| | Openly gay bishop to deliver prayer for inauguration
 The Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop will deliver a prayer at the Lincoln Memorial for Sunday's opening day inaugural event.
The announcement, passed to Politico's Mike Allen, could be seen as an attempt to assuage gay rights advocates who were incensed by the selection of Pastor Rick Warren -- a vehement critic of gay rights -- to give the invocation on inauguration day.
Writes Allen, "The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, who became the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop in 2003 and last year entered into a civil union with his gay partner, will deliver the invocation for Sunday’s kickoff inaugural event on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, with President-elect Obama in attendance. The event is free and open to the public. An Obama source: “Robinson was in the plans before the complaints about Rick Warren. Many skeptics will read this as a direct reaction to the Warren criticism – but it’s just not so.” Robinson has been referred to as “the most controversial Christian in the world.”"
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