Extra! This Just In (1:10AM PT): The Extension of Warren's Lie

"What I was trying to say..."

Interview with sarah Pullium, Christianity Today, April 8, 2009:

What I was trying to say is, those who obviously opposed my viewpoint on the biblical definition or the historical definition of marriage were trying to turn me into an anti-gay activist. The truth is, Proposition 8 was a two-year campaign in the state, and during those two years, I never said a word about it until the eight days before the election, and then I did make a video for my own people when they asked, "How should we vote on this?" It was a pastor talking to his own people. I've never said anything about it since. I don't know how you take one video newsletter to your own church and turn that into, all of a sudden I'm the poster boy for anti-gay marriage.

Rick, don't you know how it was done? With your knowledge and endorsement:

Associated Baptist Press:

The Yes on Proposition 8 campaign put out a press release announcing Warren's support of the gay marriage ban. Conservative news sites, including the Southern Baptist Convention's Baptist Press, reported the story at a time when the main organization supporting Proposition 8 was trying to raise money to purchase additional television ads to fight off a final push by opponents.

Bryan Fischer, executive director of the Idaho Values Alliance, accused Warren of apologizing for his earlier support of one-man, one-woman marriage.

"The minimum the Christian church should expect from its spiritual leaders is clear and unapologetic adherence to this biblical standard, especially from pastors who tell us that the Bible is the 'rule of faith and practice,'" Fischer said

Warren:

The only response that I made was, I wrote an e-mail to all of the gay leaders that I know. I have many friends who are gay leaders whom we've worked with on AIDS campaign on health, poverty, and disease. The guys that I knew, I apologized to them.

So, Rick, who were those people? If they are gay "leaders" they're certainly out and wouldn't be afraid of backing up your story. Where are they?

Rick Warren's Persona Is In Our Hands. One Word: CLAP!

And Clap LOUD!

Pat Robertson does it all the time: lying and addressing topics he knows absolutely nothing about. I've seen him answer one question on tattoos and then the next on the wisdom of investing in baseball cards. So why do preachers pontificate when they rarely know what they're preaching? Is it purely ego? Are they so imbued with self-righteousness that they don't challenge (or at least edit) their own sermons and public ruminations? Or is it plain hubris?

The whole world is buzzing about Rick Warren. People are clamoring for news and commentary. And some people (like me) are fuming. People are disdaining "gotcha" journalism, but it has grown in size many times since we've gotten it out of the box and we can't stuff it back in! Warren's primary sin (right now) is in thinking the American people will unequivocally accept anything he says. This is hubris of the most disastrous kind. Ted Haggard suffered for his hubris as well as others. Televangelists and megachurch pastors will eventually suffer as their supply of old-time-religion congregants dry up.

Even journals like Associated Baptist Press have become skeptical about Warren's use of words:

Pam's House Blend, an influential left-leaning blog that often reports on gay-rights issues, dug up a YouTube video message Warren recorded as an Oct. 23 posting on the Saddleback Church website. In it, Warren urges passage of Proposition 8....The Yes on Proposition 8 campaign put out a press release announcing Warren's support of the gay marriage ban. Conservative news sites, including the Southern Baptist Convention's Baptist Press, reported the story at a time when the main organization supporting Proposition 8 was trying to raise money to purchase additional television ads to fight off a final push by opponents.

So EVERYONE knew that Warren was endorsing (he uses the term "campaigning" in his denial) Proposition 8. And Warren MUST have known that people knew. He could have had Baptist Press print a clarification of his words, but he didn't. He trusted that an appearance on a national show would help much more than a restatement in a limited subscription religious magazine (online or not).

Now what? Do we forgive and forget? I wish we could. Maybe later. But right now we have the career of a person whose persona is much larger than our own in our cupped hands. We can either set it down gently as would a small, non-poisonous spider which has just bitten us or we can clap our hands together and promise ourselves never to get bitten again.

Just a thought.

Notes On The Culture War: Watch Out! THIS Is What You're Dealing With!

Yeah, I know that this will be considered "Christian Bashing," but only by the people who do the most bashing (physically as well as spiritually) from the other side. I wish I had the time to turn "Notes" into a full-fledged blog, by I'm already involved in too many things - people included.

Harry Knox, a gay man recently appointed by President Obama to an advisory council which metes out grants to faith-based and community organizations, is, of course, under attack. Because he once called the pope a "discredited leader" on the subject of contraception and that certain passages of the Bible were "not true" concerning homosexuality.

Below is the spin put on the appointment and Knox by ultra-right CNS News* (slogan: "The Right News. Right Now")

(CNSNews.com) – President Obama has named to his faith-based advisory council a self-professed Christian who holds that the New Testament's teaching that homosexual behavior is unnatural and wrong--which is found in St. Paul's letter to the Romans--“is not true."

The appointee, Harry Knox, has also said that Obama's decision to invite the Rev. Rick Warren to say a prayer at the Inauguration "tainted" the ceremony and that Pope Benedict XVI is a "discredited leader."

Harry Knox, a professed gay Christian who is director of the religion and faith program at the Human Rights Campaign, a homosexual rights group, was named to President Obama's Advisory Council on Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships on Monday. The advisory council gives federal grants to faith-based organizations.

NOW THE COMMENTS (note that they are directed at Knox or Obama and not necessarily about the article itself):

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! FANANTIC REGRESSIVES AHEAD!

You'd better look within and recognize your sin because for every person you mislead, you WILL answer for! Wake up for goodness sake!

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Homosexuality is "natural"? How does this twisted moron explain procreation? Were (are) his natural parents both of the same sex? This jerk is almost certainly a huge advocate of the gigantic hoax global warming as well.

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That kind of twisted thinking will bring us to ruin and, in fact, has already begun to do so.

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Woman and man are commanded to live chaste (virgin) lives until marriage. Then they may enjoy natural sex together for the remainder of their natural lives. God said it; I believe it!

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You shouldn't pretend to be any kind of Christian. It would be truthful to declare your true vocation - you are a Sodomite. That would make satan your lord and master. I pray for your conversion, and your boss' too.

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God punished Sodom and Gomorrah because of homosexuality! - so - that was not about Paul's interpretation or feelings was it? America needs to wake up before it's too late - God CANNOT reward sins - He CANNOT reward laws that have been voted that are against His Word. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

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Yeah, the so-called President has other things to do than even think about what is right and what is wrong. Consider this: this man thinks that a baby born alive, though an abortion was performed to try to terminate that life, should, and I repeat, should have been left on a shelf in the closet of an abortuary until it died.

*study after study by the Media Research Center, the parent organization of CNSNews.com, clearly demonstrate a liberal bias in many news outlets – bias by commission and bias by omission – that results in a frequent double-standard in editorial decisions on what constitutes 'news.'"

So, are you still ready and willing to deal with these people?

Just a thought.