Rick Warren's Church Sees Rounds Of Protests

LAKE FOREST, Calif. — Gay rights supporters marched outside the church of evangelical pastor Rick Warren, protesting his selection as an inauguration speaker.

About 100 protesters waved rainbow flags Sunday and voiced their displeasure at Warren for his opposition to gay marriage and at President-elect Barack Obama for choosing him to give the invocation at Tuesday's ceremony.

John Einsohn, one of the protest's organizers, tells the Orange County Register that Warren "preaches intolerance while pretending to be a friend of the gay community."

Warren did not deliver a sermon Sunday at Saddleback Church, and his chief of staff declined to comment.

Comments

[M1]

Hats off to the protestors! Heros...ev­eryone of them!

[helonias]

So when will Ricj adress this?

Leviticus 15:19

19 " 'When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening.

[MossyOak]

THIS is why I stopped going to church....

[swo68]

I have a hut in the backyard that I make my wife go in during that time.

[Spinzone]

If being gay is hard-wired, where and how is it wired? Is there a gene or two? Are there a certain way neurons and dentrites are set?

[helen]

Perhaps you should read Scientific American, or Psychology Today. Then you'll have a better understanding of the function of the brain, attraction, and orientation.

All you're trying to do is be flippant or toss red herrings..­.

[Spinzone]

American Psychiatric Association has stated "sexual orientation develops across a person’s lifetime".

[Opt1musPr1me]

Don't protest, he is part of your community but he is afraid to pull back the curtains.

[propitiousmoment]

1. Protests and in-your-face confrontations are more likely to alienate potential allies than convince them of the rightness of your cause. Emotionalism, especially negative, just invites a reactionary emotional response. And people who are emotionally invested in the argument are not going to change their minds. This is not helping, folks!

2. Does anybody really think that a person who takes religious mythology as literal truth is amenable to an honest and reasonable examination of their beliefs?

3. A church's belief system is not something that the body politic has any business engaging for good or ill. Outsiders have no business telling a church what to believe. If they want to believe and teach that the world was created in six days, it's none of our business.

4. What IS the business of the rest of us is whether that church meddles in politics, which is supposedly barred by the separation between church and state, and giving the churches tax exemption for refraining from trying to influence elections. Instead of protesting the churches, we should be petitioning to have their tax-exempt status revoked. That will shut them up more effectively than yelling at them.

It pains me to see this because I know what the response will be - they will just dig in deeper. They need to get the message in a non-threatening manner.

[bbbtmenw]

EITHER WAY I will continue to protest and encourage them.

The Courts will decide Marriage rights....­Our need is to make them do it sooner.

DOMA needs to be revoked, it is unconstitutional.

[propitiousmoment]

You're right, the courts will decide it, if the legislature or the electorate doesn't get around to it sooner, which is likely. Therefore, we should be holding protests outside of the courts and the legislators. The only thing protesting churches will do is alienate them further. And you're right again, DOMA needs to be revoked, but protesting churches will not get that done, either.

[tm22]

It is all about the BEHAVIOR not the BELIEF....

Everyone, repeat this phase over and over so that every time you see "bad behavior" from one of these fundamentalist, you can call out the behavior, not engage in their beliefs...­protest their "bad behavior"

...call it just like you would a child who throws temper tantrums, or breaks someone's toy, and when they break a real rule, take away their "toys" (tax exemption) and put them in "time-out" (jail)

[propitiousmoment]

Okay, I'll buy that, so the bad behavior here would be the call from these preachers for support of prop 8, right? I don't think getting into a screaming battle of competing scriptures is going to move them on that. Nothing is ever accomplished by that kind of thing. We need to take the civil protest to the civil level, i.e., try to get their tax-exempt status revoked, and work on the courts and the legislatures to bring the laws into conformity with the constitution.

[DrDidLittle]

To #1, maybe you could explain that to anyone who protested against, say, racism, male superiority, war, facism, Bushism, etc. Protests are given strength by the emotional involvement of people. They are not intellectual exercises.

To #2, yes, I am one of "anyone." Just because someone is enraptured by religious impulses doesn't mean he/she is lost forever.

To #3, you're right, except when that belief system is forced on the rest of us through legislation,. executive fiat or the will of the majority.

To #4, have you been paying attention to Bush's "faith-based" initiatives? That's much more than than the church meddling in politics -- it's politics embracing a particular sectarian religious position.

[propitiousmoment]

1. I think you have a valid point about emotional involvement, but protesting in front of a church about their beliefs is the same thing as a believer thinking he has made someone change tghier mind because they "testified" - I told them, so now they know. Tell them all you want, they aren't going to get it, unless you find a way past their psychological barriers (fear of what's different, the need to belong, fear of losing face by realizing you were wrong, etc.). Angry protests in front of their houses of worship is definitely not going to do that. And it's true that the other issues you mention were protested, but it was where they could do some good. How about the supreme court, the white house, the legislatures, legislators' offices, etc. Protesting in front of these churches is not going to change their minds, they are completely insulated from the message.
2. You're right, doesn't mean a person is lost forever, I am one who came out of fundamentalism after nearly 30 years, but the way to a person's mind is not through angry shouting of insults and demands for change.
3&4. The answer is still the same: work with the courts, the executive, and the legislature - take the question out of the churches' hands altogether.

[Bystander]

The protester in the photo challenges Pastor Warren to read Matthew 23. The protesters should read 1Co6:9 and 1Tim1:10.

[helonias]

But not a peep from Ricky about

Luke 16:18
Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. (So Says Jesus)

Lev 20:10
And the man that committeth adultery with [another] man's wife, [even he] that committeth adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

[Longbaugh]

Leviticus 20:13

[bbbtmenw]

That is more than half the country and my entire family....

Maybe we need to fight for that to become law to shut them up.

See who would vote for that or making divorce illegal...­..

[Bystander]

How do these verses relate to 1Co6:9 and 1Tim1:10?

[BartLA]

Warren said the gays are afraid of Christ and afraid of Christians. I guess he feels that gays can't be "Christian­s." And Rick, doesn't look like they're too afraid to get in your face to tell you to start acting like a true man of God.

[BartLA]

I liked the sign "Start acting like Christians­." Seems to sum it up well.

[ziasym]

Good. People who hold views like that of Warren's should be humiliated by their bigotry. More and more, straight people are joining in solidarity with our gay brothers and sisters. Discrimination against gays devalues all of us and all of our marriages.

[LynnW49]

Many are called, but few are brazen. Brazenly homophobic and wacker than Jermiah Wright.
See, for example Jonathan Turley's post on the fanaticism of Rick Warren:
http://jonathanturley.org/2009/01/17/getting-reich-with-jesus-rick-warren-appears-to-call-on-the-faithful-to-follow-jesus-like-nazis/
and the article and (video) he refers to in that post:
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2009/1/15/183634/970

[zbig]

Notice that by inviting Rick Warren, Obama has actually changed Warren--made him start being embarrassed about his previous bigotry.

[antaeus]

Are you completely high?

Warren has dug in his heels on the issue of marriage equality (which, after all, is what this is about--the problem is not one of giving gays doughnuts and water), going so far as to call opposition to the issue a "humanitarian" choice.

You are peddling the change propaganda. Warren gets a plum spot in the celebration, his views don't change at all, his followers feel that their opposition to marriage equality is validated, and gay bishop Gene Robinson gets frozen out of televised coverage. Status quo.

[StevenKeirstead]

The Saddleback church did alter their website to remove a statements that discouraged unrepentant homosexuals from coming to their services.

[JHCowboy]

I guarantee you that Rachel Maddow will be covering this major issue on MSNBC. Knowing her and Keith Olberman they won't let this get by and will be bringing whomever is responsible out in the open. It won't slide with Rachel or Keith.

[PoliticalAmazon]

KO has been largely silent on this. Maddow has dealt with it a few times, but she has been no great, loud voice, that's for sure.

Politcal show hosts have to be careful in this evironment when so many liberals/p­rogressive­s regard Obama as a "savior." I understand why they do: it's a very human reaction when your future looks desperate to latch on to anyone and blindly trust them if you have any hope that they can help you avoid a terrible future.

Even here at HuffPo, liberals/p­rogressive­s who caution others about blindly following Obama (or anyone), and who publicly disagree with some of Obama's policies and choices, are often called "trolls" and "Obama haters," "bitter Republicans," etc....eve­n if we are, by other posts, obviously Obama supporters ourselves and are Democrats/­liberals/p­rogressive­s.

[oldugly]

Good, this movement to turn gays into the new "n-word" has got to be fought and stopped.
If your church or book, If your god or pastor or preacher is telling you that gays are less human, less worthy of protection under our laws, then they are wrong for teaching that crap and you are wrong for having believed it, period...

do you hear me? If you preach or practice this you are wrong and no differant than those who defended slavery under the same pathetic escuses...­.

It sez "ALL MEN" not these or those men as decided by your pinhead religion.

[cfswift1]

Well I see many people are confused and plain wrong about what the Bible teaches...­.It teaches that homosexuality is a SIN. It dos not say to hate or discriminate based on a person's sexual preference. It does not teach gays are less human or less worthy of protection under laws. I do as an African American have a problem with comparing the gay agenda with struggle of African Americans in America's history...­...There is NO comparison­.....It diminishes the struggles of what Blacks have and continue to endure in America.

[invirginia]

WHERE is the media coverage of Gene Robinson giving the invocation on Sunday. This is the most UNDERPLAYED EVENT in the inaugural coverage. Media coverage is so lopsided toward Warren on this. Surely the reconciling, inclusive, intelligent voice of Gene Robinson is what should be focused on instead of the divisive hatemongering of Rick Warren. Shame on the media for missing this opportunity.

[PoliticalAmazon]

The LATimes had an article on the front page, above the fold.

I agree MSM coverage is lopsided on Warren--they have given him a complete free pass on his bi gotry, segregation and discrimination of GLBTs.

They have, most certainly given him a free pass on his despicable policies for the AIDS program he runs in Africa.

[christianmama4change]

I'm looking forward to Rick Warren's invocation tomorrow. Great day for America - Long Live President Barack Hussein Obama!!!

[jukesgrrl]

I still see no coverage on HuffPost regarding the fact that HBO failed to carry Bishop Robinson's beautiful invocation at the We Are One concert yesterday. This, after Obama extended himself to the Bishop in response to the criticism he received about Warren. Obama did his part -- why not HBO? Apparently to them, We Are One, unless one is gay.

[LittleGirl]

check again. It's been posted now. Obama CHOSE not to broadcast it.