A worthwhile read on Rick Warren's offering the prayer at President-elect Obama's inaugural can be found here. I appreciate the tone of reasoned debate and conversation that the article holds out. One of the ongoing struggles on both far right and far left is an unwillingness to engage in civil dialogue where issues can be argued about freely and pointedly, but without a lack of civility.
One wonders if part of our inability to deal with issues with civility comes from the way the parties carry out scorched earth policies during campaigns. Perhaps if there were in the campaigns that happen every two years civil dialogue and in depth debate we could find another way (think the Lincoln-Douglas debates).
On the other hand, given our unwillingness as a people to think deeply and critically--preferring TV programs like American Idol over Frontline or similar indepth reporting, or for that matter reading (80% of households in America neither purchased nor read a book last year)--perhaps we can blame no one but ourselves that we long for sound bites and battlefield attacks, rather than reasoned and civil debate.
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