Giglio's withdrawal: A swift end to an ugly mess

As you may have heard, the Reverend Louie Giglio will not deliver the benediction at Obama’s inaugural ceremony in the wake of revelations of anti-gay remarks he made in the mid 1990s. Think Progress uncovered audio yesterday of Giglio giving a sermon called “In Search of a Standard – Christian Response to Homosexuality,” which made a number of disturbing assertions about the gay “lifestyle” and “aggressive agenda.” Today, Giglio pulled out of the inaugural. The key context here is supplied by Steve Benen and Dave Weigel, who both contrast this quick resolution with Obama’s handling of the controversy that erupted over Pastor Rick Warren in 2008. Despite being an outspoken proponent of antigay initiatives, he was chosen to deliver a sermon at that inauguration, and when gay rights groups protested, Obama responded by saying: “We have to agree to disagree without being disagreeable. This time, as Benen notes, Giglio was out literally in less than 24 hours.