By Larry Jones

The office Lynn refers to is President Barack Obama’s Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, greatly expanded and strangely Bush-like in certain aspects. The most contentious is whether religious organizations will be allowed to discriminate in hiring people with whose lifestyle they disagree, as was the case under George W. Bush.

by Sunsara Taylor

by Jill McLaughlin, World Can’t Wait Steering Committee Member

I know you’re pissed, and probably really confused, and in shock that Obama, of all people, would choose Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration. I’m pissed too, but for a different reason. I’m not confused, though, and I’m not all that shocked. What I’m about to say is pretty raw, blunt, and not so very nice…but it is the truth in all its naked glory. And this was not easy for me to write either. It took me awhile to get to this because in a free and quieter moment when I would have time to write this would hit me so hard and I’d be too enraged. What I write here comes from the depths of my heart and my human soul. I don’t give a shit if it offends the Christian right. After all, these are the same people who have said and done the most vile things in the last eight years to cheerlead and fuel the war crimes, civil liberties abuses, and hate crimes of the so-called “war on terror.”

I don’t care anymore and I am not going to take it anymore and neither should you. I’m done. I don’t care if it offends the left or the progressives who think we ought to “wait and see” and “give Obama a chance.” How about giving me a fucking break? It's high time the gloves came off. Our lives and most importantly the lives of the people of the world depend on it. And at the end of this I’m going to tell you to take that anger, shock, and confusion and turn it into a righteous, clear, and determined action.

First of all, you gotta understand that Obama never promised the LGBT people a break with the Christian Right. He has said all along that he doesn’t support gay marriage. He has said all along that he wanted to bring unity between those on the right and those on the left. When Barack Obama speaks of unity where the religious right is concerned what he actually means is “In order to run this empire I need the most powerful and richest political base, which is the Christian Right.” It matters little to him if he is seeking unity or common ground with those who seek to oppress so many sections of people in this country, i.e. LGBT, women, Muslims, Immigrants, etc.. He needs the right to run an empire that is in a lot of hot water right now. He has little use for us.

But Obama wasn’t going to be obnoxious or overt about giving the religious right a say in social or foreign policy in the way George Bush was. No, instead he dangled the carrot of “you can have job protection and you can visit your sick partner” in front of us. At the same time, he told us that he doesn’t support gay marriage. But he supports everything else for gays, right? Not so fast. He appeared sympathetic to LGBT issues, but then he goes and finds the most seemingly benign and “feel good” evangelical who wrote this nice book about how your life can have purpose. You know that book, The Purpose Driven Life? But your life only has purpose if you’re not gay or if you’re a self-hating gay and you never had an abortion or you don’t support a woman’s right to choose.

By Larry Jones

President-elect Barack Obama on December 17 announced that he had chosen fundamentalist pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation prayer at his inauguration. This is just one more of his many other moves toward the right of late. Immediate outrage broke out, most notably from the LGBT community.

By Jill McLaughlin

(this article originally appeared as a letter in the Chicago Free Press)

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Update: Report from the NYC demonstrations after the break.

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Over the last eight years the Bush Regime codified a comprehensive reactionary political program: openly whipping up anti-gay sentiment; mandating the teaching of creationism in science class; restricting abortion and birth control based on biblical literalism that women are nothing more than incubators and should have no control over their bodies; calling for an end to the constitutional separation of church and state; launching and prosecuting endless unjust wars; carrying out torture as policy; violating sacrosanct civil liberties and civil rights; surveilling us all.

Millions were thrilled to see the Republicans voted out of office.

But who is to stop the Bush Program when Obama promotes finding common ground with Christian Fascists, war criminals and torturers?  While Obama said he did not support Prop 8, he stated publicly many times that marriage should be between heterosexuals only. Instead of straddling the fence, he should have called for people to vote against Prop 8. Obama in fact has pledged to extend Bush's faith-based initiatives that have granted over $2.2 billion to religious organizations.
 
We Will Not Accept The Bush Program - No Matter Who Is President!