12/19/08

Obama Rips Gays with Rick Warren Choice

President-Elect Obama decided that on the most important day in a decade, he would choose this guy to start the show:



Also nice:


Christian ministers have been used by every President to perform the inaugural invocation, but this guy--this guy--has been asked to perform the invocation at Obama's inauguration. Yeah, Obama--the hope-y guy! Even if you're not gay you can still hate Rick Warren for being against women's reproductive rights, and I personally hate him a little bit extra because he has also said stupid things about atheists like myself:
I could not vote for an atheist because an atheist says, 'I don't need God,' [Warren preached, according to the Los Angeles Times]. They're saying, 'I'm totally self-sufficient by [myself],' and nobody is self-sufficient to be president by themselves. It's too big a job.
The L.A. Times also reports this scariness:
At the center of [Warren's] operation is Saddleback Church, which occupies 120 acres in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains.

The church – with nearly 400 employees – features nine types of weekend services, including one in the cavernous 'worship center,' with seating for 3,200 and Warren’s image beamed on jumbo screens.

More than 180,000 pastors subscribe to his weekly “ministry toolbox” e-mail.

“The Purpose Drive Life,” published in 2002, helped create this reach. “It not about you,” Warren writes in the opening of the book, which has sold 35 million copies.
Now isn't that delightful?

While I will wait to see and judge how Obama handles universal healthcare (which I desperately need), the economy (which desperately sucks), and creating green jobs (which desperately are absent), I take this as a complete assault on the issue of LGBT acceptance, and I am deeply offended. I mean, sure, John McCain and MILFy McMooseBurger were much bigger douches, but still!

Sarah Posner of The Nation writes:
Obama had thousands of clergy to choose from, and the choice of Warren is not only a slap in the face to progressive ministers toiling on the front lines of advocacy and service but a bow to the continuing influence of the religious right in American politics.
Wonkette writes:
Basically, the Obama people have to argue that they’re being 'inclusive' by giving a platform to this terrible weenie [. . .]. Remember how Bill Clinton had a very 'inclusive' inauguration, with Maya Angelou and snake-charmers and NAMBLA all doing peyote and dancing around Ronald Reagan’s funeral pyre? That’s basically what Obama’s inauguration will be like, only with a diverse array of hairfaced hobbit cretins rubbing their nipples while they fantasize about gay marrying Jesus.
Matt Stoller of OpenLeft writes:
There is no three dimensional chess here or political calculation that makes sense on this point. If the argument is that sacrificing the rights of another group on the altar of political power is a reasonable choice, then you should remember that a society that callously denies one group their humanity can just as easily deny you yours.
If Obama fails to ditch Warren, I urge everyone to follow this passive protest: If you are lucky enough to be at the inauguration, turn your back on Rick Warren while he speaks.

Someone has already taken up this cause and created a website, turnyourbackonrickwarren.com. Let bigoted shithead Rick Warren know that we are past him--that he is behind us.

For more ways to speak out against Rick Warren, click here.

Chris Bowers of OpenLeft writes:
I do have to wonder though--why are opposing equal rights for LGBT, and why are hating atheists, still tolerated as mainstream opinions in America? The only reason why someone like Rick Warren represents 'bringing people together' rather than hatred of multiple large minorities in America, is because hatred of atheists and homosexuals are tolerated.
Sad but true.

(On a positive note, Faith in Public Life reports that marriage equality-supporter and civil rights icon the Rev. Joseph Lowery will be giving the benediction at the end of Obama's inauguration. Among many accomplishments, Rev. Lowery headed the Alabama Civic Affairs Association in the early 1950s--an organization devoted to desegregating public places. He founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) with MLK Jr. in 1957, and when the Selma to Montgomery March needed a delegate to speak to the governor with its demands in 1965, they chose Rev. Lowery. He also cofounded the Black Leadership Forum, a consortium of groups promoting black advocacy and the end of apartheid in South Africa. His other accomplishments will also astound you. So that makes this whole thing hurt a little less . . .)

3 comments:

Becky C. said...

Well, unlike the response to the outcry when Donny McClurkin was invited to appear with Obama at a campaign rally in South Carolina, it is not necessary for Obama to suck up to gays and lesbians anymore, so he is reaching out to a constituency he is more comfortable with--anti-gay bigots.

Actually of all the things Obama has not done or done to the gay and lesbian community, I consider this one relatively minor.

There was the failure to lift a finger to help defeat Prop. 8, the failure to support a Senate bill that would have removed one small part of the institutional discrimination of DOMA, and the recent announcement that repeal of "don't ask don't tell" would be months or years.

He has managed to go through the whole campaign, and gain enthusiastic support of gays and lesbians--but essentially stood up the gay press.

I can understand why gays and lesbians might, depending upon their political ideology, like the guy for his views on issues other than just gay specific stuff---but if the appeal is his position on the latter-- wake up---it is just the usual pander.

~Becky

Tasha said...

The best bit is when he says that its not a Christian matter, but a humanitarian one (or something like that). What an absolute retard! It's a shame that people like him give religious people a bad name.

Anonymous said...

I've been outraged by this disgusting gesture. Bad enough that gays/lesbians were actively taken away rights on the day he was elected...even worse is putting the guy who helped to strip away those rights front and center.

Disgusting.

I have a video on my blog today on Rachel Maddow's take...it seems we're on the same page.