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Tonight at 9 ET on The Andrea Shea King Show on Blog Talk Radio What's YOUR opinion? Should Pastor Rick Warren have accepted the invitation from Obama to offer the inaugural invocation? Pastor Rick Warren might be a man filled with spiritual wisdom, but in this case, he's made a huge miscalculation and a serious mistake. Under fire for opposing gay marriage, the influential evangelical pastor defended his decision to accept President-elect Barack Obama's invitation to give the invocation at the Jan. 20 inauguration. In a keynote speech he delivered at the Muslim Public Affairs Council's annual convention in...

Rev. Jeremiah Wright was a voice crying in the wilderness that the mainstream media and middle class America weren't quite ready for and megachurch pastor Rick Warren is an ignorant evangelical rube who isn't totally without hope, given his awareness of AIDS and other favored liberal causes. That's essentially what Eleanor Clift preached to her choir in her December 19 "Capitol Letter" column, "Choosing a Church: Obama's next big decision -- and its implications." Wrote Sister Eleanor (emphasis mine): Black religious leaders did not stand up for Wright even as they understood and sympathized with the prophetic theology he was...

A drunk half-man half-alligator crashed Rick Warren's press conference earlier today. Mortified, Warren tried to get through a prepared statement focusing on cooperation between people of different beliefs. Unfortunately his every sentence was punctuated by Manigator yelling his support for intolerance using vulgar language and controlled flatulence.

Like other gay Republicans, I have been amused by the brouhaha among gay activists, bloggers, and their allies on the left over President-elect Obama’s choice of Pastor Rick Warren, a proponent of Proposition 8 which bars the state of California from recognizing same-sex marriages, to offer the invocation at his inauguration. Unlike some of my ideological confrères, I don’t see this as a sign that he has thrown his gay supporters under the bus. Gay activists, however, are up in arms....

I can’t believe I’m back commenting on the gay movement and their obnoxious culture wars. I had other windmills at which to tilt this week – but every time I think I’m out, they pull me back in! This time it’s the mega-stink being raised over mega-pol Barack Obama’s invitation for Rick Warren, mega-church pastor – not to mention mega-hit author, mega-relief advocate for AIDS and poverty and mega-debate moderator – to give the invocation at the mega-Inaugural. Take this nugget from the gay advocacy group Human Rights Campaign (please): “It is difficult to comprehend how our president-elect, who has...

I think we are all entitled to ask and to keep asking every member of the Obama transition team until we receive a satisfactory answer, the following questions: ___ Will Warren be invited to the solemn ceremony of inauguration without being asked to repudiate what he has directly said to deny salvation to Jews? ___ Will he be giving a national invocation without disowning what his mentor said about civil rights and what his leading supporter says about Mormons? ___ Will the American people be prayed into the next administration, which will be confronted by a possible nuclear Iran and...

<p>Rep. Barney Frank says it was a mistake for President-elect Barack Obama to invite the Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration.</p> <p>The first openly gay member of Congress says Warren "compared same-sex couples to incest," and Frank says he finds that "deeply offensive and unfair."</p>

LONG BEACH, Calif. - Rick Warren has told a Muslim group in California that 'You don't have to see eye to eye to walk hand in hand.' And at the same gathering, Warren also admitted he's a big fan of lesbian activist Melissa Ethridge and has all her albums. Under fire for opposing gay marriage, the influential evangelical told the Muslim Public Affairs Council's annual convention Saturday that he loves Muslims, people of other religions, Republicans and Democrats, and he also loves "gays and straights." The 54-year-old pastor and founder of Saddleback Church in Southern California told the crowd of...

Choices Rick Warren 65% Liberal Critics 19% Can't decide 16% votes 6,480

About three years ago, a reporter at Fortune asked Rick Warren, the successful pastor whom the President-elect has asked to pray at his Inauguration, about homosexuality. "I'm no homophobic guy," Warren said. His proof? He has dined with gays; he has a church "full of people who are caring for gays who are dying of AIDS"; he believes that "in the hierarchy of evil ... homosexuality is not the worst sin." So gays get to eat — sometimes even with Rick Warren! Then they get to die of AIDS — possibly under the care of Rick Warren's congregants. And when...

Now it has officially gone too far: Democrats, in their zeal to appear friendly to evangelical voters, have chosen celebrity preacher and best-selling author Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration. There was no doubt that Obama, like every president before him, would pick a Christian minister to perform this sacred duty. But Obama had thousands of clergy to choose from, and the choice of Warren is not only a slap in the face to progressive ministers toiling on the front lines of advocacy and service but a bow to the continuing influence of the religious right...

Barney Frank Slams Pick of Warren for Inauguration @ 11:53 am by Michael O'Brien Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the only openly gay member of Congress, strongly criticized President-elect Obama's choice to invite pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation during the presidential nomination. "I am very disappointed by President-elect Barack Obama's decision to honor Reverend Rick Warren with a prominent role in his inauguration," Frank said, adding that it was irrelevant that Warren had invited Obama to a forum earlier this year at his Saddleback Church, since Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had also been invited. "Religious leaders obviously have every...

And like Pastor Warren, we think there’s strong reason to believe that suppression of the right of religious leaders to oppose homosexuality is a goal of the homosexual-rights movement — right up alongside their drive to persuade courts and legislatures to legalize same-sex “marriage” over the objections of most Americans.

Sending a message: Barack Obama and his razor-sharp political team had to know that asking the Rev. Rick Warren to pray at the inauguration would outrage the left, especially gay-rights leaders upset about California's rejection of same-sex marriage. Some commentators think Obama deliberately picked a fight -- a la Bill Clinton vs. Sister Souljah -- to show that he won't be pushed around by a Democratic constituency. More likely: He wants to show he's serious about inclusion (and re-election) by extending a hand to a key Republican constituency and to younger evangelicals whose agenda overlaps his in places. And don't...

Surely no one would claim that Rev. Jeremiah Wright is closer to the centerpoint of American politics than Pastor Rick Warren, right? Wrong. Here's Chris Matthews on this evening's Hardball. CHRIS MATTHEWS: It seems like Barack Obama, as much as seems to inspire people, including me, has a problem with pastors. I don't know what it is. You get him hooked up with a pastor, whether it's Jeremiah Wright, or it's this guy Rick Warren. One's on the left, one's on the far right. Both are causing him trouble. View video here. So Wright's merely "left," while Warren's "far-right." Do...

On the surface, something about Barack Obama picking Rick Warren to give his inauguration invocation seemed fishy. I mean, Warren was the man responsible for one of Obama's few (and perhaps biggest) campaign faux pas, when he made Barack look silly last summer trying to answer the question "When does life begin?" But then I realized that Barack, brilliant politician that he is, was using his special reverse "If I can't beat him, join ME!" psychology, already duping Warren and many of his on-the-surface Christians into his camp for the next election. However, while I predict this pick for Obama...

On the surface, something about Barack Obama picking Rick Warren to give his inauguration invocation seemed fishy. I mean, Warren was the man responsible for one of Obama's few (and perhaps biggest) campaign faux pas, when he made Barack look silly last summer trying to answer the question "When does life begin?" But then I realized that Barack, brilliant politician that he is, was using his special reverse "If I can't beat him, join ME!" psychology, already duping Warren and many of his on-the-surface Christians into his camp for the next election. However, while I predict this pick for Obama...

On Thursday’s The View, co-host Joy Behar expressed her displeasure at President-Elect Barack Obama’s choice of Rick Warren for the invocation at his inauguration: “I don’t think it’s appropriate. It’s like putting, you know, Cheney in charge of gun control. It’s wrong....it’s just wrong.” The topic of Obama choosing Warren came up during the regular opening “Hot Topics” segment of the ABC daytime program. Whoopi Goldberg, who moderated the segment, introduced the controversy behind this choice: “...[A] lot of folks are opposed to this gentleman: gay -- because he opposes gay marriage, he’s anti-abortion -- he’s got a lot of...

WAAAAH! Why can't we have everything exactly our way? WAAAAH! Barack Obama chose someone to deliver the invocation at his inaugural that we don't like! WAAAH! Even though nobody remembers what is said at the invocation we are going to soil our diapers over this! Yes, the DUmmies are throwing a conniption fit over Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inaugural next month and it is FUn to see them go over the edge as you can read in this THREAD titled, "Rick Warren? OK then, f*ck you too, Mr. Obama." So let us...

Rick Warren had a surprisingly candid response to Ann Curry's question as to whether he would change his views on homosexuality if it were established that people are born gay. The pastor of the Saddleback Church, explaining why such a finding wouldn't cause him to change his position, observed that he is inclined to want to have sex with every beautiful woman he sees, but that that doesn't make it right. Curry interviewed Warren for a Dateline segment that will be aired tonight on NBC. As noteworthy as Warren's admission was the righteous liberal anger, captured in the screengrab, Curry...