My two cents on Rick Warren

On Jan 20th, 2009 Rick Warren, the author of “The Purpose Driven Life” will give the invocation at Obama’s inaguration, the first black president. A lot of controversy has emerged since Rick Warren is an outspoken bigot towards gays, have once stated (until last Friday on his website*) that gays are not welcome at his church unless they repent, compared homosexuality to criminal sex offenders (pedophilia, incest and polygamy**). It’s not only that he is against gay marriage; he is against the gay gene, thinks it should’ve been eradicated a long time ago. He enthusiastically campaigned for Prop 8***. It’s no surprise a lot of gays are dumbfounded why Obama would pick suck a divisive person to deliver the country’s prayer. Yes, there are those who say Obama said he would reach across the aisle, take hands and force us to hear their voices. I thought we heard their voices at Mathew Sheppard’s funerals, I thought we heard their voices at many AIDS funerals, I thought we heard their voices at the Gay parades across the country, I thought we heard their voices in the church growing up, but I guess we need to hear their voices again on the day we so many gays thought they campaigned, marched, canvass for someone who promised change. Yet, I decided to be open minded. I wanted to understand the meaning of “Invocation.”


An invocation is the act of invoking or calling upon a deity, spirit, etc., for aid, protection, inspiration, and supplication.


As a supplication or prayer it implies to call upon God to ask for protection, spiritual presence like the Lord's Prayer. Taken from bible, Matthew 6:9–13 (King James Version) in which Jesus says, our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.


As a kid growing up in a Baptist church I’ve probably said the Lord’s Prayer a thousand times. We said it before every meal. Sometimes we said it before sleep. I never really understood the meaning, just that it was forced into my memory like the American Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance.


I believe in god. I do. I’m not sure if I believe in my childhood god anymore. As I got older, I started becoming more of a Buddhist. I blame the book “Saddathra.” I’ve always believed in reincarnation even as a child. I know I’ve been here on this earth many times before. I also believe there was once a Jesus. I think Jesus has been here many times before, in many different ways. I don’t believe in Adam and Eve, not just because I’m gay, it just that it doesn’t explain a lot. I mean if man gave woman a rib, why do men and woman have the same amount of ribs. “Here's something else that disproves the story early life was asexual meaning it had both sex organs and reproduced without the need for a mate at all. It was only later when nature needed a way to control overpopulation that the sexes split into two distinct ones. And when all life starts out it starts out female. As far scientists can see it's the male sex that is a mutation of the female. Why? Because the design of the female body would be able to both germinate and carry offspring while the male could not.” I also believe God is a hermaphrodite. If god is everything, then god is one. Which means god is gay and straight, black and white, male and female. Why in life is there always an opposite. So if black is the opposite of white, and male is the opposite of female, then what is the opposite of straight, it’s gay.


The need for prayer on Election Day I feel is necessary. America at the moment is getting hopeless by the day. I wonder what happened to the invocation when President Bush was sworn into office. Interesting enough, the person that did his invocation, also known as the Pastor to the President was Cuban born - Reverend Dr. Luis Leon. (http://geocities.com/reunionfor1969/LLeon.html )


Usually the person who does the invocation is the thought to be the President’s Pastor, reverend or rabbi or spiritual leader. I guess Barack Obama spiritual advisor of twenty years, who married him and baptized his kids could no longer be part of his life. We all are told to forget Rev. Wright. He almost cost Obama his presidency. Yet, the choice of Rick Warren as the nations Pastor, spiritual advisor is so appalling. It’s “Gem” fantastic outrageous.
Yet, picking Rick Warren has forced the issues of gay Americans. Some people still think being gay is a willful choice of deviation. Some people still think all gays are going to hell. Hate crime has increased since the passing of Prop 8 which indirectly gives the entitled permission to their prejudice and hate. Some people still think gays only make up a small percentage of the population therefore not constitutional relevant. Some gays have gone back into the closet even farther. It scares the shit out of us, gay and straight, to have to deal with an issue.
I think it’s beautiful that so many gays (like me) have protested the picking of Rick Warren. I know some people have advised Obama must know what he is doing because he’s so damn pragmatic. Yet, I know different. I’ve said he is either dumb as a doorknob or smart as a fox. Or he is really truly arrogant and only care about his political future. The choice has forced gays, all gays across the spectrum, lesbians and gay men, black , white, Hispanic and transgender to say “hey, what the hell!”


I know many people, like Mellissa Elderidge, didn’t know anything about Rick Warren. I only knew him because I read the “Purpose Driven Life” like three years ago. It truly changed my life. I would still recommend the book.


After reading the book, I decided to see what I thought was a profound preacher was really about. I got online and researched him. I went to his website. I watched videos of him on YouTube****. The more I found out, the sicker in the stomach I got. I found out he hated me. I found out he didn’t think my life was purposeful. I found out he was a fat bastard. I buried his book in the back of the closet and decided to just forget about him. He showed up again. I remember watching CNN and he invited Obama and McCain to his church. I didn’t think much about it. I remember the day of Prop 8, he showed up on YouTube encouraging his followers to pass the bill. He again blasted that homosexuality was incest, pedophilia and criminal. The next day Obama won. It was a great day, being that I am black. It was a year I canvassed for Obama. I donated to his campaign. I felt I was part of the movement. I slightly forgot that not only was I black, I was also gay. I guess I saw myself as Bayard Rustin, the architecture of the March on Washington. I assumed when Obama meant change, he meant everyone. He said he was politically going to reach across the aisle. I thought that meant he was going to fight for better healthcare, school systems, taxes, jobs, things that all Americans needed. I never thought he was going to test a core part of his constituents.


I had decided along with many other gays, to protest inauguration day. I was going to make my signs and show up when Rick Warren gave his speech. I used to ask myself if I was more black than gay. I used to think of myself as a black gay man, not a gay black man. Yet, it’s becoming very clear that I am a gay black man. I still have my issues with being gay. I still have my issues with gay white men. I guess I considered myself black first because in the bigger picture of being gay, I am still black because most gay men are still white. It’s complicated.
I am so happy that America elected a black president. I felt for three weeks the world had changed. And then I realized it hadn’t. Homophobias in the black community roots are deep. The black churches were the first to turn their back on AIDS. The black churches felt AIDS was a gay disease. And when black women started getting AIDS, it was blamed on closeted black men living on the down low. Somehow being gay had leaked over to the black population. I guess Obama is just another religious black man.


I pray that Obama see the error is his ways, not be lead into temptation like he did with Rev Wright, like how he did with Axelrod who built his home, how like he did with William Ayers, like how he return his aunt’s contribution money when he suddenly found out she was in the states illegally, like how he is now distancing himself from the corrupted Illinois Governor. I will pray for Rick Warren and now I will begin to question Obama. The honeymoon is over. And he is not even in office yet.

The truth what Rick Warren has said, can’t be unsaid, but must be formally repented. Here are the notes for this article, since people really don’t have any idea who Rick Warren is. Listen in his own words.


http://www.americablog.com/2008/12/rick-warren-explicitly-bans-unrepentant.html (Since the outrage the page has been taken off, I’m assuming until after the inguration.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvyyEIEDqrQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRVPxK9VPEY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o4QqGbQmU0&feature=related (Warren endorses Prop 8)

Special Notes: I admit since the outrage, Warren has been desperately trying to do a PR overhaul. I’m just waiting to see what happens, but in the meantime I will begin my letters to Rick Warren, trying to sort out my feelings about the entire ordeal.