The Faith of Obama

President-Elect Obama rode a wave of change and hope-all the way to the White House. Even when he and Biden came out openly against marriage equality, they promised change and hope. The election of our first President of color and the repeal by voters of other voters' civil rights in the same election offers startling insight into America.

Obama's mantra was as effective as any of the Bushite slogans. "Change! Change!" Even as Obama pushed for the bailout of the worst crooks and thieves-the people said "change". Obama pledges to take troops out of Iraq and send them to Afghanistan-escalating costly military endeavors. "Change". Now, President-Elect Obama will have Rev. Rick Warren invoke divine blessings on his first term in the Oval Office.

And who is Rick Warren? Remmber the "cone of silence" debacle at Saddleback Church? That is where you find Rev Warren-that is where you can hear him preach in support of such political measures as Proposition 8.

Obama/Biden gleefully and proudly came out against marriage equality (but not against hospital visitations). Obama had no trouble, as the first "black" candidate of the Democratic Party standing up for hope and freedom and a united America. But his support does not travel far. After denying support to millions of Americans (who, let's face it, voted overwhelmingly for him) he invites Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation. They seem to be oblivious to the hypocrisy of such a move.

If Obama is a Constitutional scholar, I would like to hear his rationale on this one. How do you support a piece of legislation "respecting an establishment of religion" that prohibits the "free excercise there of"? Not every faith supports marriage discrimination. Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and many other faiths perform same sex marriages. The fact that a religiously motivated law can strip us of our rights and be supported by the President [Elect] is of grave concern to us all. This is not change-this is Bush policy, all over again. And how different is the support of Prop 8 and the pushing of anti-American legislation like the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, etc?

Obama's support of Warren is no different than Bush's support of the likes of Falwell and Robertson. Mixing politics and holy rollers leads only to fragmentation, inequality and fear driven policy. Bush committed himself to a strong relationship with Evangelical faiths, he committed himself to a War on "Terror" and to defending "traditional" values. If Obama is pledging to continue these Wars on "Terror", to support "traditional" values and to reach out to the Evangelical communities, where and when do We the People come into this administration's equation? If Obama is going to borrow from the Bush book on maintaining power in the US, is that not a clear indicator of the type of change Obama seeks?

If this "change"-then We are in for four more years of misery.