No Excuse

I would be remiss if I didn't dole out a little disgust and anger towards Obama for his choice of Rick Warren to give the prayer at the inauguration.  Mr. Warren views homosexuality as the equivalent of pedophilia and incest and was a strong supporter of Proposition 8.  He runs an ex-gay program at his church who's mission is to try to eliminate gay thoughts and tendencies from confused gay people.

Watching the video above, all I can say is that he and his church are a multitude of contradictions.  He puts out the "we love people as Jesus would" message out of the left side of his mouth and out of the right comes the "gay marriages redefine a 5000 year old institution" which is factually incorrect, but whatever.  He correctly cites that divorce is the biggest threat to marriage, yet is he campaigning to end divorce?  No.  The man acknowledges his own hypocrisy.  I'd like to take a moment to remind those who've not read the Bible that the insult thrown about in it more than any other is?....   Hypocrite!

Obama's response to picking him was to say (paraphrasing here), hey he invited me to his church to speak and he didn't agree with my positions so I don't see why I can't return the favor.  Well Mr. Obama, let me remind you that the reason Mr. Warren invited you and Senator McCain to his church was to bring his name into the spotlight as some sort of pompous unelected representative of all things religious (can I get an Amen!) in a contentious political campaign.  I can only hope that you have similar self interests in having him give your prayer.  I would add that having him speak at the first black president's inauguration is elevating him (and his beliefs) a little higher than him hosting a debate between two political candidates in his church.

Oh and some of Warren's friends are gay.  If it wasn't before breakfast, I know I'd feel like puking.  Puleeeez.  Can we retire this stupid comment from public rhetoric?  Does anyone walk around saying, "Some of my friends are black?" and then vote against black rights?  Let's meet these so-called friends and ask them (if we can actually find them) why they hate themselves so much, shall we?  They're probably members of his ex-gay group.

The bottom line is, there are plenty of ministers who could give this prayer who are neutral in the gay issue and strongly religious.  I'm not asking for a gay minister here.  But how about one who didn't push his followers to vote against my right to be married and who doesn't think me and my gay friends deserve second class treatment.  How about appointing an openly gay person to a cabinet position?  Don't wait!  Maybe he/she can stop you from making this type of mistake in the future.

Of course, every time I've disagreed with Obama, he's proven me wrong, so I'm trying to keep a level head.  My true judgement will come for his actions regarding gay rights.  It's time for him to put his money where his mouth was during the campaign on this issue.