For starters, evangelical church leaders believe instinctively in localism: the church, not the state, is the most effective institution to deliver meaningful help to those in need. So, for example, Saddleback's church network has sent over 2,600 small groups to "adopt" poor villages in Rwanda. For all his talk of social justice, Warren emphasizes the immediate human dimension to social problems--the need for strong families and moral communities that offer both assistance and accountability. Unlike his liberal counterparts, Warren's ministry enlists churches, not political action committees, as the catalyst for social change. [snip]No minister can claim immunity from the temptations of political power. Nevertheless, Warren was right to accept Obama's invitation to offer a benediction. He will do so, as he has said, as a believing Christian. That will disappoint many Obama supporters, who reflexively associate conservative religion with social repression. They will be reminded, to their discomfort, that Christians who believe firmly in the need for spiritual redemption can also be crusaders for the poor and marginalized.
An evangelical prayer on Inauguration Day also seems fitting, given Obama's historic election as America's first African-American president. It was, after all, an earlier generation of evangelicals--believers with the same reformist zeal as Rick Warren--who gave birth to the abolition party, the party of Lincoln, the president who freed America's slaves. Henry Ward Beecher, a Republican who campaigned for Lincoln in 1860, warned his Brooklyn congregation against a political compromise that would allow slavery to spread. "If we go on to purchase peace on these terms, we become partners in slavery, and consent, for the sake of peace, to ratify this gigantic evil," he said. "We cannot wink at it."
Rick Warren is a good and serious man, and whether you believe in God or not, there is a place for the power of prayer on the day.
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