Pastor Rick Warren defends invite to inauguration (is he feeling the heat?)

[Liberal_in_LA]

Pastor Rick Warren defends invite to inauguration

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jtKmkmVQ1z_N1D6U4Qv18s_K5LIQD956V2H00

Pastor Rick Warren defends invite to inauguration
By CHRISTINA HOAG – 49 minutes ago

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Under fire for opposing gay marriage, influential evangelical pastor Rick Warren said Saturday that he loves Muslims, people of other religions, Republicans and Democrats, and he also loves "gays and straights."

------------

Although Warren has said that he has nothing personally against gays, he has condemned same-sex marriage.

"I have many gay friends. I've eaten dinner in gay homes. No church has probably done more for people with AIDS than Saddleback Church," he said in a recent interview with BeliefNet. But later in the interview, he compared the "redefinition of marriage" to include gay marriage to legitimizing incest, child abuse, and polygamy.

[enigmatic]

1. What an utter piece of shit this guy is

Ugh.

[Heidi]

2. How can he in good conscience deny human rights to those he loves?

If he loves "gays," how can he compare homosexuality to criminal behaviors like incest and pedophilia?

There is absolutely no evidence that this man loves anything about "gays." He has risen to power in the evangelical movement on the backs of our GLBT brothers and sisters by using the oh-so-frightening specter of "teh gays" to stir xenophobic contempt among the flock that lines his pockets.

[silverojo]

14. I don't think marriage is a "human right"

It's a legal agreement.

That said, I think gays and lesbians should be able to enter into this legal agreement.

[Heidi]

15. The UN considers marriage a human right when it's between a man and a woman.

See Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Our GLBT brothers and sisters should have their right to marry _now_. We can get churches out of the business of ratifying legal contracts later.

Article 16
Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/eng.htm

[meowomon]

3. Apparently he feels the heat whenever he sees a beautiful woman

"I'm naturally inclined to have sex with every beautiful woman I see. But that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do."

He's a pig.

[rpannier]

4. I heard some his best friends are Asians

What a great guy

[Political Heretic]

5. The "no church has done more on AIDS" line is more irritating to me than "I have gay friends"

Because it just reinforces the notion that gay=AIDS and AIDS=gay, which is not even remotely close to the truth.

I'm down with gay people; my church does stuff for AIDS :wtf:

[Muttocracy]

7. that jumped out at me too. nt

[MikeE]

18. I know, that is sooo 1980's

Of course his views on gays and women are 1880's, so at least he's got some kind of a trend going

[Jamastiene]

6. What a prick.

:puke:

[Skittles]

8. "I've eaten dinner in gay homes"

well THAT'S a new one

[DainBramaged]

9. I wonder what he had for dinner?

I wonder if he ate dinner in a Muslim home too? Maybe a Hindu home? How about a Wiccan home? Maybe broke bread with the cast of Heroes?

[Political Heretic]

10. The should have fed him...what's that weird english dish... spotted dick

....maybe I just have a dumb sense of humor.

[DainBramaged]

27. AH, good one

[shadowknows69]

20. He made cocoons with Mohinder the Bug Man!

[ColbertWatcher]

12. What is it with this guy and food!?

Is he trying to force a "break bread" meme on everything, or is he substituting food for an emotion he cannot express?

WTF is with this guy!?

He needs to explain his fringe cult.

[peekaloo]

29. i think Freud (or maybe a cousin) labeled this as "self-loafing".

:hide:

[ColbertWatcher]

31. Okay. It has been posted on the internets, it has come to pass! n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

11. He's got two feet and they both can fit in his big mouth.

Why doesn't someone ask about how he feels about women?

Science?

American law and he and his Dominionist cult want to turn us into a theocracy?

[Swamp Rat]

13. "Hohohoho!! ... Jee panwa waffmula chone patogga che lickmoomoo gayjedai dome .. ha hah!!"

"Mmmm... Jee-jee yocola gocola gee hotsa yafulkee.... huhuh... Jee bolla tchuta noleeya myo pankpa! HAHA!!" :D

[Oak2004]

16. You know what strikes me about Warren's (and Obama's) justifications?

It's all about them. Both justifications go on and on about how wonderful they each believe they are to the people who are saying, loudly, "we are hurt and angry at what you are doing".

Now I may not be the greatest expert ever on social interaction, but even I know that the one thing you don't do when someone says "what you have just done hurts me" is give them a lecture on how wonderful you are and how they owe it to you not to have been hurt by you. That kind of response further infuriates people.

What you do in that situation is you stop and listen, find out why they have been hurt, and try to resolve it. Maybe it's a misunderstanding. Maybe you've been an ass. Maybe they're being an ass. But whatever you do, you don't wax glorious in your own accounts of your munificence towards them.

The two of them are just full of themselves over this.

Note: I've been full of myself, too. I wouldn't recognize the act of worshipping at one's own feet if I hadn't caught myself doing it more than once. It's a human frailty to defensively revert to egotism when one is criticized, rather than to listen to the criticism. Given that they are human I expect that they will sometimes display human frailties (in the case of Warren, that's "almost always will display human frailties", coupled with a heaping helping of sociopathy). That said, frailties pointed right at you suck.

[EFerrari]

17. There definitely is something there. They both are usually "good"

with people and relationships and they hugely miscalculated on this gig. It's hard to know you screwed up at something you think you do well.

[noamnety]

28. I don't think Warren is usually "good" with people

Based on his statement that when he sees beautiful women he wants to screw them all, I'd say he's a scum-sucking egotistical asshole who objectifies people; he first and foremost thinks about using them for his own purposes. Then he manages to repress those thoughts in public - because he's such a noble heroic figure, I guess, and a devoted child of god - and then he makes a outward pretense of treating women as humans instead of receptacles.

[chimpymustgo]

21. Excellent observation.

[shadowknows69]

19. He ate dinner in Gay homes? WITH GAY FOOD???

And you weren't infected Rick?? Truly God must be shielding you. Unbelievable.

[Stinky The Clown]

22. Oh man ... he's okay in my book. He has all of Melissa Ethridge's albums

:eyes:

"Toward the end of his speech on Saturday, Warren also talked about singer Melissa Ethridge, who performed earlier in the evening. Warren said the two had a "wonderful conversation" and that he is a huge fan who has all her albums.

The openly lesbian gay rights activist even agreed to sign her Christmas album for him, he said."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081221/ap_on_re_us/warren_speech

What a fucking turd.

There is no difference between him and Falwell except for the tone.

[1776Forever]

23. One of Warren's protégés in Uganda - Ssempa rewarded for anti-gay crusade

But why are you picking on me you ask Ricky boy? How about this for starters and then lets go into the way you think women "belong in their places":

Monday, September 15, 2008
Ssempa rewarded for anti-gay crusade

http://gayuganda.blogspot.com/2008/09/ssempa-rewarded-for-anti-gay-crusade.html

Sunday, 14th September, 2008

By Joyce Namutebi

DR. Martin Ssempa, a pastor at Makerere Community Church, has received an award for his fight against homosexuality.

Ssempa and his wife Tracey received the plague from Apostle Alex Mitala, the overseer of the National Fellowship of Born Again Churches in Uganda.

This was during the “Great Marriage Celebration” organised by the National Association of Marriage Enhancement in conjunction with the National Fellowship of Born Again Pentecostal Churches in Uganda at Nakivubo Stadium over the weekend.

Mitala led hundreds of couples who converged at the stadium from various parts of the country into a prayer for Ssempa to continue being the torch-bearer in the fight against the vice in Uganda.

“You are not fighting alone. We are with you,” Mitala said.

He said homosexuality was one way of making the world extinct.

“When men marry each other and women marry women, clans and tribes become extinct,” Mitala noted.

Bishop Michael Mugerwa, the organiser of the celebrations, urged couples to continue the fight against homosexuality, saying marriage was made for man and woman.

Ssempa thanked the Christians for standing by him and said he was encouraged by their support to continue with his campaign.

He proposed the establishment of a national marriage alliance to counter homosexuality.

Ssempa said the alliance would also discuss problems concerning marriage in Uganda.

Dr. Joseph Serwadda, the patron of Churches in Communities, asked the Government to consider declaring a national day for married people.

Pr. Robert Kayanja of Lubaga Miracle Centre Cathedral urged husbands to listen to their wives, saying that God can use them to bring blessings in their families.

............

And then there is this on Warrens views on Women from NOW:

National NOW Press Statement:

http://www.now.org/press/12-08/12-18.html

President-elect Obama: We HOPE you will CHANGE your mind
Statement of National Organization for Women (NOW)
December 18, 2008

Millions of people are finalizing their plans to travel to Washington, D.C. on January 20, 2009, to be part of your historic inauguration as the 44th president of the United States. We are all hoping to relive the joy of election night when we stood side by side believing that, together, we can change our country and our world for the better.

Today, we are disheartened that one of the voices that may be privileged to be part of this historic moment is that of Rick Warren. His delivering the invocation would be an insult to all of us, women and men, who support women's right to self-determination. His presence is offensive to all of us, gay and straight, who support equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people.

We understand your desire to engage people from opposing sides of many issues. But dialogue requires treating our opponents with respect. Rick Warren has compared abortion to the Holocaust and stated that he would not vote for a "Holocaust denier." He implies that those of us who support abortion rights are equivalent to Nazis.

Rick Warren worked to take away the rights of LGBT people in California by supporting Proposition 8, calling it a "moral issue that God has spoken clearly about" and stating the "homosexual marriage is one of the five issues that are not negotiable." He calls LGBT people "unnatural."

Words do matter, President-elect Obama. Words lifted you to the White House and all of us to a place where we felt included in your vision. By choosing Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at your inauguration you have deeply offended progressive people who worked and voted for you in record numbers. This is not the tone we hoped you would set on this historic day - and giving a platform to a messenger of intolerance does not send a message of acceptance and change.

There are limitless opportunities for your administration to work with people who do not agree on every issue, but who nonetheless agree that we must end poverty, address climate change, and achieve human rights for all. We are deeply disappointed that you have made a different choice and hope that you will reconsider Rick Warren's inclusion in this important and historic celebration.

President-elect Obama, you can still select a minister who will speak to our collective vision for hope, change and the promise that we will all be part of this great country, and we urge you to do just that.

...........

It just keep getting worse and worse! Is anyone listening?
:shrug:

[Orsino]

24. So Warren gets a bigger national platform...

...and we get no sign of compromise from him. Bad deal.

[Hepburn]

25. What the fuck is a "gay home?"

And how the fuck is it different than my "straight home?"

:eyes:

Warren = IDIOT!

A home is a home is a home. Homes are NOT sexually oriented. When is the last time anyone went into a furniture store and there were "gay" and "straight" furniture sections of the store?

GMAFB...the more Warren opens his homophobic mouth, the more it becomes certain that he should NOT be allowed to speak.

JMHO

[Fumesucker]

26. Note that fifteen percent of the population was left out of Warren's statment..

There is a higher percentage of the non-religious than gays and Muslims put together.

Warren will *never* recognize us and treat us with respect.

And frankly I'll be surprised if Obama does either.

[Mari333]

30. what a putz. n/t