Warren and Robinson are worlds apart

As Bishop Gene Robinson is added to the roster for Obama’s inaugural events, it seems pretty obvious why he and Rick Warren, set to give the invocation, don’t exactly get along. Bluntly, Warren is an influential Conservative Evangelical who actively campaigns against gay marriage, and V. Gene Robinson is the first openly gay Bishop in the Episcopal Church.

The gaping divide between the two religious men actually goes even deeper — all the way to Nigeria, where the powerful Episcopal Archbishop Peter Akinola presides. The famously anti-gay Akinola has led a global movement of Episcopalians against Robinson’s consecration. The church in fact split over the issue, twice — a wide global spectrum of parishes turning to Akinola for leadership.

And when Time named Bishop Akinola as one of the world’s most influential people in 2006, guess who they got to write him up? Rick Warren. Just today, Warren was rumored to be willing to help disgruntled Episcopalians get as far away from Robinson as possible. No surprise that when Warren was chosen for the inaugural invocation, Robinson told The New York Times, “it was like a slap in the face.”

They’ve both also said quite nice words about one another, by the way. But still. Yikes. If Obama is trying to “bring people together,” that’s quite a daring pairing. What must Akinola be thinking about all this?

Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images