Pastor Rick Warren Likens Gays To Pizza

'Just because I like pizza it doesn't mean I should marry it"

In an interview with Ann Curry on NBC's Dateline, Evangelist Preacher, Rick Warren, who is set to deliver the invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration, equated gays getting married to eating pizza everyday.

"Mr. Warren's relating gays to pedophiles, incest and gay marriage to his incessant craving of sex with women he was not married to caught me a little off guard.," said Ms Curry, "But after the camera stopped filming he went on to make the comparison of gays to pizza, I must say, I was startled."

"Just because I like pizza it doesn't mean I should marry it," said Warren. "Biologically, I am predisposed to enjoy the immaculate melding of mozzarella cheese, red sauce and thick crust baked to tasty perfection. [ad#med-square] But that doesn't mean I should enter into a lifelong commitment with Sicilian or plain, nor bed it down, nor READ THE REST OF THE HOT PIZZA, NOT SO HOT SELECTION FOR INVOCATION DETAILS HERE.

Award-winning TV writer, Steve Young is author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful" (greatfailure.com) and blogs at the appropriately named, steveyoungonpolitics.com.

Comments

[0emissions]

Why is it that these people holding beliefs like Warren's, ignore all the statistics on failed marriages amongst their heterosexual crowds.
Why do they ignore the number of child abuse cases in homes? Emotionally stared children and spouses?
Even the Mormons had problems, right?
The United Church of Canada was the first in Canada to promote the tights of the gay/lesbian community.
They conduct marriages. They view homosexuality as a "natural deviant".
They also view Jesus as a radical activist.
I am quite sure that should Jesus, appear he would have some heavy scolding for these evangelicals.
As for who leads the prayer, I suggest you do what we do in Canada: we ask a First Nations person, whose TERRITORY we are on to lead us in a prayer. We love it!
Your second choice should probably be a Quaker.

[UCCGal]

Obama's Trinity UCC in Chicago is part of a denomination that has been ordaining homosexuals since the 1970's, a sister denomination to the United Church of Canada. Besides the exclusion of gays, Warren is not in favor of ordaining women. There are so many great clergy, conservative and liberal, laboring in anonymity that Obama could have elevated through the honor of giving the invocation. Why he chose a self-serving blowhard like Warren, I will never understand.

[fsmith]

So, why does Canada attribute ownership of the Territory to a First Nations person?

You don't know they were there first - they just happened to be there when Europeans arrived - and you're defining squatter's rights as fundamental rights.

Leave it to (some of) the Canadians to take the simplistic path, then pat themselves on the back.

[bryand1]

As far as I can see, God (however one interprets the All-Mighty) doesn't need evangelicals or Presidents or even the average citizen to approve or disapprove of his creations...In a field full of blue flowers, a small patch of purple flowers is seen as beautiful, unique, wonderfully diverse...but for many, homosexuality is seen as something wrong, something misguided. We recognize and celebrate diversity in nature yet even with thousands of years of proof that homosexuality has always been here and occurs all through nature, we still have way too many human beings who judge and condemn God's creations: the gays. When I listen to Rick Warren speak, I hear a small mind repeating dogma and interpreting and reinterpreting several different versions of the Bible, the most famous piece of fiction ever. He may be a leader but his flock consists of mostly small frightened minds.

[Critizen]

No, Rick, you can marry pizza pie, but you can't marry hot dogs.

[Coinyer101]

i'll save my 'celebrating' for after i see results. i'll not be watching.

[Seb348]

PROTEST AT OBAMA'S INAUGURATION!

IMAGINE IF AN ANTI-SEMITE OR RACIST WAS SPEAKING AT GWB'S INAUGURATION,
THERE WOULD BE AN OUTCRY.

WHY IS IT OK FOR GAYS?

Protest Obama. Do it now so that he'll think about messing with gays next time

Hillary 2012

[JackJohnson]

Well, we know where YOU'RE coming from, don't we "Hillary 2012".

[citizensrus]

HuffPost's Pick

There is much he needs to learn. He doesn't understand if he is equating the relationship of love between two homosexuals to his love for pizza. He's just ignorant and this could be by choice. However, he does seem to have an open mind. He said..let's talk. Well, let's have that talk. I'd like to educate him.

[BartLA]

An open mind? Really? Or is it just rhetoric?

I see that Rick Warren talks out of both sides of his mouth. He says he's for full equal rights for gays but does not want to change the definition of marriage to include same-sex. To give gays full equal rights requiring changing the status quo. It's that way with civil rights.

He says he never equated gay marriage with incest, polygamy and pedophilia, yet it's on video. He then says those who've said he made such a statement are liars, slanderers, and have "Christ-ophobia" and fear of Christians. Obviously he assumes no gays love Christ or are Christians.

So good luck educating him. I think Rick wants to hold onto his beliefs as he simultaneously tries to spin everything to make himself either look like a victim or not bigoted.

[fsmith]

I'm still at a loss as to why we're limiting marriage to only two people. If you're going to break down long standing boundaries, why stop at homosexuals?

After all, there is no "rule" that multiple people can't all be in love, and create a strong family environment - 2 arguments used to support gay marriage.

Communal style living, properly implemented, could be more cost effective and environmentally friendly than the simple 2-adult family approach.

If you're pro gay marriage, then defining that as the new "limit" seems arbitrary, simplistic, and unsupportable.

[BalancedEgg]

First doughnuts and now pizza. There seems to be a pattern emerging with Mr. Warren. Remember Rick, the first step is admitting you have a problem.

[BartLA]

LOL! Exactly.

[usedtowander]

Change you can (not) believe in.

[bigbillgio]

BOYCOTT THE INAUGURATION!!

[wdw505]

yeah that will happen....

[ProgressDon]

Oh boy, here we go again

[bigbillgio]

Explain why we shouldn't.

We need to send a message!

[bigbillgio]

BOYCOTT THE INAUGURATION!!!

Send a message

[Jezreel]

Please do carry out your plans to boycott. That way the rest of us can enjoy the celebration.

[JohnFromCensornati]

So, you're really into the "unity" thing, huh?

[JoeSausage]

Hey Rick, here's the pepperoni!

[TheAbidingDude]

Rick Warren's pizza comment may be valid for him but not for everyone. I don't think Rick has been appointed God or elected President of the United States and I doubt he ever could be. Being asked to give the Invocation at the Inaugural of Barack Obama's ascent to the Presidency may be appropriate since the Invocation is one of the last acts of the former intolerant administration and the Benediction by Joseph Lowery a civil rights leader is the first act under the new Obama administration.

Perhaps Barack Obama had the right idea by defining for all to see it's time for the old intolerance of Rick Warren to give way and open up to the tolerance of Joseph Lowery and begin a dialogue.

Should we start to see the intolerance of otherwise good people like Rick Warren as Corned Beef Hash something I can definitely do without because that is my choice - I don't like it, won't eat it and definitely will not marry it - but then I won't stop others from loving their Corned Beef Hash.

[PoliticalAmazon]

"Being asked to give the Invocation at the Inaugural of Barack Obama's ascent to the Presidency may be appropriate since the Invocation is one of the last acts of the former intolerant administration..."

-----

Oh, that would be grand if it were true. But it's not.

Warren's invocation will be one of teh FIRST acts of the Obama administration.

And I think hoping that Obama is trying to make Warren see that all intolerance should give way is really off base.

Inaugurations are micromanaged, scheduled to 30-second increments. Every person who will be seen as part of the inauguration is vetted and cross-vetted to see that the person will not give the wrong or a bad impression about the incoming president. The inauguration is a chance for the incoming president to show the world what he envisions for America, what his values and plans are.

And he's having Warren--who successfully worked to take away the rights from a minority group, and who believes in segregation--give the invocation?

The only way your theory would work is if you could see Obama inviting David Duke or Farakhan to give the invocation. But that would NEVER happen. So it isn't about inclusion and showing that discrimination and segregation are wrong...it's about exclusion and showing that discrimination and segregation against GLTs is right.

[fsmith]

"...the Invocation is one of the last acts of the former intolerant administration..."

That would be true if Bush selected the person giving the invocation, but since that's clearly not the case, you're demonstrating a bad case of knee-jerk bias and uninformed-itis.

Intolerance isn't limited to Conservatives, and tolerance isn't owned by Liberals. Some of the most intolerant people I know are Liberals. They're oppressive in their arrogance, and unwilling to accept differing points of view.

What a shock.

[Zippy64]

Thanks god he left off the Pepperoni! Leviticus would be against that as much as it is against the cheeseburger .

[mommadona]

Rick is slippin.

Keep him talkin'.....

"Lot was the salt of the earth...that's why he bedded his own daughters...it's in the bible so it's GOTTA be good...."

Faith-based political swill.....keep goin' Rick.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSdI8ag1k0A

[idreamwideyed]

that poor, poor child...

[bobtr900]

Hypocrisy is rampant in the Republican party and especially among the Theocons who control it.
These people never stop judging others and yet are so corrupt themselves. This kind of hypocrisy and hate mongering goes right back to Reagan and the two guys who put him in the WH, Jerry Falwell and the Pope(my religion).

I, once an apolitical person, have been scandalized and radicalized by my religion(pedophile priests) and the Republican government (the Republican agenda of 'death for profits). I now reject both.

[wdw505]

good for you...

[fsmith]

Hmm...so, there's no hypocrisy in the Democratic party? We must read two different versions of the news.

As for the Republican agenda being "death for profits", that's simplistic, emotional, and inaccurate.

As I recall, the people who led us into the real mess in Vietnam were Kennedy and Johnson - both Democrats.

And for the record, I've always been registered as an independent. I don't buy into the dogma from either side.