Would Martin Luther King be disinvited from President Obama's inauguration?

This being the birthday of Martin Luther King, Star Parker asks whether Martin Luther King would be asked to give the benediction at President Obama's inauguration.  The reason it's a relevant question is the person originally asked to give the benediction, was Pastor Louie Giglio, well known for his work fighting human trafficking.  He was forced to withdraw after it was learned that he, "horror of horrors", preached a sermon 25 years ago saying that homosexual behavior was a sin.

Parker raises the specter of MLK being forced to withdraw as well because in 1963 he said a law was just or unjust depending on whether it squared with God's law.

In King’s famous letter written in 1963, while locked in a jail in Birmingham, Ala., beginning with the salutation “My fellow clergyman,” he asks the question, “How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust?” The answer given by King was this: “A just law is a manmade code that squares with the moral law or the law of God.”

Would a law such as the one forcing the evangelical Christian owners of Hobby Lobby to pay for contraception and abortion inducing pills of employees, and exposing them to fines of $1.3 million per day for noncompliance -- qualify as “just” under Dr. King’s definition?

Would the Rev. Dr. King be ejected from the stage of this president’s inaugural if he called this law, produced by this administration, unjust?

We are entering unprecedented times when the moral foundations of our nation are being turned on their head.  Right is now wrong and wrong is now right; words spoken by one of the Old Testament prophets in the context of the ancient nation of Israel.  There's nothing new under the sun.

It isn't going to be cheap -- $150 million for Obama inauguration.

With tough times upon us our incoming president is looking at a record inauguration bill.

According to an AP story:

Unemployment is up. The stock market is down. Let's party.

The price tag for President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration gala is expected to break records, with some estimates reaching as high as $150 million. Despite the bleak economy, however, Democrats who called on President George W. Bush to be frugal four years ago are issuing no such demands now that an inaugural weekend of rock concerts and star-studded parties has begun.

Obama's inaugural committee has raised more than $41 million to cover events ranging from a Philadelphia-to-Washington train ride to a megastar concert with Beyonce, U2 and Bruce Springsteen to 10 official inaugural balls. Add to that the massive costs of security and transportation — costs absorbed by U.S. taxpayers — and the historic inauguration will produce an equally historic bill.

In 2005, Reps. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., and Jim McDermott, D-Wash., asked Bush to show a little less pomp and be a little more circumspect at his party.

"President Roosevelt held his 1945 inaugural at the White House, making a short speech and serving guests cold chicken salad and plain pound cake," the two lawmakers wrote in a letter. "During World War I, President Wilson did not have any parties at his 1917 inaugural, saying that such festivities would be undignified."

The thinking was that, with the nation at war, excessive celebration was inappropriate. Four years later, the nation is still at war. Unemployment has risen sharply. And Obama pressed Congress to release the second half of a $700 billion bailout package in hopes of rescuing a faltering banking industry.

Celebration of 'common values'
Obama's inauguration committee says it is mindful of the times and is not worried people will see the four days of festivities as excessive.

"That is probably not the way the country is going to be looking at it," said committee spokeswoman Linda Douglass. "It is not a celebration of an election. It is a celebration of our common values."

Douglass said the campaign sought to keep costs down by having the same decorations at each of the 10 balls, eliminating floral arrangements and negotiating prices on food.

"Those at the Obama administration are trying to be reflective of the climate," McDermott's spokesman, Mike DeCeasar, said Saturday.

The festivities began Saturday with a speech at Philadelphia's historic 30th Street train as Obama's trip began.

Sunday's concert at the Lincoln Memorial includes performances by Sheryl Crow, Stevie Wonder, Garth Brooks and others. Denzel Washington and Queen Latifah will read historic passages. HBO paid $2.5 million for the exclusive rights to broadcast the concert.

Monday, the inaugural committee is hosting a national day of service, followed by three "bipartisan dinners" and a concert at the Verizon Center honoring military families. The Disney Channel will broadcast the concert, which includes performances by teen stars Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers, as part of a $2 million deal that also gave ABC the exclusive rights to broadcast one inaugural ball.

The television deals allowed the committee to recoup about $5 million of the $15 million production costs for the televised events, Douglass said.

Security and transportation costs are being paid by taxpayers. And with millions of tourists expected to descend on Washington for Tuesday's inauguration ceremony, Bush declared a state of emergency, allowing the district to recover some costs for the event.

No shortage of toilets
The inauguration committee is paying for 10 stadium-style screens to broadcast the inauguration ceremony on the National Mall. It is also hiring garbage and recycling services and renting thousands of portable toilets for what one supplier called "the largest temporary restroom event in the history of the United States."

One way of looking at it is the Obama folks are being consistent. His $750 billion stimulus bill looks like it's throwing caution to the wind so too the cost of his inauguration.

Obama caves in. Funny way to bring people together by inviting most divisive religious figure in Protestantism.

Barack Obama announced that he was inviting practicing homosexual Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson to pray at an inaugural event at the Lincoln Memorial. This was no doubt a response to attacks on him for inviting evangelical pastor Rick Warren to speak at his inaugural ceremony. Warren incurred the wrath of homosexual activists for having the tumidity to support traditional marriage efforts in California.

Robinson is facilitating a split within the Episcopal by thumbing his nose at basic Christian morality through his homosexual behavior which will no doubt lead to the eventual disintegration of the Episcopal Church in America.

Robinson issued a statement expressing his “great honor to be there representing the Episcopal Church, the people of New Hampshire, and all of us in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.” Here he's rubbing the noses of people of New Hampshire and the Episcopal Church who don't agree with his views or behavior in the dirt by saying he represents them.

And of course he took at a shot at religious conservatives and orthodox believers who value the Christian heritage our nation and culture when he told the New York Times that “he had been reading inaugural prayers through history and was ‘horrified’ at how ‘specifically and aggressively Christian they were.’”

Bishop Robinson said, “I am very clear that this will not be a Christian prayer, and I won’t be quoting Scripture or anything like that. The texts that I hold as sacred are not sacred texts for all Americans, and I want all people to feel that this is their prayer.”

Obama, I suspect, wants to be the president of all Americans and he recognizes that America doesn't reflect the leftist values of portions of his political constituency. For daring to stray too far from liberal "orthodoxy" even symbolically he's getting hammered from the left.

As Pat Buchanan observed around Election Day, Barack Obama will end up at war with significant portions of his own party or the American people. His attempts to walk that fine line before he's even inaugurated is increasingly difficult.