Overstatement

I’ve been getting a lot of email expressing outrage at the selection of Rick Warren to offer up his prayers for our new president. One friend has sent me a laundry list of outrageous videos showcasing the offensive comments Pastor Rick has made about gays and lesbians. For instance:

His logic evades me. Yet there are a lot of people who listen to this guy and give him credit. Most pastors I know, even progressive ones, have a copy of Warren’s Purpose Driven Church and many have his more recent and more popular Purpose Driven Life. He’s had an enormous impact on the church in the US. But his language on homosexuality is laughably ignorant and blatantly homophobic. I have both his books. The “church” one is a helpful book for pastors to think creatively about church structures. But the “life” one reads more like a laundry list of do’s and don’ts, and expresses his right-wing agenda in a no-compromise way. I understand that Warren had done much to help victims of AIDS and has tried to reach across boundaries of “liberal” and “conservative.” Nevertheless, he has also expressed hateful opinions about gays and lesbians, comparing homosexuality to child rape and bestiality. Sadly, he doesn’t get it. I’d like to put a reading list together for him, and I’d include the following for his information and enlightenment:

“Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe” (John Boswell)

“Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century” (John Boswell)

“Queering Christ: Beyond Jesus Acted Up” (Robert E. Goss)

“Jesus Acted Up: A Gay and Lesbian Manifesto” (Robert Goss)

Now, I realize he isn’t going to read that stuff, but those books, along with a host of others, really helped my perspective on these issues. More to the point, though, is the fact that the media has almost totally ignored the man Obama has selected to give the benediction. Rev. Joseph Lowery has a distinguished career as an advocate for the outcast. A civil rights leader, he has been in the trenches for a long time working for justice. He is a United Methodist pastor, which of course makes me proud. But he is also a clear voice for justice for all God’s people, and has publicly called for the full-inclusion of gays and lesbians in the church and beyond. I wish progressively-minded people would focus as much attention on Lowery and his message as they have complaining about Warren. Heck, we should all just ignore Warren and turn our attention to a man who has really struggled, advocated, fought and risked for the least and the lost – a man who has embodied the gospel message with his whole life.

Here is Lowery speaking controversial yet prophetic words at the funeral of Coreeta Scott King – embodying the spirt of MLK:

And here is some more information about Lowery at Wikipedia.