Year: 2008
Rick Warren’s Church Scrubs Gay Ban from Website
SCRUBBED: “Someone unwilling to repent of their homosexual lifestyle would not be accepted at a member as Saddleback Church”
Yesterday, BeliefNet reported that the website for Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in Orange County, Cal., contained a warning that unrepentant gays were forbidden from joining the church:
Because membership in a church is an outgrowth of accepting the Lordship and leadership of Jesus in one’s life, someone unwilling to repent of their homosexual lifestyle would not be accepted as a member at Saddleback Church.
Today, that section, which was part of a longer diatribe about the sin of homosexuality (see below), is gone. According to BeliefNet, this link led to the page banning gays. Now it connects to a page titled “What We Believe.” BeliefNet is known for down-the-line reporting on religion. It was recently purchased by Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp.
Via Good As You, there are are still offensive statements about gays on the megachurch site:
Bank Execs Have Personally Pocketed $1.6 Bil from Bailout – So Far
Corporate socialism has now officially run amok. According to a report from the Associated Press, as much as $1.6 billion of the taxpayer funded $350 billion bank bailout fund has gone directly to top executives at America’s leading financial institutions.
Even at banks where compensation was reduced, executives still received millions in salary, bonuses and perks:
Benefits included cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management, the AP review of federal securities documents found.
The total amount given to nearly 600 executives would cover bailout costs for many of the 116 banks that have so far accepted tax dollars to boost their bottom lines…
The average paid to each of the banks’ top executives was $2.6 million in salary, bonuses and benefits.
John Thain, CEO of Merrill-Lynch, took home $83 million of the $10 billion taxpayers gave his company. At Goldman Sachs, CEO Lloyd Blankfein pocketed nearly $54 million from his company’s $10 billion bailout. All totaled, Goldman Sach’s top five executives walked off with a total of $242 million from the public dole.
Capital One’s chairman, Richard D. Fairbank, received $1 million less this year than he expected, but still received $17 million from the $3.56 billion his company took.
San Francisco’s Wells Fargo Bank used part of its $25 billion in taxpayer money to make financial planners available to its top executives at $20,000 each.
The $350 billion is just half of the $700 billion allocated to bail out the banks, and George Bush has indicated he may release some or all of it before he leaves office. This underscores the fact that the $1.6 billion appropriated by the bank execs in 2008 represents only what they have pilfered so far.
Beyond the Surface of Obama’s Choice of Rick Warren
In one of his earliest and most successful attempts to piss off the world and connect Iraq to the 9/11 attacks, Pres. George W. Bush labeled Iraq, Iran and North Korea the “axis of evil,” and imposed sanctions intended to isolate them. Subsequent Bush-Cheney-Rice “diplomacy” has consisted of further punishing states with which they disagree by refusing to talk to them.
It’s classic Obama to include those with whom he disagrees
To say this policy has been an utter failure for the United States, leaving us with fewer friends in an increasingly polarized world, would be an understatement. Rather than crippling our alleged enemies, Iran and North Korea have only grown more defiant and closer to nuclear armament. And we all know the destruction and loss of life that resulted when Bush decided to halt the now proven United Nations weapons inspection program and invade Iraq instead.
Barack Obama examined the Bush cold shoulder policy and rejected it. He was derided by both Republicans and some Democrats — notably Hillary Clinton — for saying during the debates that he would be willing to talk to our opponents, including leaders of Iran. But history has shown that Obama’s path of holding friends close and enemies closer is wise.
Which brings us to Obama’s invitation to Pastor Rick Warren to provide his inaugural invocation. Gays are appalled that Warren, a man who unapologetically opposes gay marriage, was chosen. Why, they ask, would someone who helped pass anti gay marriage legislation be honored with a spot on this day of triumph for progressives?
After a Tough Week, Jerry Brown Steps Up for Gays on Prop 8
The news cycle last week presented something of a see-saw ride for gays and their supporters in California and the nation. First came the devastating news that Barack Obama had invited Rick Warren, one of California’s most prominent advocates of anti-gay Proposition 8, to give the opening prayer at his inauguration next month.
“Proposition 8 must be invalidated because the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification.”
— Cal. Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown
— Cal. Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown
Prop 8’s passage was a real buzzkill for gays and civil rights advocates on Election Day. Giving a bigot a prominent spot at the ceremony has voided the historical significance of inaugurating the country’s first African-American president for them, too.
But on Friday came news that California’s attorney general, Jerry Brown, filed a legal brief urging the state Supreme Court to void Proposition 8:
In a dramatic reversal, Brown filed a legal brief saying the measure that amended the California Constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman is itself unconstitutional because it deprives a minority group of a fundamental right. Earlier, Brown had said he would defend the ballot measure against legal challenges from gay marriage supporters.
But Brown said he reached a different conclusion “upon further reflection and a deeper probing into all the aspects of our Constitution.”
“It became evident that the Article 1 provision guaranteeing basic liberty, which includes the right to marry, took precedence over the initiative,” he said in an interview Friday night. “Based on my duty to defend the law and the entire Constitution, I concluded the court should protect the right to marry even in the face of the 52 percent vote.”
He also said:
“Proposition 8 must be invalidated because the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification.”
Brown’s office would normally be tasked with defending Prop 8 in the litigation before the Supreme Court this spring. But Brown is saying Prop 8 is indefensible, and so his staff can’t defend it.
Brown is said to be considering running for governor next year. If he and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome, a truly fierce advocate of gay rights, both run, California gays, their supporters and civil rights advocates will have a tough time deciding whom to support.
George Bush’s Next Job — Shoe Salesman
According to Bloomberg News, George Bush’s recent brush with hurled shoes has spurred a spike in sales of the increasingly popular footwear hurled at the increasingly unpopular president:
The shoe hurled at President George W. Bush has sent sales soaring at the Turkish maker as orders pour in from Iraq, the U.S. and Iran.
The brown, thick-soled “Model 271†may soon be re-named “The Bush Shoe†or “Bye-Bye Bush,†Ramazan Baydan, who owns the Istanbul-based producer Baydan Ayakkabicilik San. & Tic., said in a telephone interview today.
“We’ve been selling these shoes for years but, thanks to Bush, orders are flying in like crazy,†he said. “We’ve even hired an agency to look at television advertising.â€
Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zeidi hurled a pair at Bush at a news conference in Baghdad on Dec. 14. Both shoes missed the president after he ducked. The journalist was jailed and is seeking a pardon from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Baydan has received orders for 300,000 pairs of the shoes since the attack, more than four times the number his company sold each year since the model was introduced in 1999. The company plans to employ 100 more staff to meet demand, he said.
“Model 271†is exported to markets including Iraq, Iran, Syria and Egypt. Baydan said he received an order this week for 4,000 pairs from a company called Davidson, based in Maryland. He declined to provide further details.
Rick Warren Compares Gay Marriage to Incest, Pedophilia
UPDATE: Aug. 16, 2010: The video I posted here in 2008 has been removed by YouTube, and the video from BeliefNet does not work. I found a clip from GoodAsYou.org that features Warren’s “money quote” and am posting it to replace the original.
You don’t have to dig too deep to find bigoted statements by Rick Warren, the homophobe who is Obama’s new BFF. Just last week in a video interview, Warren compared gay marriage to incest and pedophilia:
RICK WARREN: But the issue to me is, I’m not opposed to that as much as I’m opposed to the redefinition of a 5,000-year definition of marriage. I’m opposed to having a brother and sister be together and call that marriage. I’m opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that a marriage. I’m opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage.
STEVEN WALDMAN: Do you think, though, that they are equivalent to having gays getting married?
RICK WARREN: Oh I do. …
The favored form of marriage in the Middle East 5,000 years ago was polygamy. Abraham, the father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, was a polygamist, as were Jacob and the kings David and Soloman. Until the early 19th century, marriage was predominantly a business arrangement between male heads of households.
There’s more to Warren’s statement that was not included in the video:
… Most people, you know … I have many gay friends, I’ve eaten dinner in gay homes, no church has probably done more for people with AIDS than Saddleback Church. Kay and I have given millions of dollars out of “A Purpose-Driven Life” helping people who got AIDS through gay relationships. So they can’t accuse me of homophobia. I just don’t believe in the re-definition of marriage.
Of course, marriage was redefined in the 1967, when the Supreme Court overturned laws against inter-racial marriage in Loving v. Virginia. Doubtless, Pastor Rick is glad marriage was redefined that way. But changing it to accommodate gay rights goes too far.
Quote du Jour
It’s hard to tell, hard to imagine what it’s like to go from 100 miles an hour to 5. I’m going to want to build a policy institute at Southern Methodist, probably write a book. And beyond that, I’m open for suggestions.
— President George W. Bush, in the upcoming issue of People magazine, on what he’s going to do after leaving the White House
Homophobe to Deliver Inauguration Invocation, So When Will the White Supremacist Speak?
This is really bad:
Warren has admitted that the main difference between himself and the virulent homophobe James Dobson is a matter of tone.
Barack Obama’s choice of a prominent evangelical minister to deliver the invocation at his inauguration is a conciliatory gesture toward social conservatives who opposed him in November, but it is drawing fierce challenges from a gay rights movement that — in the wake of a gay marriage ban in California — is looking for a fight.
Rick Warren, the senior pastor of Saddleback Church in southern California, opposes abortion rights but has taken more liberal stances on the government role in fighting poverty, and backed away from other evangelicals’ staunch support for economic conservatism. But it’s his support for the California constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage that drew the most heated criticism from Democrats Wednesday.
After the debacle of Prop 8 — which Obama never mentioned on a public platform during the campaign and has not addressed since Election Day — this is a kick in the gut to every gay American. Here’s a quick look at Warren’s positions from Right Wing Watch:
[In] 2004 Warren declared that marriage, reproductive choice, and stem cell research were “non-negotiable” issues for Christian voters and has admitted that the main difference between himself and James Dobson is a matter of tone. He criticized Obama’s answers at the Faith Forum he hosted before the election and vowed to continue to pressure him to change his views on the issue of reproductive choice. He came out strongly in support of Prop 8, saying “there is no need to change the universal, historical defintion of marriage to appease 2 percent of our population … This is not a political issue — it is a moral issue that God has spoken clearly about.” He’s declared that those who do not believe in God should not be allowed to hold public office.
So why has this man been tapped to deliver the invocation at Obama’s inauguration?
