Over at TNR, Alan Wolfe makes a silly and unsupported argument that Rick Warren's acceptance of Barack Obama's invitation to deliver the invocation at inauguration will marginalize the hard-core religious right and mainstream the less hard-core conservative evangelicals into the larger political culture.
Wolfe writes:
Warren's decision to accept an invitation from a liberal president is as clear a symbol of the entry of evangelicals into mainstream culture as one can imagine. In the conservative Christian subculture, liberals are treated with scorn. In the real world, they control the White House and Congress. How many evangelical preachers will be able to demonize Obama once Mr. Evangelical himself has blessed him? By opposing Warren's choice with such vehemence, the left seems determined to drive evangelicals back to the world of victimology and conspiracy-mongering. This is not wise.
Wolfe overlooks so many realities here I'm not sure where to start. How about with the fact that Warren himself has treated liberals with scorn? Or the fact that Warren's willingness to bless Obama's presidency has not stopped evangelicals (and hard-right Catholics as well) from demonizing Obama, judging from my inbox, which is filled with invective about Warren from his brethren? Most laughably -- and dangerously -- Wolfe blames liberals' opposition to Warren for "driving" evangelicals into "the world of victimology and conspiracy-mongering." So by that he means that liberals should just keep their mouths shut so as to not make the religious right do what has been its modus operandi for the last three decades?
--Sarah Posner
