The Inkwell

Ahh! Make it stop! Make the rhetoric stop, at least for Christmas!

President Elect Barack Obama, let’s just call him Pebo for short, made headlines this week when he chose mega-minister Rick Warren to pray at the upcoming inauguration. Cool, good for both of them. Rick Warren presides over a 22,000 member church in Orange County, California and is the best selling author of “The Purpose Driven Life”. He’s well loved all around the world.

But why, oh why has he chosen  to deliver a “Message of Hope for Changing Times”? Hope and change in the same sermon? I can’t take it anymore! The election is over. I don’t want to hear another word about hope or change. Anymore!

I’m not a curmudgeon or a grinch, honest. And I’m certainly not against hope. But don’t preach to us about change! Sure, times are changing. But if we assume that the only engines of change are God and government, we rule out the idea of free will. And I am the one who controls my destiny. I am the one who can change my own life. I don’t need a Christmas homily or an inauguration speech to make change happen for me.