Media Conveniently Forgets Obama's Stand on Gay Marriage

The reports on Rick Warren's invitation to give the invocation at the Obama inauguration are full of references to Rick's stand on gay marriage and his opposition to Prop. 8, but are strangely silent on one important fact. See if you can guess what it is:

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama has chosen a pastor who opposes gay marriage as a speaker at his inauguration, creating a commotion over what inclusiveness will mean for his administration.

Obama chose Rick Warren, the evangelical pastor of the southern California megachurch Saddleback, to give the invocation when he takes office in January.

The president-elect on Thursday said that he held views "absolutely contrary" to Warren on gay rights and abortion and described himself as "a fierce advocate for equality for gay and lesbian Americans."

"During the course of the entire inaugural festivities, there are going to be a wide range of viewpoints that are presented. And that's how it should be, because that's what America is about. That's part of the magic of this country is that we are diverse and noisy and opinionated," he said.

Warren is known as an evangelical focused on fighting poverty and disease, including AIDS in Africa, but he also advocated California Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban passed by voters last month.

Obama opposed California's ban on gay marriage. He generally has said he supports equal rights under the law for same-sex couples.

Give up? What's missing is that Obama opposes gay marriage too. He may claim support for gay "rights", but during the election stated his opposition to gay marriage. Funny how upset the gay marriage activists are about Rick Warren while ignoring the stance of the Obamessiah.

Apparently they were expecting him to lie about gay marriage during the campaign and then suddenly change his mind when he was elected.

Rick Warren issued a statement concerning the brouhaha created by his invitation:

I commend President-elect Obama for his courage to willingly take enormous heat from his base by inviting someone like me, with whom he doesn't agree on every issue, to offer the Invocation at his historic Inaugural ceremony.

Hopefully individuals passionately expressing opinions from the left and the right will recognize that both of us have shown a commitment to model civility in America.

The Bible admonishes us to pray for our leaders. I am honored by this opportunity to pray God's blessing on the office of the President and its current and future inhabitant, asking the Lord to provide wisdom to America's leaders during this critical time in our nation's history.

I still have concerns that he's being used by Obama to get a free pass from evangelicals.

By the way, the lefty blogs are in a complete lather over Warren. They're so upset that a gay marriage opponent would be invited to speak (again, ignoring Obama's own opposition to gay marriage), that some are demanding that a racist or white supremacist be invited too since Obama wants to "agree to disagree". They're all a bunch of 3-year olds. Don Surber has the details.

UPDATE: Byron York has more on the willful ignorance of the left and the press of Obama's stand on gay marriage.

UPDATE 2: The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center has issued their petulant statement:

"If President-elect Obama does not disinvite Rick Warren, then he is defining what inclusion in America will mean under his administration. It will mean that the practice of bigotry is acceptable, and that as president — in the name of 'inclusion' — he will provide a place and platform for that bigotry to be expressed and grow.

"Apparently we are welcome into the big tent of hope, but if we choose to enter, we should do so knowing we are in hostile, yet 'balanced' territory.”

Let us quickly return to the Saddleback Civil Forum:

"Define marriage,” Pastor Rick Warren asked Barack Obama at the “Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency,” held last August at Warren’s Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.

"I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman,” Obama quickly answered. Obama added that he opposed a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as he does, but on the basic issue, Obama and Warren agreed: marriage equals one man and one woman….

The Gay and Lesbian Center clearly hasn't been paying attention. I guess some "hope" got in their eyes.