Source: Politico
http://www.politico.com/arena/perm/Diana_Eck_BF022A9C-D543-4407-B0DA-DA3E3103BB82.html
As a latecomer to this discussion, here is a word about Rick Warren's address to the annual meeting of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Long Beach on Saturday, December 20. When MPAC announced that Warren would speak at its annual conference, I found it even more astonishing than Obama's inaugural invitation.
I met Rick Warren at a morning meeting at the Kennedy School of Government about five years ago. It was clear to me then that he had very little personal knowledge of the religious communities of his own area, Orange County, with its large Vietnamese Buddhist population and its equally dynamic Muslim centers. I kept harping on the imperative of Christian relationships to neighbors and strangers; he remarked that I definitely had a purpose-driven life, driven by commitment to the multireligious reality of America in the 21st century. He was right; I do. Eventually, Warren met the Orange County Muslims at a picnic. Now, he's speaking at MPAC's convention.
As a gay woman, married in Massachusetts in 2004, after a 25-year commitment, I have no illusions about either Warren or MPAC on the issue of civil marriage. Both would vote against equal access to marriage. Even so, I admire Warren for his social-gospel activism and his apparent ability to engage with the dynamic world of today. I also admire those I have known in MPAC for more than a decade, people like Maher Hathout, Salam al-Marayati, and Laila al-Marayati. We all have complex identities, and it is difficult to pigeon-hole us with simple labels –gay, Muslim, evangelical.