Putdown for the Purpose-Driven Pastor: Gimme a Break

So now gay activists are up at arms because Barack Obama has chosen Pastor Rick Warren, of Purpose Driven Life and debate-moderating fame, to give the invocation at his Inaugural?

Just because he — and a clear majority of Californians in a fair vote — opposed to so-called same-sex marriage?

Gimme a break. Whom did these nut jobs expect — Gene Robinson?

The latest contretemps shows just how far off the deep end the gay movement is and how out of touch with the rest of the world, not to mention the US of A. If there is such a thing, this guy is “America’s Pastor.” His book A Purpose Driven Life has sold 25 million copies and changed countless lives. He reaches out to and helps churches across the nation and around the world.

And most important, his church is a leader in mobilizing Christians worldwide to fight the scourge of AIDS in Africa, not to mention global poverty.

Since their devastating loss on Prop 8, the homosexual activists have shown a remarkable propensity to shoot themselves in the foot. I wish they would aim a couple and a half feet higher.

UPDATE: Hot Air now reports that Obama says he chose Pastor Warren in the interests of “diversity.”

Barf.

How about because a) he has actually accomplished something on behalf of other people and b) he actually believes the Bible says what it means and isn’t trying to twist it into a proof text for same-sex unions?

Tags: Barack Obama, Inaugural, invocation, Rick Warren

Thursday, December 18th, 2008 Culture War, Politics

129 Comments to Putdown for the Purpose-Driven Pastor: Gimme a Break

For the gay community to expect anything else from Obama would be the height of ludicrousness, since Obama has always articulated that he is in fact opposed to gay marriage. Just because he is liberal doesn’t mean he is bleeding rainbows.

Matt on December 18th, 2008

NOTE: This post was placed by some joker pretending to be my high school coach. I’ve removed his name but am leaving the post … my response follows in the next comment.

Robert,

So you take the Bible literally? Clarence Darrow shredded William “Silver Tongue” Bryan during the Skopes Monkey Trial. Bryan, as you know, never recovered. Graduating from Stow High, I would have expected you to be less primitive in intellectual thought. I’d like you to read Mark Twain’s short story titled: ‘The Mysterious Stranger’. The Bible, for me, is a book of fairy tales devoid of any rational consideration. Faith does not constitute truth. I do wish you well with your blog. But this paragraph below of yours tells me that you have “nut cake” leanings too. Happy Holiday!

p.s. God was never in the Pledge to begin with, the original author never included him….Not until the phony McCarthy scare did the “Kooks” at the time get it inserted by Eisenhower in 52 or 53. I’d like to see God removed and the pledge returned to its original form.

“How about because a) he has actually accomplished something on behalf of other people and b) he actually believes the Bible says what it means and isn’t trying to twist it into a proof text for same-sex unions?”

Live and let live, Robert….(poser)

UNKNOWN on December 19th, 2008

OK. Ha ha. I get it. I recognize that this is not my high school coach’s email or his style of speaking or argument, but whoever was impersonating him, you almost got me to bite.

Whoever you are (and I have my suspicions) you’re bringing up a bunch of things I never touched on or argued, but there, as always, I WILL bite.

“So you take the Bible literally?”

Never actually said that, but yeah, pointing out as Bryan did that some passages are poetry, metaphor and hyperbole and should be read and understood as such.

“Clarence Darrow shredded William “Silver Tongue” Bryan during the Skopes Monkey Trial. Bryan, as you know, never recovered.”

I didn’t mention anything about evolution but I don’t know either of these things. A great deal of the conventional wisdom about what happened at the Scopes trial stems from the highly fictionalized account in Inherit the Wind. Here are just a couple of sites that poke holes in that story. There are dozens more. http://www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk/tenness3.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_/ai_n8817675

“Graduating from Stow High, I would have expected you to be less primitive in intellectual thought. I’d like you to read Mark Twain’s short story titled: ‘The Mysterious Stranger’.”

Primitive? That’s a little harsh. I’ve always approached matters with intellectual vigor, even at Stow High School, and I have approached my faith in the same way. I didn’t check my brain at the door when I became a Christian or come to my positions on Biblical, scientific issues on pure blind belief. But tell you what, whoever you are. I’ll be happy to read Twain’s short story if you’ll take a look at Michael Denton’s Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (a devastating assault on evolution by a non-Christian) or Michael Behe’s Darwin’s Black Box (by a biochemist, takes Darwin at his word on irreducible complexity).

“The Bible, for me, is a book of fairy tales devoid of any rational consideration. Faith does not constitute truth.”

Ah, Pilate’s question: what is truth? At least you have the intellectual honesty to reject the Bible as a whole and not pick and choose. I love people who take the parts of the Bible and reject others. What if the parts about Creation and homosexuality are right and the parts about loving your neighbor are wrong (I’ve had some neighbors I might prefer not to love)? In any event, I don’t believe, as you appear to, that faith and truth are mutually exclusive. Rather, truth strengthens faith. I’ve yet to see any evidence that convinces me of the untruth of anything in the Bible. I do see a lot of people railing against their own conception of what the Bible says.

“I do wish you well with your blog. But this paragraph below of yours tells me that you have ‘nut cake’ leanings too. Happy Holiday!”

Wow. Happy Holiday, you “nut case?”

“p.s. God was never in the Pledge to begin with, the original author never included him….Not until the phony McCarthy scare did the “Kooks” at the time get it inserted by Eisenhower in 52 or 53. I’d like to see God removed and the pledge returned to its original form.”

Never mentioned the Pledge, and I’m totally agnostic. I could care less what’s in it other than that the secular left is using it as a weapon in the culture wars in their obsession with eliminating religion from public life.

“‘How about because a) he has actually accomplished something on behalf of other people and b) he actually believes the Bible says what it means and isn’t trying to twist it into a proof text for same-sex unions?’

“Live and let live, Robert….(not) Smiley”

Live and let live? Really, as Ian Fleming would have put it, it’s “live and let die.” Homosexuals are subject to significant health problems and much shorter life spans than the population at large, and are helping expose the general population to dangerous resistant strains of TB and staph, among others.

Nevertheless, I’m perfectly willing to “live and let live.” It’s the gays who are pushing the envelope, pushing their lifestyle onto a public who would be perfectly happy to allow them to do what they want behind closed doors, demanding rights and privileges that go contrary to morality and common sense, and harassing and labeling as “homophobes” those who stand in their way. I believe in “loving the sinner and hating the sin,” but I do hate the sin.

All the best to you, whoever you are, and MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Bob