Anti-Gay Sermon Costs Pastor Role at Inauguration

The pastor who was supposed to deliver the benediction at President Obama's inauguration will no longer do so because of an anti-gay sermon he gave in the mid 1990s, reports NBC News. It was a long time ago, but it was also a doozy of a sermon by the Rev. Louie Giglio, with lines like this:

• “People aren’t born gay—but even if they are, it’s still a choice like giving into alcoholism, addiction, and overeating."

And so on. The president's inauguration committee said it wasn't aware of the comments when it picked Giglio and said "they don't reflect our desire to celebrate the strength and diversity or our country."

Giglio, praised for his work to fight human trafficking, issued a statement saying he feared the issue would overshadow the inauguration and withdrew his acceptance of the invitation. Sound familiar? A similar thing happened when Obama picked Rick Warren to deliver a sermon at his first inauguration. Back then, however, Obama ignored critics and let Warren speak. "What a difference a re-election makes," writes Dave Weigel at Slate. In 2008, Obama wanted to make peace with conservatives. Today, we have a "revivified Obama and Democratic party attempting to break conservative opposition at every opportunity." Read the full post here. (More Louie Giglio stories.)