http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2008/12/19/hagee_wright_warren_another Comments On: Hagee, Wright, Warren: Another Troublesome Priest by Dan Savage en-us Copyright 2009 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:00:01 -0800 Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:30:00 -0800 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss I can't think of a single pastor who supports gay rights that would be accepted or respected by the evangelical community.

That's not the point. I don't need that, and I'm comfortably saying that most of us didn't need that. Hell, Obama doesn't support gay marriage and we voted for him anyway.

We don't need a liberal Unitarian. It would be nice, but it wasn't an absolute necessity. But what we don't need either is a hateful, cruel preacher who basically preaches violence against us. THAT'S what our problem is. Obama could have picked a conservative minister. We all probably expected that. Why did he pick a hateful one?

Anyone he would have chosen--it didn't need to be someone famous--we'd have looked him up and learned about him, and his conservative leanings would have been well-known and the base would have been happy and blah, blah, blah. There are plenty of conservative ministers out there who aren't hateful.

Yes, he has a gay-friendly pastor. The opposite of gay-friendly isn't hate. Hate doesn't provide "balance" to acceptance.

Obama has elevated this guy to Billy Graham's position. This is inexcusably irresponsible of him. I expected better from him.
Posted by jade]]> Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:21:17 -0800 The Stranger
Mel White immediately springs to mind--I'm not religious and don't follow the evangelical community--but I'm sure there are plenty of others. They just don't make the news.
Posted by Original Andrew]]> Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:52:31 -0800 The Stranger
Really? I can't think of a single pastor who supports gay rights that would be accepted or respected by the evangelical community. Who would you suggest?
Posted by Hernandez]]> Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:47:08 -0800 The Stranger
People are pissed because we've been lied to and fucked over so many times by the Demoncrats. Deep down, this is probs an expression of the (increasingly justified) fear that Obama is gonna totally shut us out of the government. We're already being told that gay rights issues don't matter and won't be addressed until after 2010 at the earliest.

As I stated, there are other pastors out there who would've been fine choices. There's no fucking way he would have chosen a pastor that says blacks are rapists, criminals and pedophiles, for example.
Posted by Original Andrew]]> Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:12:43 -0800 The Stranger
Bottom line is we should be concerned that Obama does not get it. Seriously, Obama doesn't get how this is harmful to people.
Posted by Cato the Younger Younger]]> Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:08:42 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Vince]]> Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:01:25 -0800 The Stranger
Whatever, dude. This was a total asshole move by Obama.


I don't think he did it to piss us off, though this is amazingly cruel and insensitive; it seems obvious that he just doesn't care about the LGBT community.

There are other choices besides Jabba the Douchebag Master-Pastor that would've reached out to the evangelical community and been far less divisive.
Posted by Original Andrew]]> Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:55:38 -0800 The Stranger
Assuming I'm straight and white is both homophobic and racist, oops.

"Screw symbolism", you say, "they want us to shut up" others shriek, and yet people expect evangelicals to simply vanish? Hypocrisy, much? It's like arming your enemies by saying "you, large group of americans that carried two elections in a row, you are now unwelcome to my political base".
Posted by AJ]]> Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:39:20 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Jonathon]]> Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:26:48 -0800 The Stranger
I like the choice of Warren, since Obama is not going to be President when Warren gives his invocation, but is certainly going to be President when the pro-GLBT Reverend Lowery gives his benediction. The symbolism is great, and amusingly lost on most gay people.
Posted by AJ]]> Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:09:52 -0800 The Stranger
You cannot piss off your base and expect to be re-elected. That goes for either party.
Posted by Cato the Younger Younger]]> Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:00:32 -0800 The Stranger
No wonder the gay rights movement is stuck in the mud, everyone thought it was suddenly okay to be passive-aggressive hand-wringers.
Posted by AJ]]> Fri, 19 Dec 2008 10:48:35 -0800 The Stranger
If this political gamble was "working", then you'd expect to see pundits and blogs on the right jumping up to defend Obama's decision to invite Warren. Do you see that happening? I don't.

Posted by Hernandez]]> Fri, 19 Dec 2008 10:07:55 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Cato the Younger Younger]]> Fri, 19 Dec 2008 10:07:51 -0800 The Stranger