RickRoll'd

To be frank, 2008 has sucked. Sure, the Kiwis won the Rugby League World Cup and on balance, NZ had a pretty good Olympics but the enduring legacy of the year 2008 (or, to be consistent with Paul D's earlier post, this particular 365-day calendrical cycle) is of a global economy in meltdown, skyrocketing unemployment rates, no progress on climate change, free trade deals or Zimbabwe De-Mugabeification. Oh, and the death of Heath Ledger. But throughout 2008, the big adventures of Barack (Hussein) Obama stood out like a beacon of hope in a swamp full of fail. And as a former recipient of Time Magazine's person of the year award, I can say with conviction that Mr Obama deserves to be singled out as this year's winner. His epic Democratic primary battle with Billary Clinton was far better entertainment than this year's lacklustre Super 14 or NZ's hope less cricket team. And the way he effortlessly dealt with John McPain and that godawful Alaskan hillbilly woman was a stirring victory for an America we thought had abandoned reason for madness (and Cheney). I heart Obama. Which is why that in my last post for 2008, I'm so suprised that I find myself bitterly condemning him.

Mr. Obama has chosen Rick Warren, the founder and senior pastor of an evangelical megachurchstravaganza (the Saddleback Church,) to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. For a man elected as the merchant of liberal change from the dark days of the Bush Administration's pandering to evangelicals, this is a depressing slap in the face indeed. It is an obvious attempt to reach out to the hardxcore Christian fundamentalists that declared themselves scared of Obama's MuslimSocialistTerroristExtremist hidden agenda during the election campaign, and voted against Obama, and all he represents, in massive numbers. (check out some of their solid, principled and logical reasons for doing so here). After all, Pastor Rick is wildly popular amongst his congregation, and apparently amongst the wider American public, his book 'The Purpose Driven Life' has sold over 20 million copies and the media's dubbed him 'America's Pastor.' He's also a gross, and miserable bigot.





What a prat.

Team Obama has defended the decision on two grounds. That Warren is popular, and that America, with its proud tradition of free speech, represents all voices, and the Inauguration ceremony must reflect that. For two reasons, thats complete and utter crap.

Firstly, Warren's raison d'etre is to actively advocate, to an audience of millions, why it is legitimate to deny basic rights to a group of people in society based on a biological characteristic, and to treat them as inferior. Some of the stuff Warren says goes beyond the type of free speech that says 'I have a position on a moral issue, and you should share this position and here is why' and is the sort of 'free speech' that says 'I believe that a group is inferior to me, and here are some lies about the things they do.' That type of hate speech may be free, but the social villification of homosexuality has major costs; the active discrimination of gays in society and in the law. In a weighing up of competing rights, I find it inconceivable to think that the right of Warren and the Saddleback kids to spew forth homophobic bile should be placed above the right of the gay community to be allowed to 'live according to their own conception of the good life', without fear of discrimination (last time I'll use that phrase in '08, promise) Your social contract shouldn't be inferior just because you sign it with a limp wrist, so to speak.

Secondly, even if you disagree with me on the previous point there is still a fundamental difference between saying 'we allow the views of Pastor Rick to be expressed in the marketplace of ideas' and saying 'here, Pastor Rick, please deliver my invocation in front of a global audience in their hundreds of millions'. That's not some perfectly competitive marketplace of ideas, that's winning the lottery. By asking Pastor Rick to deliver the invocation, Barack Obama tacitly accepts all that the Saddleback Church stands for, and all the Neanderthalic twitterings made by Pastor Warren against the legitimacy of homosexuality. Even if Pastor Rick is able to point to a flock of millions who share his views, Obama should not be satisfied that the job of the President is to reflect the general will, whatever that will may be. Obama's role must be to use the dignity associated with the President's office, to make the case for fairness and equality in the places where it is most unpopular.

For a man who claimed he would lead for all Americans, this is a disastrous start. For an American LBGTI community (think I got them all) still reeling from the shock passing of Proposition 8, an amendment to the Californian Constitution that explicitly bans gay marriage, this is a hammer blow to morale of the movement. Not only that, but with America still exerting it's influence as a moral force, attempting to bring a discourse of universal rights to some of the bleakest authoritarian regimes on the planet, the gay movement needs an America willing to acknowledge the legitimacy of homosexuals as equals, not as dirty inferiors to be explicitly excluded from the American definition of 'rights'.

November 4th 2008, and Obama's acceptance speech, was considered by some political pundits to be the 'moment of victory for the black civil rights movement.' Considering black Americans remain rooted to the bottom of major social statistics, I'd dispute the truth of that claim. Nonetheless, if Obama shows increasing willingness to embrace a raving evangelical's voice of hatred, January 20th 2009 could yet become the moment of defeat for the homosexual civil rights movement.

Alex