Rick Warren Tapped for Obama’s Inaugural Invocation

So we’re aware by now of Obama’s “team of rivals” strategy for his upcoming tenure in the White House, but it’s still startling to hear that Pastor Rick Warren of Southern California’s Saddleback Church, home of the notorious “cone of silence” interviews with Obama and John McCain last August, is going to give the invocation at Obama’s inauguration on Jan. 20. This news has triggered a dismayed reaction from various groups, such as People for the American Way, which issued a statement criticizing the choice on Wednesday.

CNN Political Ticker via Crooks and Liars:

His public support for California’s Proposition 8 — the measure that successfully passed and called for outlawing gay marriage in the state — sparked the ire of many gay rights proponents, who seized on a comment in an October newsletter to his congregation: “This is not a political issue — it is a moral issue that God has spoken clearly about.”

But Warren has long sought to broaden the focus of the evangelical agenda to include issues like the reduction of global poverty, human rights abuses, and the AIDS epidemic.

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