Warren to be keynote speaker at MLK commemorative service on the day before inauguration.»

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/22/warren-mlk/

Warren to be keynote speaker at MLK commemorative service on the day before inauguration.»

Rev. Rick Warren, who is President-elect’s controversial pick to give the invocation at his inauguration on Jan. 20, will be the keynote speaker at Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Commemorative Service at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church on the day before the Inauguration, Atlantic Progressive News reports. Before she passed away, King’s wife, Coretta Scott King, declared that gay marriage was a civil rights issue and denounced a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban it.

[mwei924]

1. Ok, who invited him?

Because he/she must be a bigot.

[Sebastian Doyle]

2. When reached for comment in Heaven, Dr. King's only response was .....

:puke:

[polichick]

3. All this attention because he has the biggest fundie church - so much for Dem values.

[EFerrari]

4. Boy, is that gross or what. I caught Melissa making a statement on CNN

this morning. What a display *that* was. And then, they got a black pastor to call us "McCarthy-like".

Somewhere, a nerve has been hit.

Keep pushing.

[IndianaJones]

5. reapin' the bennies of the sweet gig at the inaug. nt.

[rpannier]

7. Ain't it the truth nt

[Leo The Cleo]

6. Rick Warren is a HUGE Tool . . .

But I don't care what he does at the inauguration. Obama's policy choice will be what I look for. But having Warren,who is a tool for the republican party and couldn't even speak truth to power about Katrina, essentially give a public affirmation of this president seems like a kick in the ass to him. His colors are sort of showing. And that is something I don't mind. Watching this tool essentially give post election endorsement is a knife of thought. It right in Warren's big fat liar gullet.

[Starry Messenger]

8. Oh, the irony.

Well, Warren's fall will be that much more gratifying to watch. I think his love affair with the media is going to come to an end soon.

[polichick]

9. Maybe we should hire a detective so his inevitable secret sins can be uncovered asap.

[Starry Messenger]

12. I would totally donate to that effort.

}(

[Solon]

10. Coretta Scott King and her husband are rolling in their graves.

:(

[polichick]

11. Why in the world would he be chosen for this???

[Recursion]

13. Because he's not the absurd one-dimensional caricature we make him out to be here NT

[polichick]

14. So he's a civil rights activist?

[Recursion]

15. On a lot of issues, yes

And on a very important issue he's very wrong.

[polichick]

16. Which civil rights issues has he worked on? (I'm not kidding, haven't heard.)

[Recursion]

17. Poverty, health care, HIV/AIDS in the third world

Equal access to education. Lots of stuff.

[Connie_Corleone]

18. Maybe they like his work regarding poverty and Aids in Africa.

Some may or may not agree with him on gay marriage and abortion. But they agree with him on other issues so they invited him.

[polichick]

19. Wonder who actually invited him - the family, or someone else.

[Recursion]

20. Something tells me a lot of DU had never heard of him

He's been making waves -- big waves -- in the Christian right for years, challenging a lot of their assumptions and dragging them, kicking and screaming, to the table on a lot of social justice issues: the environment, poverty, health care, education, peace, immigration, you name it (except LGBT equality, about which he is still very wrong).

[polichick]

21. It's not just the gay rights issue - I don't like his views re women either...

...but I don't trust ANY fundie ministers, that I'll admit.

[Recursion]

22. Hey, me neither. But as I keep yelling here, Warren is not a fundamentalist

He's a conservative Evangelical. He's made waves precisely because he doesn't have the dispensationalist baggage of fundamentalists.

[polichick]

23. Even a conservative Evangelical or a Catholic priest would be too much for me...

So, is Warren someone you admire? Do you think Barack was right to invite him?

[Recursion]

25. Not sure about "admire"

I'm a liberal Christian so I disagree with a lot of his theology (about everything past the Nicene Creed). I thought "The Purpose-Driven Life" was kind of schmaltzy. I admire a lot of the work he's done on climate change, poverty, and AIDS. I think his statements about LGBT people are hurtful and wrong, and I hope he learns from this past week how hurtful they are and amends himself. I think his stance on choice is wrong, but I admire that he has at least stated willingness to work with us on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies (and incidentally, he's taken much more heat over that than Obama has taken for inviting him to the inauguration).

So it's a mixed bag. I admire that he stood up for the poor and the environment at a time when no other conservative Christian would do so, and took Dobson's and Falwell's double broadsides straight at him with no acrimony. I admire that he considers a divorce-ridden Christian population's attempt to keep gay people from marrying as hypocritical. For that matter I admire that he wants full legal equality of gay civil unions. I really wish he understood how much a lot of his language about this subject hurts people, and I fault him for not being more empathetic.

[polichick]

26. Thank you for such a thoughtful response...

I too hope that this outcry will help Warren see the pain he causes with his rhetoric. I doubt Obama foresaw the response he's gotten ~ but it sure has energized people, and that's a good thing.

[Neecy]

27. I have a guess

Isn't MLK's minister daughter pretty anti-gay? Maybe she picked him.

[polichick]

28. I didn't realize that. Yikes.

[Neecy]

29. here ya go

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/208154_martin17.html

[polichick]

30. Thanks - interesting, and sad.

[Bluenorthwest]

24. I assume this would be Bernice in action

The King family is what it is. May they reap as they sew.