Now he's at it again. Most of the US media only recently caught wind of the fact that Warren has long been tied to a virulently anti-gay Christian "pastor" in Uganda named Martin Ssempa. But two astute journalists, Ed Brayton and Max Blumenthal, have been writing about this for almost a year now. Ssempa has been involved in such things as publishing the names of "accused" homosexuals in newspapers while simultaneously calling for them to be arrested and jailed for this "crime". Rick Warren has actually cited his association with Ssempa as evidence of his "compassionate" involvement in fighting HIV/AIDS!!!!But Ssempa, who has appeared as a guest preacher at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church, was not satisfied with the existing laws in Uganda already making it crime to be gay. And so Ssempa has supported new laws that include stricter penalties and even in some cases the death penalty. Warren claims to have severed ties with Ssempa, but has refused to condemn the proposed new legislation in Uganda. Warren did, however, publicly campaign in favor of California Proposition 8, which resulted in adding a ban on gay marriage to the state constitution.
Warren pulled the wool over a lot of peoples' eyes with his "Purpose Driven" spiel. I hope those folks are learning from this.
I love the title of this blog post. It is precisely what I would have put on a placard to protest Warren's megachurch after prop 8 passed, had I been a southern California resident. Maybe I would put a question mark at the end of it, like "The Hatred Driven Life?"
ReplyDeleteHaving Warren do the invocation for the inauguration was one of the most annoying things Obama has done so far. A huge bummer.