bmurray you are right on.

Jude 1:3-4
3. Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.
4. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Al though that man has a right to take part in the inauguration of the president-elect, as a devoted Christian I find it so disappointing to see the moral failure of the American people, and the compromise that Obama is making. Despite all the critiques he got from different corners, the outgoing president, Gorge Bush is to be commended for his firm stand in matters that dilute the Judo-Christian values on which this great nation was established by our fore-fathers. May the Lord guide the in coming President during the coming years of his presidency, and God bless America.

The "God of Our Many Understandings" sounds to me like "the god of this age" spoken of by Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:4. It just comes to show you the times we are in. This is just another example of the HUGE apostasy that is going around in these latter days. We have a homosexual man, parading around pretending to be a man of God, trying to exclude Christianity from the inauguration to not "offend" anyone!? The consensus is that people want to drive out the one true God, make their own definitions of what sin is (or abolish the concept completely)and embrace lies. This disgusting movement is just an opiate for the morally corrupt. Let's give thanks to the one true Lord, the God of Abraham, the God of Jacob, that out creator Jesus Christ is returning soon!

I'm a Jewish person, and I'm pretty offended by most of the comments here. You may like or dislike Bishop Robinson, but he was asked to give the blessing at this inauguration event, not give a sermon at his church. This is a blessing for the whole event, for the whole country. Not everyone in the country is Episcopalian, not everyone in the country is Christian. So the idea that he is going to tailor his blessing to be as inclusive as possible, and not use scriptural references that only apply to the Christian faith, makes perfect sense to me.

It will be refreshing at a national event to be able to listen to a blessing that does not go out of its way to specifically exclude non-Christians like me.

"Will a real man of God please stand up?" - Amen to that!

A real theologian would respond with, "What business does light have with darkness?" To even spend time debating the acceptability of homosexuality within a Biblical context is sitting down to reason with Satan or one of his subjects! For centuries the Christian position in America has been to take the high moral ground and allow the immoral crowd to wallow in their own self indulgence. We are to treat homosexuals as lost, immoral people who live in darkness. As such, we are to withhold all fellowship with them except for the purpose of sharing the Light of God's Word. Any other contact for any other reason is strictly forbidden by our Lord Jesus. In layman's terms...YOU ARE WHAT YOU HANG OUT WITH! Amen?

Robinson is not a Christian. He is just a well-groomed religious goat in love with the world, and the world with him. Every government on earth is composed of individuals who are individually accountable to Christ who is God, and every one of those persons have in common membership in one of two camps: obedient servants or rebellious sinners. I love my country, make no mistake about it, but Christ has been God eternally before this country was even an idea in a man's mind. To subject His dominion to the authority of the State, or the political correctness of its subjects, is to commit a fallacy of at best well-intentioned and misplaced priorities. I'm not overly impressed with Rick Warren either. Will a real man of God please stand up?

What horrifies me is the message Robinson is sending to the unchurched, that is it is okay to dismiss scripture and go on being Christian. Seems like a really reckless approach in my opinion.

Jude 1:4 seems to be an appropriate response to Robinson's actions.

Mr. Robinson said that "the sacred texts that I hold sacred are not the sacred texts that all Americans hold sacred". If Mr. Robinson has read the "sacred texts that say what abomination homosexuality is to God, he must not hold those particular texts as sacred. He says that only the part of the Scriptures that he chooses to hold sacred are sacred. All the other Scriptures are deleted from his life, even as a "supposed leader" of the Christian Church. I guess we can just delete all the many scriptures that say homosexuality is a sin from all of our Bibles. I don't think I would want to attend his church either, the fear of lightning would keep me away, plus his sermons must preach the approval of God of any lifestyle Mr. Robinson chooses to live. It must be nice to only obey the Scriptures you like, and ignore the ones you don't like and choose NOT to obey and still be a leader in the church, and as a bonus, get to pray at the inaugural ceremony and wear a color too. MARANATHA!

A minister at a government function is both a representative of church and state -- but *primarily* of the state. Any minister who agrees to participate in such a ceremony tacitly agrees to this rule -- and it applies to both Warren and Robinson. Robinson is just being more truthful about it. The state cannot promote a specific religion (I know there are people who disagree with me on that, but their understanding of constitutional law is clouded by wishful thinking) -- so neither can the minister who presides over a state event. There are those who attempt to do it, but they are violating the letter and spirit of the law, and they are corrupting Christianity by associating it with a government power.

It's a good reason for ministers to stay out of government functions altogether. But the power therein is too much for most ministers -- even Southern Baptist ones like Warren -- too resist. Robinson's statement does not make him any less of a Christian than Warren.