What's The Matter With Rick Warren? (from "The Nation")

[ColbertWatcher]

Sarah Posner puts all of Rick Warren's future "taken-out-of-context" comments on one page out of the reach of the Orwellian Saddleback webmasters.

She says Warren ...

* markets himself as a "new" kind of evangelical with a "broader agenda"
* believes the Bible gives the U.S. government dominion over the life of "evil doers"
* admitted he differs from James Dobson only in tone
* believes that life begins at conception (based on the Bible, not science)
* knows every evangelical would not vote for a http://blog.beliefnet.com/godometer/2008/08/rick-warren-to-godometer-obama.html">"Holocaust denier" (i.e., someone who is pro-choice)
* considers abortion a holocaust
* implored his followers to vote for Proposition 8
* believes homosexuals only make up 2% of the population
* believes marriage has been defined the same way for 5,000 years in every culture and religion
* as a creationist, believes that homosexuality disproves evolution
* believes that anyone who does good works, but not salvation is a http://blog.beliefnet.com/progressiverevival/2008/12/rick-warren-%20and-the-social-gos.html">"Marxist", unlike his form of do-goodedness, which is "elevated"

And, Ms. Posner concludes her piece with,

Warren represents the absolute worst of the Democrats' religious outreach, a right-winger masquerading as a do-gooder anointed as the arbiter of what it means to be faithful. Obama's religious outreach was intended, supposedly, to make religious voters more comfortable with him and feel included in the Democratic Party. But that outreach now has come at the expense of other people's comfort and inclusion, at an event meant to mark a turning point away from divisive politics.

Go over to The Nation and read the whole thing http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081229/posner?rel=hp_picks

[WillParkinson]

1. Sigh...don't you people understand?

We need to GET OVER IT. :sarcasm:

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Fuck no. Warren needs more and more exposure.

More people need to know what he truly supports.

He needs to explain his fringe beliefs.

[specimenfred1984]

3. But I get to act superior in my forgiveness and acceptance of bigots, criminals

traitors, torturers, etc... You see, if I forgive them and allow them to continuously screw people over, I get to give myself credit for being a better person because it's all about ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME! Therefore, I hereby grant all bigots, war criminals, election tampering traitors, Wall St. crooks, science-denying delusional, etc...redemption!

850 rec's for ME ME ME ME ME!

[Mari333]

4. k n r

[EFerrari]

5. Off you go.

K&R

[1776Forever]

6. There is one other thing Rick Warren is - He is a nation-builder - His own nation...

I have become very suspicious of the man and my experience with "evangelicals" goes way back to the Kennedy days. What I have found out I posted in the following post -

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8022615&mesg_id=8022615

and it will tell you about the P.E.A.C.E. Plan that Warren thought up and how he has used Rwanda as a "test" site for his very own "Purpose-Driven Nation".

.............

And then there is this article that tells it all - This is what Rick Warren wants to "use" his influence with President-elect Obama for. This article tells us that Rick Warren was the person who steered George Bush into the HIV/AIDS funding, and also that this is where we find out more about the African Ministers who are blatantly and unashamedly homosexual hatred spinners. All in the name of the Purpose-Driven Nation Dream of Rick Warren:

Untold Consequences: Rick Warren's AIDS Activism
Kathryn Joyce on December 19, 2008

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/12/19/untold-consequences-rick-warrens-aids-activism

(snip)

Warren's transformation into the evangelical AIDS "it person" is relatively recent. Earlier this month, on World AIDS Day, he awarded President Bush his ministry's first international P.E.A.C.E. award for contributions to fighting HIV/AIDS. Warren's own AIDS work, together with his wife Kay, began in 2002, ostensibly when Kay read a magazine article about the burgeoning population of AIDS orphans in Africa. That year, Warren led a group of evangelical churches in pushing a reluctant Bush administration to adopt a global AIDS policy, resulting in the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, launched in 2003.

"For all intents and purposes, was a good thing to do," says Jodi Jacobson, consultant for RH Reality Check and the founder and former executive director of the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), an NGO that promotes sexual and reproductive health and rights. "But with the entry of evangelical churches, in alliance with the Catholic Church, all funding for prevention became very fraught."

(snip)

How that flawed policy plays out can be disastrous. As journalist Michelle Goldberg noted at Religion Dispatches, one of Warren's protégés in Uganda, the rabidly anti-gay pastor Martin Ssempa, has interpreted Warren's faith-driven solutions to the HIV/AIDS epidemic by burning condoms at universities and offering faith-healing to disease-stricken congregants. Other PEPFAR grantees, as Jacobson's colleagues in the global AIDS movement have witnessed, use their funds to promote fundamentalist interpretations of marital roles, advising women that if their husbands beat them, they should try harder to please them.

"We found enough examples of these things to make me very worried," says Jacobson.

Emmanuel Kolini, the Anglican archbishop of Rwanda, who called homosexuality a form of moral genocide, is on the National Steering Committee of Saddleback Church's Western Rwanda HIV/AIDS Healthcare Initiative.

"When such a high-profile, leading spokesman on an issue that affects women and gay people and men who have sex with men and sex workers reinforces messages of stigmatization of anyone who's different, it creates a climate in which money is going to organizations that have little to no accountability," says Jacobson. "We don't know what's going on with these groups abroad. In my mind it ties in to religious leaders who seek to heal the sick, but on their terms or not at all."

......

I intend on keeping a close watch on this "dream" of Rick Warren's and hope you will too!

[ColbertWatcher]

8. Good point! I hope you posted this as its own thread! n/t

[1776Forever]

15. I think people are getting tired of reading my research but it is really astounding!

I cannot believe some of it myself it is so full of hate filled messages about the GLBT community it makes me ill! Thank you for giving me encouragement to continue my path. I really do hope some of this is sent to people that can make a difference. I do think that Rick Warren is in this for the money and power to control his "nation-building" dream. It is his actions and words not mine.

[AntiFascist]

20. Please don't stop posting threads !

Warren needs much more exposure about his agenda, particularly outside of gay marriage issues. I would be doing it if I had more time.

[1776Forever]

21. Thank you - I will post this info.

:hi:

[ColbertWatcher]

23. I would like to extend an invitation to you ...

... to post all your info on the Truthiness Encyclopedia page for Rick Warren http://www.wikiality.com/Rick_Warren

I will give you carte blanche on the page! Just make sure you create a free account, so no one can see your IP address.

If you have questions, drop me a note.

[yardwork]

7. Oh, is that were that 2% crap came from? That's been all over DU. Figures it came from Warren.

[ColbertWatcher]

9. Actually, I think it started with something published by the WSJ ...

... here is a webtube that refers to it http://www.leaderu.com/jhs/labarbera.html

[yardwork]

10. The Washington Times! This is where Democrats are getting their facts these days?

ay-ya-ya.

Thank you for letting me know that.

[ColbertWatcher]

11. Hey, I never said it, never agreed with it, I'm just the messenger! n/t

[yardwork]

12. I know. I've been reading your posts. I meant the thanks genuinely.

I'm glad to know that one source of the stupidity is the Washington Times. I will mention that the next time someone mentions the 2% thing.

[ColbertWatcher]

22. Yes, from one cult (Moonies) to another (Dominionists). n/t

[EFerrari]

13. Has anyone here run down his so called "work" on poverty, AIDS or the environment?

I think I know what we'll find and seem to remember one thread that ran down one of these issues that just ended up at one of Junior's tax payer funded "faith based" program -- aka, an opportunity for Warren to get cred while imposing his radical agenda -- but, has anyone got more than that?

I don't buy it.

[1776Forever]

16. Please read my post #6 - I have been doing a lot of research - it is astounding!

Thanks - :fistbump:

[EFerrari]

17. Thanks!

:hi:

[madokie]

14. I think Obama is nipping this one in the bud before they get carried away

as some religious goodie two-shoers are apt to do. IMO

[Autumn]

18. Whats the matter with Rick Warren? One man

named Jesus Christ was a man who was about tearing down barriers, it's a fucking shame that an asshole like Warren, who claims to be living his life for that one man spends his time putting up barriers and suckers people into going along with him.

[ColbertWatcher]

24. True, he doesn't seem to know who this Christ fella is either. n/t

[AntiFascist]

19. K&R, Warren is bad mojo n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

25. Maddow kick! n/t