This piece by a pro-Obama blogger on the McClurkin flap really made me stop and think. The main premise is that when Rick Warren, the evangelic pastor who wrote the Purpose Driven Life series invited Obama to speak from the pulpit of his church on HIV/AIDS he faced a similar wrath from his community to what Obama is receiving with respect to McClurkin. In that case the liberal bloggers decried the outrage from the religious right.

There is no way to unify this country if people on both sides refuse to be in the same space as those with whom they disagree. It is fine to disagree and be vocal about your disagreement, but you absolutely can’t make progress without even talking to each other. Both sides need to stop being intolerant and threatened by those who are different from them. We need more Rick Warrens on the conservative side and Barack Obamas on the progressive side.

As I’ve said before, if the soldiers in Iraq can work together on the frontlines in harm’s way across all their differences–gay, straight, black, white, Republican, Democrat, pro-life, pro-choice, conservative, liberal–the least we can do over here is to do the same. After the fiasco we have them mired in, we owe those kids to be more focused and gracious than that.

These divides are exactly what pundits talk about when they refer to the polarization of our political culture. It is unclear to me that it is any worse than it has ever been, but then again I am young and have not lived through decades of changing political atmospheres.

The author does indeed have a point. What is one persons bigotry is another’s religion. The sides are in direct opposition to one another on an inflammatory issue, but there is something to be gained when they work together on other issues.

However, for many of the gay bloggers writing, this is extremely personal. People like McClurkin make their lives harder, more painful and can lead to physical harm. The difference is that this is highly personal. Sexuality is part of their identity. It is not a political issue to them, nor a religious one. It is central to their being. What McClurkin is advocating is that they should not be themselves, that there was a “war” against them, which he is waging.

Now, if this gospel tour was designed for a discussion, for Obama at the start to discuss the harmful effects of homophobia within the black community, along with a host of other issues that would be different. But that was not the point of the tour. It was for Obama to capitalize on the draw of these performers to build support for his presidential campaign. This was not intended to create a dialogue, like Warren did with his invitation. It is only an issue because Obama’s staff was incompetent and did not realize that there would be a problem with McClurkin’s presence.

Presidential campaigns cannot be in the practice of trying to unify groups. That creates controversy. They are running for president, not trying to unite the country. There is a huge difference between the two. There is a great benefit from Obama bringing together disparate groups, but it does not his accomplish his goal of winning the presidency. Now, if he were to win, then perhaps he could set about creating a dialogue between folks like Warren and progressives working on poverty and AIDS, or working to get rid of the homophobia that exists in the black community. He cannot do that as a candidate. When he is forced to, as in this situation, he loses BIG. There is absolutely no way for him not to piss off one side or another.

P.S. This interview by the Advocate with Obama on this story is worth a read.