✡ Dear Team-
I would like to express my disgust and dismay at the choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration.
As a Jew, I am always very uncomfortable with the encroachment of dominant Christian forces into the public sphere, not only because it is anti-American, but because the tendency is for Christians of the ilk of Warren to want to limit my ability to express my religious beliefs. As a Jew I do not hold the same beliefs on abortion, polygamy, or other Warren touchstones.
As an American who voted for you, I am concerned that your pragmatism, which I respect, has bled into pandering with this choice. Is this the change we were expecting? It is not feeling exactly like change, more like status quo with a good marketing campaign.
As a gay man, I am offended that Rick Warren equates me and all my fellow gays glibly with pedophiles and perverts. I happen to be a hard working, tax paying, G-d fearing, red blooded, home owning, charity giving, give-a-seat-up-for-the-old-lady-on-the-bus American. Warren and his ilk take the words of Jesus, some of the most profound ever recorded, which extol nothing but inclusion and somehow manipulate them into a tool for divisiveness. I sometimes wonder if Warren and his ilk have read the same Gospels I have.
Do you want to bring us together or pander to hate?
You and your team are smart educated women and men, this however is a mistake and smart people admit when they are wrong and move on. That kind of stand-up fortitude is the change I had hoped for.
Sincerely,
Nathan Tableman
It’s good to hear from you again!!