Religious Hate-Mongers Protest Bishop Gene Robinson's Participation at pre-Inaugural Concert at Lincoln Memorial

Appearing at the primary public entrance to the pre-Inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial, representatives from a group calling itself "Brother Ruben and the Official Street Preachers" protested openly-gay Episcopal Gene Robinson's participation in the event.

With a diverse and otherwise joyous crowd of adults and children of all ages streaming by, the three protest participants shouted about hate, hell and "homo-sex" - using a megaphone to assert that "homosexuals are eternally damned" and "Jesus doesn't love homosexuals."

On its website, the group claims to "preach a loving message to sodomites. We tell them the truth, that unless they repent they shall likewise perish in Hell Fire!"

Although widely denounced by the passing concert attendees, the protesters' message and ahistorical Biblical justifications for their bigotry differ in tone only from the beliefs espoused by the Saddleback Baptist Church and its Pastor Rick Warren. Rick Warren will be delivering the official Invocation at the Inauguration on Tuesday.

Comments

[votewithyourfeet]

And FYI:

Rick Warren's Prayer:
Video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ3i9Uu1PJg

Transcript -
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jXNqyw4oiojN9JQHtitxwyEqJGhgD95R5DG80

Gene Robinson's Prayer:
Video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWWAnitUCw4

Transcript -
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/01/61576112/1

[votewithyourfeet]

According to USA Today :
"Many people did not hear what openly gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson said as he delivered the invocation at yesterday's We Are One inauguration concert. As Faith & Reason's Cathy Lynn Grossman reports, HBO's broadcast started after the invocation and Robinson's microphone wasn't turned on (or some speakers weren't working see update below) at first -- so many of those at the Lincoln Memorial didn't hear him either."

"Update/cl­arificatio­n at 11:40 a.m. ET: Jim Naughton of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington e-mails Cathy to say that it's his understanding it wasn't the microphone that was the problem. Some of the speakers in the crowd weren't working at first, he reports. He also believes it's not accurate to say "few people" heard the invocation, since many in the crowd of 400,000 did (though HBO viewers did not). Valid point. We've changed our reference at the top of this post to say "many people did not hear" the invocation"

[LeftRight]

I just recorded it last night on a rebroadcast. They included the invocation now!

[JT1616]

Greetings -

I work for HBO.

To be clear, this was a scheduling mistake made by the Presidential Inaugural Committee, who has already issued a statement acknowledging this issue.

HBO had a set block of time to be included in the official celebration - from 2:30pm until 4:30pm. Rev.Robinson went on at roughly 2:24pm. While we taped all day, we were only licensed to broadcast at our specific programming times.

We, obviously, have taken notice to this issue over the weekend and we are working with the Presidential Inaugural Committee to re-broadcast "We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration" to include the beautiful speech made by Rev. Robinson.

The first re-broadcast will be TOMORROW Jan 21st @ 11:30pm on HBO2. Additional dates will be announced.

Also, the feature will be made available online to ALL via HBO.com and we are working on making it available on Youtube.

Stay tuned...

[rudolfhern]

Hey HuffPost, why isn't the Bishop Robinson omission itself a story here?

[LeftRight]

I just saw it a couple minutes ago.

[LeftRight]

And the people asking for us to show inclusion to groups such as this........

[LynnW49]

I don't think HBO is entirely to blame. Team Obama is. If they cared about honoring their token invitation, Team Obama would have made a special effort to have the Robinson prayer be a part of thee actual show. They did not even bother to couple the prayer with the main event where it WOULD have been picked up. Although CNN and MSNBC never mentioned Robinson at all, I thought I caught a glimpse of Robinson at a podium in the background as they blathered away. . .At that point the crowd was just arriving to gather, and it was well hour before the main event. Obama's folks have made their second huge blunder/

[Leah McElrath Renna - Huffpost Blogger]

For those interested in following-up with HBO about the omission of Bishop Robinson from their programming, below is contact information:

HBO General Info
Phone [phone]
Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM until 5:00 PM Eastern Time

Quentin Schaffer
Executive Vice President
HBO Corporate Communications
Phone [phone]

Jeff Cusson
Senior Vice President
HBO Corporate Communications
Phone [phone]

[Leah McElrath Renna - Huffpost Blogger]

For those who are interested in seeing a video of Bishop Gene Robinson's prayer, here is a link:

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctpolitics/2009/01/gay_bishop_kick.html

Unfortunately, it has been confirmed by many as that Bishop Robinson's appearance was NOT aired on HBO, and it is also reported that the prayer was unable to be heard among those in the farther reaches of the crowd until about halfway through.

[rudolfhern]

OMG! The video has been REMOVED from the link!

[bbbtmenw]

Just another GOP "FAKE" Christian group. No real Christians following Christ's teachings would condone HATE.

[bbbtmenw]

PART 2

They further acknowledged Josh Groban and Heather Headley when each entered and appeared on stage with subtitled introduction and ignored that they were singing in front of the Gay Men's Chorus. HBO couldn't even acknowledge them.

When there is only one source to a media event, there needs to be fair and impartial editing and there should be full recognition.

I am horrified that once again "WE" are to stay in the background, ignored and unrecognized.

I am canceling my HBO service. I EXPECT AN APOLOGY from Barack Obama to all Gay people.

This is not an acceptable CONSOLATION PRIZE.

[sharont2001]

I am equally appalled and like Bishop Robinson, am betrayed and excluded from the Dream. We are One??? As long as we are not gay, it seems. Contrary to what all of us Obama-lovers want to believe, the Obama team is responsible for our exclusion. Here's a post from joemygod.b­logspot.co­m/2009/01/­no-bishop-­gene-robin­son-on-hbo­.html. Read it and weep:

"UPDATE IV: AfterElton.com has spoken to HBO, who says the decision to cut Robinson was made by the Obama transition team.

Contacted Sunday night by AfterElton.com concerning the exclusion of Robinson's prayer, HBO said via email, "The producer of the concert has said that the Presidential Inaugural Committee made the decision to keep the invocation as part of the pre-show." Uncertain as to whether or not that meant that HBO was contractually prevented from airing the pre-show, we followed up, but none of the spokespeople available Sunday night could answer that question with absolute certainty. However, it does seem that the network's position is that they had nothing to do with the decision."

[bbbtmenw]

PART 1

I am ANGRY....... HBO was the sole media outlet for the Inaugural Concert. They eliminated the opening ceremony and the opening prayer.

With so much controversy over the bigot Warren invocation during the inauguration on Tuesday, and the subsequent adding of gay Bishop Gene Robinson to open the inaugural activities with a speech and a prayer. It was horrifying to me that HBO chose not to air or recognize the opening prayer on their broadcast.

[Mingalls]

Not sure why HBO cut it.
They also didn't bother to identify the Gay Mens Chorus - who looked and sounded terrific! These guys are tough! Ten degrees below zero and no hats, coats or even gloves. Just their tuxes.
Here's the contact for HBO if anyone besides me wants to question their decision.

http://www.hbo.com/apps/submitinfo/contactus/submit.do

[SteveDenver]

Seems like the hate-mongers prevailed with HBO who omitted Robinson's prayer.
Shame on HBO, the prayer is on HBO and it's beautiful.

[norepublicanleftbehind]

They're HATE MONGERS, pure and simple.

[iwantpie]

As an Obama supporter, I would not call them Religious Hate-Mongers. They are just preaching what majority of this country believes.

[JulieKay]

As an Obama supporter, I would call them Hate-Mongers, but I would leave out the word Religious.

[JSDKoeln]

The majority of the country does NOT believe this. This is just fundamentalist hate.

[DEEMA]

Sorry, but they do, even the most liberal state in the world. And the moe you spew Obama hate the more they justify their anti-gay stance.