Rick Warren leads 'Global Summit on AIDS and the Church' at his Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif. (WND photo)

Barack Obama's choice of Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his presidential inauguration already has angered the left before the megachurch pastor's evangelical critics have had a chance to respond.

Immediately after release of the inaugural program today, Joe Solmonese, president of the "gay" rights group Human Rights Campaign, fired off a letter to Obama calling the president-elects choice "a genuine blow to LGBT Americans" – lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders, reports David Brody of CBN News.

People For the American Way also issued a quick statement, calling the pick "a grave disappointment."

The benediction for the Jan. 20 inauguration will be given by civil rights icon Rev. Joseph Lowery.

Solmonese complains of Warren's vocal support for Proposition 8 in California, the ballot measure passed Nov. 4 that limits marriage to one man and one woman.

The homosexual-rights leader writes that "by inviting Rick Warren to your inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have a place at your table."

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Solomonese cites Warren saying during the Proposition 8 campaign: "There is no need to change the universal, historical definition of marriage to appease 2 percent of our population. ... This is not a political issue – it is a moral issue that God has spoken clearly about."

Solomonese complains Warren "cannot name a single theological issue that he and vehemently, anti-gay theologian James Dobson disagree on."

Homosexuals, Solomonese writes to Obama, have been "moved by your calls to religious leaders to own up to the homophobia and racism that has stood in the way of combating HIV and AIDS in this country."

"But in this case," he says, "we feel a deep level of disrespect when one of architects and promoters of an anti-gay agenda is given the prominence and the pulpit of your historic nomination."

People for the American Way accused Warren of being a true conservative.

"Pastor Warren, while enjoying a reputation as a moderate based on his affable personality and his church's engagement on issues like AIDS in Africa, has said that the real difference between James Dobson and himself is one of tone rather than substance," the statement says.

The group says Warren, author of all-time best-selling hardback, "The Purpose-Driven Life," has "repeated the Religious Right's big lie that supporters of equality for gay Americans are out to silence pastors."

"He has called Christians who advance a social gospel Marxists," People for the American Way says. "He is adamantly opposed to women having a legal right to choose an abortion."

Obama appeared with Republican presidential nominee John McCain Aug. 16 at Warren's Saddleback Church in Southern California for a forum in which each candidate was questioned by the pastor for an hour.

As WND reported, Warren's invitation of Obama to speak at Saddleback's Global Summit on AIDS and the Church in 2006 stirred controversy when some evangelicals objected to a pro-choice Democrat being given the pulpit of a church that opposes abortion. At last year's AIDS summit, in November, Sen. Hillary Clinton gave a warmly received speech while Obama was among several candidates who presented taped messages via satellite.

After the summit, Warren responded to his evangelical critics in a WND interview published as a three-part series: Part One. Part Two. Part Three.

 

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