Warren PR Tour: Visits "Out Of the Closet" Thrift Store In West Hollywood

TMZ:

Rick Warren, the pastor who will deliver the invocation next month for Barack Obama, apparently is doing a little image-adjusting in West Hollywood.

We got this pic, taken yesterday at Out of the Closet thrift store. That's Warren on the right (naturally), his arm around Erol Sarabi, who is openly gay.

Read the whole story: TMZ

Comments

[nibblybits]

I hope y'all make as big of a fuss the next time the Pope comes to town, and we throw him a state dinner.

[JohnFromCensornati]

You speak as if we don't do that. We do. You just weren't paying attention because Obama wasn't involved.

[nibblybits]

If you do, didn't seem to do much good.

[AbbieXHoffman]

A state dinner doesn't equal the most coveted spotlight for a preacher. Yo do realize getting this spot means huge coverage (even without all this outrage) and tons of new followers-­-religious leaders foam at the mouth for this opportunity. Fussing over it makes sense to me and if I were gay I wouldn't want a man who has been so outspoken on Prop 8 to have the opportunity to recruit thousands more to a side that opposes gay rights.

[nibblybits]

Oh really? Can you name the invocation speaker from the last 4 inaugurations off the top of your head?

I didn't think so.

[RODERICK098]

There is another charlaton who has no understanding at all of the teachings of Jesus

[Beninn]

A state dinner is not Inauguration Day.

Inauguration Day is supposed to be a day absent of politics. It's a joyous celebration of peaceful transition of power.

The symbology of having one of the most divisive political activists on the stage with the entire US government delivering the invocation is an extraordinary message to everyone in the US and across the world about who and what your administration is.

This is not what people expected when they voted for Obama.

Think how grand it would have been had Obama invited clerics from all denominations of religious practice to join him on stage and speak prayers together. As an atheist, I could have gotten behind that and respected that inclusion of a religious practice into a state ceremony of my secular government.

I am profoundly disappointed in Obama, have been for some time now, but am not surprised. The closer he was getting to the Democratic nomination, the less he was sounding like his own man. By election day, the Barack Obama who took a chance in the early months of his campaign by promising populist governance had all but disappeared.

Daily, we hear about one far rightwing Republican after another being "delighted" with Obama's appointments and nominations. There hasn't been one progressive or liberal brought into his administration.

This is not "CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN".

[nibblybits]

Inauguration day is "supposed to be absent of politics"? Since when?

[nibblybits]

Sorry you're disappointed in Obama. The rest of the country doesn't seem to agree though, as the latest CNN poll shows that his approval rating has actually gone up. To 82, up 3 points from the beginning of December.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/24/obama.approval/index.html

Could it be possible that you're wrong?
Nahhhhh!

[RODERICK098]

nd I hope you are aware that this so called man of God says that women who are abused cannot divorce their husbands

[nibblybits]

Crazy, isn't it? And yet people still seem to love the guy.

[mergina]

What a pitiful display of a Closet Homosexual who openly hates gays.

[nibblybits]

And you base your accusation on what?

[RODERICK098]

All homophobes are closeted homosexuals-the more they hate the more they think people will not think they are gay- they are too stupid to realize it red flags them as homosexual. Many people have gaydar and this dude exudes it big time

[SaintZak]

At this rate he'll show up at the inauguration with chaps and a bare behind.

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

I wonder how long Warren would have stuck around if he were told there would be no photo-op?

[walleymr]

thank you

[Robert2664]

I ment to say if this is a christan nation Why are the only three laws based from the bible.

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

"The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian doctrine." -- John Adams

"The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy." -- George Washington

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church and State." - Thomas Jefferson

"Ecclesiastical establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption, all of which facilitate the execution of mischievous projects." - James Madison

"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.­" - James Madison

[rudyinbama]

It'S GETTING REALLY NUTTY -
Rick Warren wants us to know that he never said the things he said and the folks who say he said the things he said are slanderers and "Christoph­obic."
I can't say I'm sure what to make of it.
It's on Rachel, and it may take time to load. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#28373060

[Robert2664]

So this is a christan last i checked the only laws that are from bible are "Thou Shall Not Kill,Thou Shall Not Steal,And Thou sShall Not Lie".Now i'm willing to give this man a pass not because i think we should but because he deserves the benifit of doubt.But he still hasn't said he was sorry for comparing gays and lesbians to pediphiles and murderers.­And no one really has come up with a reason how glbt's being able to marry one of the same sex destroys a marriage.B­ecause if two men get married and your marriage falls apart it seems to me that your marriage was doomed to fail anyway.

[nibblybits]

I think everyone around here is working towards equal rights for all, and marriage for all. We just differ about how to get there.

[shockjock]

How many times did the Pres Elect say he would meet with rogue leaders without preconditions. How many times did he say he would always listen, especially to those he disagreed with. How many times did he say he wanted to be surrounded by dissenting views and a team of rivals. He spelled it out over a 2 year period. He has 4.5 rivals in his cabinet (Hill and Bill =1.5), and he has some substantive divergent views on some major policy issues with them. Most said some really unflattering things about him just months ago. And he forgives them,holds them close, and makes an effort to change their thinking.
This is a new kind of leadership. Evidently, very few on this board are ready for this much change.

[JohnFromCensornati]

And how many times do we have to say that we don't care who Obama "meets with", "listens to", or "reaches out" to? We object to him giving this outspoken homophobe the spotlight on a day that we very much wanted to celebrate with Obama.

[nibblybits]

That's just dandy. Just acknowledge that there are just as many "we" (even more, actually) who are fine with or approve the choice of Warren. It's not necessarily an agreement with his views.

[Flagrantlover]

I'd love to see him come out of the closet. Show us your little children. Or puppies!

What's your trip Warren?

Don't worry, we'll still give you donuts :-)))

EQUALITY FOR ALL, I say!!!

http://www.comingsoon.cz

Or watch it on Google:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-152460894465175765&hl=en

PERHAPS THE ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS FILM FOR ATHEISTS?

[Beninn]

How many hours does it take for the HuffPo minders to moderate 8 comments?

Every post I've written to the threads on Rick Warren has been stalled for hours, and they contain no bad language and no flames.

How can this censorship be justified on a blogsite which claims to be centrist?

[JohnFromCensornati]

You only think that you didn't use any "bad words". I assure you that you did. The words on the list are secret, but if you use one, your comment will never be posted. Try misspelling any word that could be controversial for ANY reason.

[RODERICK098]

including the name on the website

[johnnygoodwud]

give it a rest rick, you're trying to hard.

[Beninn]

In 2005, he interjected himself into the Terri Schiavo case.

On Hardball with Chris Matthews, March 23, 2005 Warren accused Michael Schiavo (Terri Schiavo's husband) of "rushing to pull the plug" after Terri Schiavo had spent fifteen years in a chronic, persistent vegetative state, and doctors gave her no chance of meaningful recovery, and after the courts agreed that she had not wanted to be kept alive in that condition.

Evangelicals turned Schiavo's final days at a hospice into a circus, insisting that she was merely "sleeping". An autopsy showed that Schiavo's brain had atrophied, she was blind and had been incapable of any thought or feelings for years, just as physicians had said, but as Rick Warren refused to believe.

Rick Warren called Michael Schiavo's decision to remove Terry Schiavo's feeding tube, "an atrocity worthy of Nazism," and suggested that Michael wanted Terri to die because, if she regained consciousness, she might have "something to say that he didn‘t want said."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7286474/

Rick Warren's participation in the inauguration is an outrage to more people than only those in the gay and lesbian community.

[nibblybits]

I see you are taking the Schiavo case very personally. Any particular reason? Are you saying that you don't forgive or forget anyone who sided with not pulling the plug on her? You must really hate her parents then.

[JohnFromCensornati]

Beninn does not have to h@te anybody in order to want tax-exempt con men to keep their superstitous nonsense out of our public policy.

[dm10003]

mus... n't... let... the... fin... gers... touch... the... gay.

[walleymr]

lol

[mcpizzie]

Obama has fulfilled his promise of unifying America - dems and repubs hate gays equally.

[harriettubman]

Hey, if a pastor is willing to go and understand more about a complex issue then I say kudos to him.

[Beninn]

He just filmed a segment on his website reiterating how he hasn't changed his mind on anything. He's still against gays marrying.

By including him in the inaugural ceremony Obama has elevated him to mainstream acceptance. Warren's not interested in listening and changing his mind. He's on a mission to change yours.

[Pennsanic]

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
~Lao-tzu