I’ve been out of the loop for the past few weeks, adjusting to a major upgrade to our family. In the excitement, I missed all the drama about Barack Obama asking some guy named Rick Warren to give his inaugural invocation.

I caught Ann Curry’s interview with Rick Warren on Dateline last Friday. While I personally find the guy to be dangerously misguided ¹, I am extremely impressed with our new president’s ability to exploit subjects we can’t (and will never) agree on in hopes of setting an example of how to build tolerance. A large percentage of our country is dangerously misguided. In order to progress, you have to acknowledge these differences and meet in the middle. Mr. Obama’s selection of Mr. Warren is a bold olive branch in the direction of the religious right, just as his selection of Steven Chu for Energy Secretary is a refreshing end to large oil companies leading this branch.

Barack Obama’s opposition to same sex marriage should not come as a surprise to you if you ever actually listened to his words. But he has demonstrated an uncanny aptitude for reason and compassion that no other presidential candidate in my time has matched.

I suppose my official opinion on the matter mirrors that of John Hodgman, who has completely floored me by going so far as to tie in a reference to MEGAFORCE. He is a brilliant man, and you should buy his books today.

¹ The trend of Marriage being between a man and a woman has only been the norm for the past 300 years. For most of recorded human history, marriage has more commonly been between a single man and many women. This in and of itself is not dangerous. The fact that this man disregards what our species has learned in the 200,000 + years prior to Abrahamic religions is.