LGBT
Related: About this forumAntigay Pastor No Longer on Program for Inauguration
The presidential inaugural committee claims it knew nothing of the pastor's antigay sermon when it selected him to deliver the benediction, and now that pastor has withdrawn from the program.
ThinkProgress, which was first to uncover the sermon, reports that Louis Giglio in withdrawing didn't disavow the beliefs he laid out in that lengthy lesson from the mid 1990s, when he said being gay is a choice and a sin that merits eternal damnation and that Christianity can help gays can become straight. Instead, Giglio lashed out at those he said are trying to push an "agenda."
"Due to a message of mine that has surfaced from 15-20 years ago, it is likely that my participation, and the prayer I would offer, will be dwarfed by those seeking to make their agenda the focal point of the inauguration," Giglio said in a statement. "Clearly, speaking on this issue has not been in the range of my priorities in the past fifteen years. Instead, my aim has been to call people to ultimate significance as we make much of Jesus Christ."
This isn't the first time President Obama's selection to deliver an inaugural prayer has come under scrutiny for antigay comments, but it's the first time that scrutiny scuttled the program. Rick Warren was the selection in 2008, which riled LGBT activists because of the pastor's public support for Proposition 8. And Warren has gone on to make further antigay comments, most recently in an interview with Chelsea Clinton for NBC's Rock Center, in which he claimed it would be un-Christian to allow same-sex marriages.
http://www.advocate.com/politics/religion/2013/01/10/antigay-pastor-no-longer-program-inauguration
--------------------------
Better to get it right the second time around then not at all I suppose.
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)DryRain
(237 posts)It does seem like a pretty high bar to find pastors who have never said anything critical of gays before, right?
<<sarcasm>
Why do religious people think they should have anything at all to say about how other people live their lives, choose their lovers, decide to bear a child, or why should these religious folks think they have so much power and influence over so many OTHER very personal decisions and feelings and behaviors in life? Why do these religious leadership folks want so desperately to control the lives of other human beings living amongst them?
These religious folks, by and large, seem to me to be about 50-600 years behind the rest of society.
GMAB
Behind the Aegis
(53,956 posts)This is good news, but I will file it under "once is a mistake, twice is stupidity."
DryRain
(237 posts)Here's a 15 minute critique of Warren's famously popular nonsense book, The Purpose-Driven Life
MNBrewer
(8,462 posts)He boo-hoos about how others would try to make his appearance at the inauguration a focal point for their "agenda", but he was explicitly chosen, in part, for HIS agenda re: human trafficking. Why is it OK for him but not others....? other than hypocrisy.
Creideiki
(2,567 posts)From now on, any person who professes bigotry should be considered a "pastor" or a "minister" or a "bishop" whatever.
Fearless
(18,421 posts)It's really quite simple. No one has said that everyone who is a pastor is a bigot or everyone who is a bigot is a pastor.
Creideiki
(2,567 posts)MNBrewer
(8,462 posts)pastor (n.)
late 14c. (mid-13c. as a surname), "shepherd," also "spiritual guide, shepherd of souls," from O.Fr. pastor, pastur "herdsman, shepherd" (12c.), from L. pastorem (nom. pastor) "shepherd," from pastus, pp. of pascere "to lead to pasture, set to grazing, cause to eat," from PIE root *pa- "to tend, keep, pasture, feed, guard, protect"
Puts the followers of these "pastors" in the proper light. As sheep.
Count me among the goats, not the sheep, please.
johnnypneumatic
(599 posts)time for a sheep rebellion
Plantaganet
(241 posts)Crowman1979
(3,844 posts)Oh wait I forgot! He's Mr. Compromise/Bipartisanship! Frankly there's no point in reaching across the aisle when the other side is full of people who should be in an Insane Asylum.
Fearless
(18,421 posts)Old Union Guy
(738 posts)Separation of church and state applies to "nice" religions too.
Fearless
(18,421 posts)Granted I wouldn't mind if one just came and said: "I wish that all people will live in harmony and prosper." That would work too. Of course, the fundies wouldn't like that. Not without god and damnation involved.