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The more you learn about Rick Warren, the more you should be worried.
Hat tip to BuzzFlash, which ran an excerpt from the April 17, 2005 speech:
"In 1939, in a stadium much like this, in Munich Germany, they packed it out with young men and women in brown shirts, for a fanatical man standing behind a podium named Adolf Hitler, the personification of evil.
And in that stadium, those in brown shirts formed with their bodies a sign that said, in the whole stadium, "Hitler, we are yours."
And they nearly took the world.
Lenin once said, "give me 100 committed, totally committed men and I'll change the world." And, he nearly did.
A few years ago, they took the sayings of Chairman Mao, in China, put them in a little red book, and a group of young people committed them to memory and put it in their minds and they took that nation, the largest nation in the world by storm because they committed to memory the sayings of the Chairman Mao.
When I hear those kinds of stories, I think 'what would happen if American Christians, if world Christians, if just the Christians in this stadium, followers of Christ, would say 'Jesus, we are yours'?
What kind of spiritual awakening would we have?"
Later, the Ayatollah Warren tells his flock to hold up their "Whatever It Takes" signs. They blindly follow.
Chad on BuzzFlash is absolutely correct when he says the following:
"Whatever it takes." To do what? Giving Warren the legitimacy of his place in the Inauguration makes him stronger, not weaker. And given his extreme stances on his fellow human beings, that makes us off to a less than ideal start on Tuesday.
You are so right about Warren being extremely dangerous!
By the way, you may enjoy my latest post at Contextual Criticism, which deals with the question: If the Bible can be reinterpreted by the christianists to allow divorce for abuse, why can't gays get a little respect?
Peace!
Jacob
I saw this last week.
This is some chilling stuff. Warren is a nutcase. I don't care if he's wearing a Hawaiian shirt or if Melissa Ethridge likes the guy or not.
Rick Warren is a kook.
To be incredibly charitable to the Obama admin they are keeping their enemies close, but...don't buy it myself.
(also in his rogues gallery Stalin is the mass murdering tyrant Lenin quote notwithstanding)
You know as much as I refuse to believe in stuff like anti-christs...
Asking Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation is like Obama giving W the launch codes to the football.
LibHomo -
Thanks for this - it is appalling.
I cannot believe someone as politically astute as the Carebear is still extending Warren legitimacy. Every thinking person should be alarmed that this is The Change We Can Believe In.
Regards,
Tengrain
Warren gave up on being a good Christian when he hungered for money and power and craved a bigger audience. People like this exude none of the good espoused by Jesus, just the denseness of his followers.
Yikes! Whatever it takes, regardless of the "quaint" Geneva convention.
Pretty scary, indeed. And people excuse this guy and think he's "moderate." NOT.
So I saw the prayer today and---meh. Much ado about nothing, IMHO. He didn't say anything that I haven't heard hundreds of pastors say, but I don't think he said it nearly as well as others have. It was sort of--folksy but in a way that looks unremarkable when held up next to someone like Obama. I half expected him to start doing the "Charismatic shuffle" toward the end--Warren's voice took on that familiar tone.
On the whole, trite and cringe-worthy but nothing to get all worked up over.
It is good to see that many people are realizing what a dangerous religious extremist Rick Warren really is. The corporate media and the Obama people have been working hard to reinforce Warren's seemingly reasonable public facade, when people with expertise on the Christian Right, especially Orange County, CA Christ-Marts like Saddleback Church know better.
The issue was never about the specifics of Warren's unconstitutional prayer. The issue was that involving him in such an important government function increases the clout and fundraising capacity of a dangerous madman. It also makes his followers feel justified in their bigotry, acts of violence, and their contempt for American values like freedom and democracy.
The problem of the Christian Taliban and its totalitarian leadership will not go away any time in the immediate future. People need to wake up and realize that these fanatics must be resisted and exposed at every opportunity.