A Gamble for Obama . . . And a Risk for Rick Warren, Too

E.J. Dionne, Jr. writes in The Washington Post:

By inviting Pastor Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation, President-elect Barack Obama has alienated some of his friends on the left. By accepting, Warren has enraged some of his allies on the right.

Obama and Warren have helped each other in the past, and both know exactly what they're doing.

[One view] on parts of the religious left casts Warren as the evangelical best positioned to lead moderately conservative white Protestants toward a greater engagement with the issues of poverty and social justice, and away from a relentless focus on abortion and gay marriage.

Both Warren and Obama are shrewd leaders who sense where the political winds are blowing.

Warren understands that a new generation of evangelicals has tired of an excessively partisan approach to religion.