Meet The Press Plays Softball With Rick Warren
Ah, to be Rev. Rick Warren on a “very special” Thanksgiving Meet the Press. Despite being connected to a Ugandan minister who supports the death penalty for gays, you don’t get asked about it — not even in a follow-up to the interview that occurred weeks earlier — and you aren’t pressed to explain your “I’m not a politician” position while calling abortion a “holocaust” and discussing your public position in opposing same-sex marriage in California.
The most heated questioning — if you could call it that — came when David Gregory asked Warren to explain his role in supporting Proposition 8 in California, which outlawed same-sex marriage. After Warren went into a “loaves and fishes” tangent to deflect the question, Gregory pushed harder.
MR. GREGORY: Just sticking with that topic for just a moment. If the issue of legalizing gay marriage comes up again…
MR. WARREN: Mm-hmm.
MR. GREGORY: …on the ballot in California…
MR. WARREN: Mm-hmm.
MR. GREGORY: …would you work to fight that?
MR. WARREN: You know, my position on gay marriage is very clear and it hasn’t changed. What I do believe in is that it is my job to love everybody, no doubt about it.
MR. GREGORY: So you would fight it?
MR. WARREN: Well, again, I’m not a politician. I didn’t fight it in the last issue. What was misunderstood is people, people on both sides tried to make me the campaign leader. I only mentioned it one time, and I mentioned it to my own congregation when I was asked, “What is our position on this?” and I made a video for our congregation. Well, that was dumb, because it immediately went everywhere and then all the sudden it looked like I was the big campaigner. And–but I wasn’t. Of course I have a position on it. As a pastor, I happen to believe what the Bible says. But I also believe that I understand the pain that people feel from rejection. So I care about both angles.
But back to the unasked questions about Uganda. Andrew Sullivan has called Warren the “Silent Enabler Of Hatred” for backing Martin Ssempe, who has authored Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009. Newsweek’s Lisa Miller quotes Warren as saying “[t]he fundamental dignity of every person, our right to be free, and the freedom to make moral choices are gifts endowed by God, our creator. However, it is not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations.”
So why no Uganda questions from Gregory? You have the heir to Billy Graham’s bully pulpit on your show for over 20 minutes, and not a single question about why he works with leaders in Uganda who support the death penalty for gay people as part of AIDS reduction efforts?
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24 comments
CaptainAmerica says: My goodness, would one website hire a writer whose main job isn’t to promote the homosexual agenda!
straitshooter says: So Andrew “Captain Homo” Sullivan thinks Gregory should have conducted a more homo-centric interview with a man whose opinions on homosexuality and gay marriage couldn’t be more obvious and clearly stated. The only reason to harp on it would be if Gregory thinks Warren’s opinion is wrong. But Gregory is an actual journalist, so he doesn’t get to decide what is right or wrong.
And since same-sex marriage has been rejected by the voters of every state who are asked about it, isn’t this issue resolved? Gays have two options. Live without marriage, or continue to allow judges and legislatures to hijack the issue against the will of the people.
Gays are a very small percentage of the country, and the world, and there are more pressing matters that deserve our attention.
Now, if Gregory had actually made a move on Warren, and the show went to commercial with Warren hunching Gregory over the Meet the Press roundtable, that would have been funny. Warren to Gregory: “I wish I knew how to quit you!”
ImNotBlue says: Remember folks… Warren is “connected” to this particular Ugandan Minister.
But Barack Obama ISN’T “connected” to Rev. Wright, Bill Ayres, etc. etc.
Sometimes a connection is important, and sometimes it’s not. It’s a double standard… but you know, that’s politics for you. Just try not to think about the overt hypocrisy, and you’ll be alright.
roxsteady says: And Palin is connected to that crazy witch doctor preacher and her skanky daughters sperm donar and his mom, the pill pusher now serving time! Just try to think about the hypocricy and you’ll be alright!
ImNotBlue says: roxsteady says:
November 30, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Out of curiosity… of all those people who are “connected” to unsavory folks… which one of them is the elected leader of this country? I sometimes get confused when two private citizens are apparently on par with the President.
straitshooter says: Abortion is quite obviously a holocaust. Depending on your position, it is either a holocaust of innocent newborns, or a holocaust of a cluster of cells with the potential to be an innocent newborn, but either way, this is something that was living prior to the procedure and dead afterward. Repeat 30 million times, and you’ve got yourself a holocaust.
Pat Doherty says: Max Blumenthal? Really?
stephen rhymer says: Rev. Rick “The Money Machine” Warren gets a free pass from everyone. It’s sad Gregory didn’t have the balls to really challenge him on a number of issues.
Russert would have.
m says: Sad to see David Gregory do such an incredible softball interview. Colbert got harder questions by Russert.
>since same-sex marriage has been rejected by the voters of every state who are asked about it, isn’t this issue resolved? Gays have two options. Live without marriage, or continue to allow judges and legislatures to hijack the issue against the will of the people.
Congratulations, you just proved why voting for liberties is stupid. There are by far less gays than there are straight people. If we’d all vote for individual liberties all the time every single minority would lose all the time. It’s a rigged game. That’s why individual liberties, such as freedom of speech and right to property, are guaranteed rights from birth.
rmbltmbl says: Marriage isn’t a right. Civil unions are.
m says: Who says that? You? Sorry, but you have no right to say what constitutes a proper marriage. There’s a separation between church and state in this country. Just because someone’s religious beliefs is “offended” by this doesn’t mean they have the right to block an individual from marrying another.
America doesn’t do “separate but equal”.
ImNotBlue says: m says:
November 30, 2009 at 9:11 pm
I think rmbtmbl’s point is that “marriage” isn’t actually a right. Allowing people to be “united” or “unioned” is… marriage, not so much.
Personally, I believe the easiest way to solve all this is to declare that EVERYONE can get “civil unioned,” and that’s all the government gives out. However, if you want to get “married,” do it in your specific church / temple / grass hut on the hill. If you don’t want to get “gay married,” or your church doesn’t agree with it, fine… but I don’t like the government telling me who I can and who I can’t marry. That’s too much government for this guy.
wow, for once I agree with you. Government should get out of the business of deciding who can get married. I think society has an interest in encouraging long-term stable relationships no matter the combinations of genitalia involved. Split it into civil unions (available to anyone) and religious marriages (having no legal impact.)
rmbltmbl says: Agreed, ImNotBlue, I wish it worked that way myself. Sooner or later, people will be making the argument of, ‘why is marriage confined only to human beings?’ I’m all for civil unions, married people shouldn’t receive special entitlements versus gay couples. They want marriage though, probably just because they can’t.
ImNotBlue says: Vidiot says:
November 30, 2009 at 11:00 pm
Eh… I’m just trying to keep you on your toes.
Jelperman says: I’m Not Blue, are you trying to be funny or are you really that stupid? Rev. Wright never advocated violence, which is what Palin’s witch-finder and Warren’s Ugandan Stormtrooper did. On top of that, Palin’s witchhunter led a lynch mob to chase an old woman from her home, threatening to kill her, while Ssempe wants to carry out a Final Solution for the Homo Question.
Jelperman says: Congratulations, you just proved why voting for liberties is stupid. There are by far less gays than there are straight people. If we’d all vote for individual liberties all the time every single minority would lose all the time. It’s a rigged game. That’s why individual liberties, such as freedom of speech and right to property, are guaranteed rights from birth.
Betty Bowers explains in terms that even dimwits can understand.
jimmymaher says: I thought it was great. Obama fielded the spin questions well, but I’m glad that Russert asked questions about real issues moreso than spin like Wright. Obama hit the energy question out of the park. Obama’s stance on energy reform was one of the biggest reasons I decided to support him in the first place. He’s also the first presidential candidate that I can remember that has clearly said that we need to utilize nuclear power more actively. The other thing that I thought was great about this interview was that Obama again showed his incredible integrity in not attacking Clinton nearly as much as he could, and maybe should, have. He took little jabs, sure, but fell short of demonizing her as she has repeatedly done him. Obama has clearly shown, to me anyway, that he has moved past the issues of Wright and “bittergate” to focus on the issues that drove him to run in the first place.
Multivitamins
Fidoohki says: jimmymaher says:
Until he complete is socialist/communist/ facist agenda right? :P Sorry, couldn’t resist. Seriously though,
if he was so ‘pro nuclear’ why did he yank funding for construction of the only national storage facility
of nuclear waste?
http://www.slate.com/id/2212792/entry/1003795/
This is just another example of what I call ‘lawyering’, where he sticks to the letter of what he said, not the
spirit Obama made everyone else believe he meant. It’s why alot of people don’t like him.
Now as for the gay rights issue? As long as there are protections ofr religous groups and churchs so they
are not forced to recognized the union I have no problem with gay ‘marriage’.
ImNotBlue says: Jelperman says:
December 1, 2009 at 2:07 am
Wright never advocated violence… he just applauded it. “Chickens come home to roost,” sounds like a “Hooray” if I’ve ever heard one.
Of course, the connection between Wright and that other guy isn’t quite the same. As I remember, Palin met the guy what… once? And Obama was with Wright for 20 years, and said he was a part of his “family.” So, I suppose my response to your question is, “are YOU trying to be funny or are you really that stupid?”
Nachi says: Ahh, Rick! Another “Man of God.” Ummm. Another fundamentalist thug who will leap back as tho you just stabbed him with a flaming homosexual cattle prod – then fall into a swoon about how “neat” it is that angels can actually fly!! “Jesus Is My Co-pilot.”
Jelperman says: You really are an imbecile, aren’t you? Thomas Jefferson said he was fearful that there might be a just god, since such a deity would smite the United States of America for its wickedness. Ulysses Grant said the Civil War was god’s retribution against this country not only for slavery, but for this country had done to the Indians and Mexicans. If it’s good enough for Jefferson and Grant to say this country was courting god’s wrath for its evil deeds, then it’s good enough for anyone else -including Wright.
chrcon says: Nobody on this site, Rick Warren or anybody else determines what is right and what is wrong. God does. He does is through The Bible. It is the only source of absolute truth. The Bible is clear on many things including that salvation and thus eternal life in Heaven come solely through Biblically believing In Jesus Christ.
While I have a number of disagreements with Rick Warren, he was absolutely correct if he stated that “abortion is a holocaust.” God creates each one of us, and taking innocent life via abortion is a sin. If Rick Warren still believes that homosexuality is a sin. He is once again correct. Not because he believes it, but because God clearly says so in the Bible. Anyone that denies that clear teaching of Scripture is either: 1)Doesn’t want to see the clear Biblical teaching on homosexuality; 2)Blinded to the truth; 3)Knows the truth and doesn’t care; 4)Doesn’t know what the Bible teaches.
But neither abortion nor homosexuality is the unforgivable sin. Jesus paid the price for every sin. But in order to be forgiven for your sins, the Bible is clear that you have to Biblically believe In Jesus for your salvation. Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15: 3-4: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures”
God wants everyone to come to believe in Jesus so you can spend eternity in Heaven instead of paying the price for your own sins in hell. If you reject that free gift for whatever reason, one second after you die you will regret that choice for eternity.
May God open your heart to His truth.
ImNotBlue says: Jelperman says:
December 1, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Yes, clearly Wright is a hero of our time. In fact, there are about 3000 people who I think you should tell this to… let them know how Wright’s celebration of THEIR murder is a good thing.
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