I don't much care for his style (fluffy "trust in Jesus and everything will get better" stuff, from what I've heard) and he's said some frankly inexcusable stuff about assassinating foreign leaders, but I've been rethinking this whole thing and I'm a bit bothered by the reaction to this little episode. As a leftist, I tend to believe that tolerance is important. It is important to tolerate guys like Warren who, by all accounts, operate in good faith and have different opinions and values. The fact that he is willing to do the same is encouraging.
I'm coming to this a bit late, but I recall reading a lot on various liberal blogs in response to the importance of tolerating opposing viewpoints by pointing out Warren's own intolerance. I concede the premise but not the point, because I do not think that one can defeat intolerance with more intolerance. Having a dialogue with cultural conservatives, giving one of them a symbolic role at the inauguration to show that they, too, have a place in Obama's America in a way that cultural liberals never did in Bush's, are things that give me a great deal of promise in Obama's ability to unite the country. I realize little of this helps if you are a gay person here in California who recently lost your right to marry. I don't have an answer for that.
