Max Blumenthal | AlterNet

Once hailed by Time magazine as "America's Pastor," California megachurch leader and best-selling author of The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren now finds himself on the defensive. President-elect Barack Obama's selection of Warren to deliver the inaugural prayer has generated intense scrutiny of the pastor's beliefs on social issues, from his vocal support for Proposition 8, a ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage in California, to his comparison of homosexuality to pedophilia, incest and bestiality. Many of Obama's supporters have demanded that he withdraw the invitation.

Warren's defense against charges of intolerance ultimately depends upon his ace card: his heavily publicized crusade against AIDS in Africa. Obama senior adviser David Axelrod cited Warren's work in Africa as one of "the things on which [Obama and Warren] agree" on the Dec. 28 episode of Meet the Press. Warren may be opposed to gay rights and abortion, the thinking goes, but he tells evangelicals it is their God-given duty to battle one of the greatest pandemics in history. What could be wrong with that?

But since the Warren inauguration controversy erupted, the nature of his work against AIDS in Africa has gone unexamined. Warren has not been particularly forthcoming ...   more »

To me, a Black Gay man who has endured both racism and heterosexism, and who sees no difference in the kind of discrimination they generate, this debate has always sounded silly. — Stuffed Animal

Parts One & Two | Stuffed Animal | Dec 31, 2008

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s April 1963 Letter From A Birmingham Jail is one of the defining documents of the American anti-segregation movement. Just about anybody who was alive in the early 1960s has heard of it. Dr. King wrote the Letter during a period of incarceration in Birmingham, Alabama. This was one of numerous occasions when civil disobedience on behalf of racial equality landed him behind bars. If the work MLK put into his Birmingham Jail essay is any indication, he certainly used his time in lock-up constructively. It was written in response to a public statement by eight White Alabama clergymen who opposed the confrontational tactics he used. They’d denounced him for leading street demonstrations, and argued that other, less disruptive means should be used to combat institutionalized racism.

It should come as no surprise that Dr. King’s oratory was no less powerful on paper than it was in the pulpit. After publication in the 12 June ...   more »

In February 2008 during the democratic primary, in response to criticism that he was more about words than substance, Barack Obama gave a speech in which he extolled the power of words. In that speech, Obama recited the now famous line borrowed from Deval Patrick, “Don’t tell me words don’t matter.” Obama was correct, words do matter. In fact, words can be very powerful. Given his understanding of how much words matter, it is difficult to comprehend how Obama selected Rick Warren, the pastor of the Saddleback Church, to give the invocation at the inauguration. Rick Warren was a strong supporter of Prop 8 in California and recently said that in his view the relationships of gays and lesbians are equivalent to incest, pedophilia and polygamy.

Last night I listened to the debate regarding Obama’s choice of Warren. Obama supporters said that the choice was one of inclusiveness, spiritual bipartisanship and that there is room for everyone under the big tent. These are the same arguments they made last fall when Obama had the anti-gay, ex-gay gospel singer Donnie McClurkin emcee a large public fundraising event in South Carolina. Defending their inclusion of McClurkin, Obama’s camp stressed their vision of ...   more »

… the real problem has nothing to do with ministers and everything to do with Obama's inability or unwillingness to be a moral leader. Richard Cohen

By Richard Cohen | December 23, 2008 | Washington Post

Not that he was planning to attend, but Barack Obama should know that my sister's inauguration night party -- the one for which she was preparing Obama Punch -- has been canceled. The notice went out over the weekend, by e-mail and word of mouth, that Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation had simply ruined the party. Warren is anti-gay, and my sister, not to put too fine a point on it, is not. She's gay.

She is -- or was -- a committed Obama supporter. On the weekend before the presidential election, my sister and my mother drove from the Boston area, where they both live, to Obama's New Hampshire headquarters in Manchester. There my mother made 76 phone calls for Obama, which is not bad for someone who is 96, and gives you an idea of the level of commitment to Obama in certain precincts of my family.

I should say right off that my mother feels less ...   more »

Heed Harvey’s warning. Sadly, it explains why normally sensible people are defending Mr. Obama’s appalling choice of Rick Warren to deliver the inauguration invocation: It’s easier to be part of the in-crowd than to stand up for your friends or even for civil and human rights for all. GS

Harvey Fierstein | Huffington Post | 2008.12.23

A couple of boys were calling my best friend a faggot one unhappy day at summer camp. Courses of action seemed slim to my adolescent mind. I could stand up for Jack branding myself a fag as well and insuring myself a miserable summer, or I could join in with the name callers, lose my closest friend, but assure my standing with the majority. I sacrificed my friend on the altar of popularity. I don't think I need to tell you that political expediency was a terrific short-term solution but a long-term nightmare. My summer concluded uneventfully but none of those boys became my friend or did me any favors. And forty years later I still feel the loss of Jack along with a piece of my self respect that I can never win back. Mine was an act of cowardice and betrayal.

It seems ...   more »

By Cindi Knox on December 21, 2008 7:18 AM

On a Christian denominational discussion board, a person who is gay said the Christian church is the stated enemy of the gay community and a person who is clergy in that denomination said “Or do you mean the gay community is the stated enemy of many Christian churches, the UCC & MCC excluded, at least.”

Which got me thinking:

"What might it look like if someone wanted to treat Christians the way gay people are treated?"

For one, tax benefits afforded to other not-for-profit institutions would be denied to churches, probably on the basis of separation of church and state. There are some who advocate for this, but they are not GLBT groups.

Christianity would be portrayed as a form of mental illness to be cured. There are some who advocate for this, but they are not GLBT groups.

When children gave their lives to Christ, their parents could have them shipped off to programs where they would be taught how not to be Christian, showing tough love for these wayward youth. There may be some who advocate for this, but they are not GLBT groups.

There would be programs to ...   more »