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SADDLEBACK MOUNTAIN

Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church, is complicit in creating a mountain of controversy, following his invitation to deliver the invocation at next month’s inauguration ceremonies. Preselect Obama’s staff obviously failed their due diligence in vetting Pastor Warren. If they had, it is assumed they would have anticipated this hullabaloo, which already has marred the planning of the inaugural. Obama’s people either overlooked or found inconsequential the following salient points about Pastor Warren and his church:

• California Proposition 8. This was an initiative on last month’s ballot that called for amending California’s constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage. The proposition passed, and immediately created a firestorm of protests and demonstrations. Apart from strong minority support from African Americans and Latinos, the campaign to pass the proposition was heavily financed and supported by the Church of Latter-day Saints. It was also backed by other religious institutions, including Pastor Warren’s Saddleback Church. The churches’ campaign paid for advertisements which were misleading and downright untrue. This blatant, twisted propaganda was instrumental in creating the post-election turmoil. Subsequently, polls have shown that the proposition would be defeated if it were at issue today. Along with that, the governor, attorney general and other state officials have become potential amici curiae in forthcoming legal attempts to overturn the proposition. The affair has now taken on the specter of Kenneth Starr, who dogged Bill Clinton much as Javert pursued Jean Valjean. His role is to petition the court to dissolve the tens of thousands of same-sex marriages contracted prior to the proposition. In all of this, Saddleback’s pastor is in the forefront of altering the state’s constitution, to the point of eliminating rights formerly granted to a specific class of citizens.

• SADDLEBACK’S HOMOPHOBIA. In light of the initial umbrage taken over Pastor Warren’s being invited to participate in the inauguration, one might have expected him to lie low and not fan the flames of the conflagration. But no, he jumped right on in, and in so doing he has exposed his and his church’s gay-phobic warts. Many might assume that Warren and Obama held the same position on same-sex marriage. While Obama, as a federal official, has declared his opposition to same-sex marriage, he refuses to interfere with the states in regard to any decision they may take. Warren, on the other hand, not only actively participates in voiding certain constitutional rights; he equates same-sex marriage with pedophilia, incest and polygamy. He stated that on NBC’s Today Show. In a recent video on the Saddleback Internet site, he contradicts what he said at the interview, obviously attempting to clean up a nasty mess that has gotten out of control. On that same Web site, it had been pointed out that the church had published its policy indicating that gay folk who are “unrepentant” are not welcome in the church. When that got in the news, the offending statement was removed from the site, with the explanation that the policy was being re-worked.

Pastor Warren states that he has had discussions with gay representatives, and that he has served them “water and donuts.” That is very commendable—not exactly on the level of the One he purports to emulate, the One who did not differentiate among persons with whom he would share baskets of fishes, and bread and wine.