Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Barney Frank blasts Obama choice of anti-gay pastor
12.22.2008 9:41am EST
(Washington) The first openly gay member of Congress says it was a mistake for President-elect Barack Obama to invite the Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration.
“Mr. Warren compared same-sex couples to incest. I found that deeply offensive and unfair,” Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said in a broadcast interview.“If he was inviting the Rev. Warren to participate in a forum and to make a speech, that would be a good thing,” Frank said. “But being singled out to give the prayer at the inauguration is a high honor. It has traditionally given as a mark of great respect. And, yes, I think it was wrong to single him out for this mark of respect.”
Warren, a best-selling author and leader of a Southern California megachurch, is a popular evangelical who stresses the need for action on social issues such as reducing poverty and protecting the environment, alongside traditional theological themes.
But gay rights advocates, who strongly supported Obama during the election, are angry over Warren’s backing of a California ballot initiative banning gay marriage. That measure was approved by voters last month.
Although Warren has said that he has nothing personally against gays, he has condemned same-sex marriage.
“I have many gay friends. I’ve eaten dinner in gay homes. No church has probably done more for people with AIDS than Saddleback Church,” he said in a recent interview with BeliefNet. But later in the interview, he compared the “redefinition of marriage” to include gay marriage to legitimizing incest, child abuse, and polygamy.
Warren, in a speech on Saturday, said he took “enormous heat” three years ago for inviting Obama to speak at his church, even though the two men disagree on some issues. “Now he’s invited me,” Warren said.
Obama defended the selection of Warren last week, telling reporters that America needs to “come together,” even when there’s disagreement on social issues. “That dialogue is part of what my campaign is all about,” he said.
Frank appeared on “Late Edition” on CNN.
Obama is just sacrficing the GLBT support for the Evangelical support and hoping this issue will simply fade away. The GLBT community would be damn foolish to let that happen.
way to go, barney-give em hell !!
Oh what a wicked web Obama weaves when he practices to deceive. I hope Mr. Frank is one of many to give him hell. Unfortunately Chris, the GLBT is often foolish. We just don’t seem to come together and stay together!
Gay people aren’t even welcome to join Rick’s church. Until the last few days, their website said “Someone unwilling to repent of their homosexual lifestyle would not be accepted as a member at Saddleback Church”.
My man Barney. Yep, give em heck dude! Peace
Way to go Barney. It’s about time someone he might listen to said something!
Chris, right on! We can’t let this fade, and I fear we are already losing the most important point in this argument: difference of opinion vs. abhorrent opinion.
Obama wants to say Warren has a differing view on us, and his choice of Warren is in the spirit of including opposing view. We need to say STOP, WAIT, this is not simply an opposing view, it is an UNACCEPTABLE view. Be against equal marriage, fine, I’ll call you a bigot, but that is an opposing view. Equate my marriage to pedophilia, and I have a fight to take on with you.
I watched Barney and he said it was about giving Warren the honor, he ceded the argument I make above and that is a LOST opportunity. This is not simply an opposing view we don’t want honored, it is a view that should not be part of the discours.
Warren does not have a credible view on this, like Dobson etc. I want to have a debate with people that oppose equal marriage on the real grounds: fear of change, fear of the unknown, fear of loss of importance of the institution.
We’ll win each of those. Let them call us pedophiles? We’ve lost.
So, this church’s website has specified no gays in their congregation!! I wonder what kind of public outcry there would be if the word “homosexual” was changed to “blacks”, “Jews”, “Irish”, or “poor”???? Cloaking bigotry in religion does not make it anything more than the ugly thing that it is. And what gay homes would have this minister to dinner, knowing the terrible things of which he accuses them? Of all people, Obama should not be bringing bigotry into his inauguration.
With the passage of Proposition 8 and this high profile insult to the dignity and value of all GLBT people – there can be no clearer sign that we need to make our strength and solidarity known!
I dare our so called “leaders” in the GLBT community to mobilize a new March on Washington for the Summer of 2009 !
I don’t care if we have to cancel every Gay Prde parade in the country to come together in one place at one time – in order to make our strength and determination shown!
It’s now or never.
Good grief. Do we know how stupid we’re looking at with taking such a hardline response? I mean thank goodness for Rev. Lowrey being there. I might be upset if you he weren’t there too, but maybe not.
The point is that LGBT rights leaders should have taken a slightly different stance on it. Say that they do not endorse Rick Warren’s appointment because he does not support full marriage equality and other rights for LGBT people, but hope that this can create a dialogue between the LGBT community and those of the evangelical faith that have been opposing LGBT rights. Let’s have hope for this.
THAT’S the message that should have been put out there. And I’m a “W.E.B. Du Bois” here not a “Booker T. Washington,” if you will- and I EVEN SEE THIS!
GOOD GOD I hope we, the ones who are so you’re-either-with-me-OR-you’re-against-me, stop this! How Bush-like of us. Good grief!
This just shows that Obama, like most straight folks, as good intentioned as they may be, just don’t get it.
To think that our relationships are less valid because we are gay is extremely offensive. You can almost hear them say – It’s cute but not a “real” adult relationship.
This is not about disagreeing on social issues – this is about rude, offensive and derogatory language aimed at demeaning people.
Horrible behavior from a pastor – horrible person to present to the world.
Well i hate to say this
but it seems like we have to be “you’re-either-with-or-against-us” if only to make a statement
no more lying down for the public to walk over us
Obama and his handlers, aka “advisors”, whipped out their scale of justice:
kkkhristian kkkonservatives on this side of the scale _/|\- gays on this side. To their glee, the scales fell in favor of the “religious” right and their ability to rally and organize voters en masse. So, like previous politicos before them, they turned their backs on us.
When you are so easily lead by the media, and Hollywood without questioning and finding answers for oneself you get what you ask for. Why are you surprised?
Barney rocks! But what about other politicians? Where’s their consciousness?