(UPDATE: Rick Warren pulled the anti-gay language from his church’s web site (see the Google cache for the original language). The relevant question is whether the church now suddenly welcomes “unrepentant gays,” and if this is about Warren being embarrassed or Team Obama putting some heat on him - a good journalist would ask the obvious questions of the megachurch pastor). Perhaps some “unrepentant gays” need to contact Saddleback and see if they can join.
UPDATE 2: Read how Soulforce’s Jeff Lutes was given the calculated cold shoulder by Rick Warren after the Saddleback pastor agreed to meet with a group of gay and lesbian couples—then did everything in his power to back away from the commitment after the get-together was outed in a Newsweek piece.
The news keeps breaking on the Rick Warren situation…
First, Dyana Bagby @ the Southern Voice reports that gay rights ally Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery, who will deliver the benediction at the Obama Inaugural, weighs in on the controversy—by steering clear.
“I’m not getting into that,” Lowery said with a chuckle when asked about the controversy. “I’m the other preacher on the program. I’ll leave those who are upset to their calling. “I would hope we would not create a distraction,” he added. “The president-elect promised he would reach across the divide and that is what he’s doing.”
...Lowery, 87, a founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was the first to mention Coretta Scott King’s support for gay civil rights at her funeral in February 2006 at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, reminding the audience that she “frowned on homophobia.”
...“By the time Aretha sings, the poem is read, people may have already forgotten what Warren said,” Lowery said.
Dr. Sylvia Rhue, director of Religious Affairs at the National Black Justice Coalition, has shared her views on the Warren invitation. (You’ll recall that she gave a smashing smackdown to the insane anti-gay rant of “Dr.” Firpo W. Carr last week.) The emphasis below is mine.
Rev. Rick Warren at the Inauguration
By Sylvia Rhue, Director of Religious Affairs, National Black Justice CoalitionOne of the overriding goals of the Religious Affairs Program of the National Black Justice Coalition is to change the conversation of homosexuality from being a sickness and a sin, to a genuine understanding of sexuality with inclusion replacing exclusion, and fact replacing fears.This is no small task with the kind of opposition we face on a daily basis. I see first hand the damage that spiritual abuse can do to body and soul.
We work with people of faith and people of good will to accomplish this goal.We are interfaith and ecumenical in reaching out to powerful religious forces that are adamently allied against equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. We reached out to Bishop Harry Jackson of the High Impact Leadership Coalition and others who do not agree that LGBT people should sit at the table of full equality.
Dr. Rhue continues below the fold.