Rick Warren is an insulting choice

[IndianaGreen]

The author was Rachel Maddow's guest tonight.

Rick Warren is an insulting choice

Preacher Rick Warren's views are simply too extreme for Obama's supporters.
By Katha Pollitt
December 22, 2008

To understand how angry and disappointed many Democrats are that Barack Obama has invited evangelical preacher Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inaugural, imagine if a President-elect John McCain had offered this unique honor to the Rev. Al Sharpton -- or the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. I know, it's hard to picture: John McCain would never do that in a million years. Republicans respect their base even when, as in McCain's case, it doesn't really return the favor.

Only Democrats, it seems, reward their most loyal supporters -- feminists, gays, liberals, opponents of the war, members of the reality-based community -- by elbowing them aside to embrace their opponents instead.

Most Americans who've heard of Warren know him as the teddy-bearish, Hawaiian-shirted head of the Saddleback megachurch in Orange County and the author of "The Purpose Driven Life." Perhaps they also know he's the rare right-wing Christian pastor who sometimes talks about poverty and global warming and HIV. His concern for those issues has given him a reputation as a moderate and has made him the darling of Democratic Party think tanks, ever hoping to break the Republican lock on the white evangelical vote.

But on the signal issues of the religious right he is, as he himself has said, as orthodox as James Dobson.

And as inflammatory. Warren doesn't just oppose gay marriage, he's compared it to incest and pedophilia. He doesn't just want to ban abortion, he's compared women who terminate pregnancies to Nazis and the pro-choice position to Holocaust denial. (Hmmm ... If a fertilized egg is as precious as a born Jewish human being, does that mean a born Jewish human being is only as valuable as a fertilized egg?)


Speaking of Jews, Warren has publicly stated his belief that they will burn in hell, presumably along with everyone else who hasn't accepted his particular brand of Christianity (i.e., the vast majority of people in the world). And forget about evolution -- the existence of homosexuals, he's argued, disproves Darwin. And while we may not know how old the Earth is, the Saddleback website assures us that dinosaurs and humans coexisted.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-pollitt22-2008dec22,0,4243781.story

[Captain Hilts]

1. Well said. nt

[Hepburn]

2. K&R...

...I am truly offended by Warren being asked to speak.

[GarbagemanLB]

3. Another person who never bothered actually reading up on Obama's philosophy.

[IndianaGreen]

5. Perhaps you should have enlightened us, rather than pawn him as the next Messiah.

:eyes:

[GarbagemanLB]

7. Messiah? Nah. I'm agnostic.

I do read and research the candidates, though.

Some of you should try it sometime.

[Bluebear]

6. You really get off on this, don't you?

[GarbagemanLB]

8. Yes, it is sort of overwhelming having every other fucking thread on DU be about Warren.

[IndianaGreen]

9. Easy solution: Have Obama dump Warren!

Else be prepared for an endless number of threads between now and Jan 20. Keep in mind that Warren is keeping the controversy alive by referring to his critics as Chritophobes, as he did this past Sunday.

[Bluebear]

10. You certainly do post on every one of them. And always pro-Warren.

[GarbagemanLB]

12. Are you going to call me a bigot-supporter now? Or how about 'bigot-enabler'?

The guy is a tool, but the level of outrage on DU is pathetic.

[TahitiNut]

13. Well, it's only 1,211 active threads in GD and GD:P ... so far.

:shrug: 335 in GD and 876 in GD:P

:eyes:

[cliffordu]

15. And FIFTEEN PEOPLE showed up at Saddleback for the big protest last weekend.

Sale at Saks, dontcha know.

[Lorien]

4. Ugh. The more I learn about Warren, the more disgusted I become

from the article:

Or take marriage. At his Saddleback Church, wifely submission is official doctrine: The church website tells women to defer to their husband's "leadership" even when he's wrong on important issues, such as finances. Never mind if she's an accountant and he flunked long division, or if she wants to beef up the kids' college fund and he wants to buy shares in the Brooklyn Bridge. The godly answer is supposed to be "yes, dear." Is elevating this male chauvinist how President-elect Obama thanks women, who gave him more than half his votes?

Vile and disgusting dark age misogynist!

[IndianaGreen]

11. I suppose Obama wants to reach out to wife abusers

to include them in the mix.

:puke:

[AtomicKitten]

14. Warren is a jackass. No doubt about it.

And since Warren doesn't have the good sense to shut his pie hole, spreading his crazy all over the internets, I'm thinking Obama might want to ixnay on the igotbay and have Warren slowly back out of the room. That seems the even-handed thing to do since this has evolved into Rev. Wright Redux.

[SwampG8r]

16. well said

im not happy he is speaking but my wife says its easy to kill 2 minutes thinking about your taxes
whatever that means

[TexasObserver]

17. Yes, it was an insulting choice.

Obama failed in this selection. He failed to meet his standards.

And contrary to the GARBAGE someone posted higher up in the thread, I've read his books and understand his philosophy. He never said one should betray their core principles to make a play for bigots.