Rick Warren Slams Media, Bloggers

I'm inclined to tell Pastor Rick to suck it up - if you want to hold and perpetuate archaic beliefs that deny rights to specific citizens, then you're going to get blasted. Deal with it.

Oh yeah, he flat out lies in the video. How very un-Christian of him. [See below.]

By Alex Koppelman

Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2008 16:15 EST

Warren slams media, bloggers

In a video message addressed to his congregants at Saddleback Church, Rick Warren has responded to the controversy surrounding the decision to have him deliver the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration next month.

Warren uses the video, which can be viewed below (hat-tip to Wonkette) to talk about his stance regarding homosexuality and gay marriage, and to attack the media and especially bloggers because of the controversy.

"The media never gets it 100 percent correct. I've never seen an in-print article that gets everything right," Warren says, adding, "The media lives for conflict. If there's no conflict, then somebody's going to create it."

True enough, though in this case no one created the conflict -- it arose naturally because of the opposition to Warren's views. The pastor focused especially on bloggers, who've been leading the opposition, discussing "bloggers who really need to get a life" and saying, "A lot of people think that because they can sit in the quietness of their own home and hide behind the screen, they can hurl all kinds of bombs at people and get away with it. Well, no, they're just being rude."

― Alex Koppelman

Here are some of Warren's comments about gay marriage, where he equates gay marriage to incest, pedophilia, and polygamy, contrary to what he said in the video. My comments in red, some emphasis added.

The issue to me, I'm not opposed to that as much as I'm opposed to redefinition of a 5,000 year definition of marriage. I'm opposed to having a brother and sister being together and calling that marriage (incest). I'm opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that marriage (pedophilia). I'm opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage (polygamy).

BELIEFNET: Do you think those are equivalent to gays getting married?

Oh , I do.

OK, so how is this not equating gay marriage with incest, pedophilia, and polygamy? The interviewer used the word "equivalent" and you said yes. What's up with that Pastor Rick.

I don't care what you believe in your backward little brain, but when you try to make those beliefs into a law that impacts other people - and LIE about what you have said - THEN I have a problem with you.

Tags: Rick Warren, Slams Media, Bloggers, Religion, Politics, gay rights, culture, fundamentalism, Beliefnet, incest, pedophilia, polygamy, gay marriage