Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Exodus 20:16
(paraphrased by InterstateQ!) Pastor Ric’s News & Views: Marriage Part 1
…what do you really believe about gay marriage? Let me just lay it out for you, my members. My views have not changed in 30 years. I’ve been accused of equating gay partnerships with incest and pedophilia. I believe no such thing. You’ve never heard me in 30 years talk like that.
I’ve in no way ever taught that homosexuality is the same as a forced relationship between an adult and child or between siblings. I’ve never taught that in 30 years. I understand why people think that because of a recent BeliefNet interview. In that interview I named several other relationships such as living together, a man with multiple wives, a brother and a sister relationship, adults with children or common-law relationships. I don’t think any of them should be called marriage. There should only be one definition: one man, one woman.
WARREN: The issue to me, I’m not opposed to that as much as I’m opposed to redefinition of a 5,000 year definition of marriage. I’m opposed to having a brother and sister being together and calling that marriage. I’m opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that marriage. I’m opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage.
BELIEFNET: Do you think those are equivalent to gays getting married?
WARREN: Oh, I do! For 5,000 years, marriage has been defined by every single culture and every single religion – this is not a Christian issue. Buddhist, Muslims, Jews – historically, marriage is a man and a woman.
See, Rick, we have this thing called The Internet which allows us to look up what you said in the past. If you did not say these things then there might not be a controversy. Now you have the gall to attack us: AmericaBlog
Merry Christmas from Rick Warren! You’re all hateful, evil, and not even Christian!
Barack Obama’s good buddy Rick Warrenrecorded a video yesterday, talking about the outcry over his being chosen to given the invocation at Obama’s swearing in. And it’s a doozie. Warren’s big mouth, and apparent ego, is pretty much guaranteeing that this controversy will continue all the way up until the inauguration and beyond.
In the new video, Warren accuses gays of “hate speech,” of launching “hateful attacks” against him, and he then says that gay and lesbian Americans have “Christ-ophobia,” a clear effort to mock the term “homophobia.” He goes on to explain that gays are “afraid of any Christian,” suggesting that gay and lesbian Americans – gay and lesbian Obama voters – are not Christians. He then goes on to call gays criticizing him “evil.” All this from a man who compared gay marriage to incest and pedophilia, and who explicitly bans “unrepentant gays” from his church membership.
Now we find out that you haven’t really had a change in heart of welcoming gays and lesbians but you’d rather clarify with more condemning language. What can Barack Obama do to mitigate this situation? Nothing at this point. Either he rescinds his invitation to Pastor Warren and faces the ire of the evangelical community or he keeps Warren and alienates his base supporters.
Yesterday it was reported that Saddleback had taken down it’s unwelcome message to “unrepentant homosexuals” to its church, which some hailed as being a victory.
Today, Saddleback Church clarified for Queerty what was really happening.
“I wanted to make sure you were aware that the Q & A addressing homosexuality on the Saddleback Church Web site has not been permanently removed, but rather repurposed for clarity. I know your readers have noticed the change.
Attached is the audio response from Saddleback Associate Pastor Tom Holladay regarding the question, “What Does the Bible Say About homosexuality – is it a sin?” that will be posted later this morning on the site.
Wanted to make sure you were aware of this. Thanks!” – Kristin Cole, Saddleback PR
Our friend over at BlogActive and PageOneQ was invited today to debate Rev. Rivers (a noted homophobe from Boston) on the Rick Warren/President-elect Barack Obama fiasco.
So here’s where we part ways. While we think that yes, it’s a good thing that the website has changed, that’s not a victory. All he did was have the divisive phrase taken down from the Saddlebackwebsite. What would be a victory, not that we’re expecting as much, would be a public apology from Rick Warren or Barack Obama about the whole mess.
We also don’t think it’s necessary to have Rick Warren sit down with the “leadership” to discuss this issue. He believes what he believes and nothing we say will change that. The only thing that can happen is hopefully he’ll become more aware of what his statements do to the community at large and what people see when they look upon him as a leader of the Christian evangelical faith community and preach more tolerance. On that note, this blogger won’t be holding his breath.
I’ve been scratching my head for several days now, trying to figure out why practically every news story about Rick Warren explains that he’s not anti-gay, and in fact quite progressive and moderate, because he’s worked on AIDS in Africa. Well, bully for him. But there are two problems there:
Well here we go again. Did we really just vote for “business as usual” in Washington or did we vote for change? I’m starting to think the former.
It was reported today over at Pam’s House Blend that Rick Warren, the mega-pastor at the mega-church who wrote the mega-best-selling book The Purpose Driven Life, has been asked by the Obama transition team to do the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration on January 20th, 2009.
This is the same Rick Warren who has, on numerous occasions defended the passage of Proposition 8 in California, and compared gays and lesbians to zoophiles, pedophiles and polygamists.
(listen around the 2:10 mark)
The last time the President-elect was confronted with this sort of situation it was almost forgivable because the person was rather obscure. In particular I’m talking about the Rev. Donnie McClurkin, an ex-gay pastor who would sing at Obama campaign rallies.
