of what we find when we listen to the source, not the feed.

With “socialist”, “terrorist”, and “Muslim” used up, the only asinine accusation left in the McCain fear arsenal would be that Obama is a closeted homosexual. I suppose there’s still time.

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My hat is all the way off to Keith Olbermann and the most spectacular string of on-air editorial I’ve ever seen or heard. I see here the kind of outrage that should be all over our media coverage right now. It’s a tremendous example of an informed journalist holding a politician truly responsible for what they say. What’s more, though the Right would surely color it as slant, this diatribe is fiery righteous indignation. That’s what I imagine those in the Right would have us miss. The press is “out to get them” because they haven’t swallowed their lies hook, line, and sinker. Rather, the media is at times getting in the way of their propaganda machine, and thank God for it.

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