Sanctions deserved if Uganda adopts hate law

The Obama administration should make it clear to Uganda, now, that passage of the anti-gay law will result in a cutoff of aid. That "legislation is a violation of human rights," as Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson said Friday. Embodiment of the hate it represents in law, without answering consequences from more human nations, will encourage others to take similar actions.

Oppression is already a fact of life for the Ugandan gay citizenry. The New York Times wrote in an editorial on Monday:

The government’s venom is chilling: “Homosexuals can forget about human rights,” James Nsaba Buturo, who holds the cynically titled position of minister of ethics and integrity, said recently.

What makes this even worse is that three American evangelical Christians, whose teachings about “curing” gays and lesbians have been widely discredited in the United States, helped feed this hatred. Scott Lively, Caleb Lee Brundidge and Don Schmierer gave a series of talks in Uganda last March to thousands of police officers, teachers and politicians in which, according to participants and audio recordings, they claimed that gays and lesbians are a threat to Bible-based family values.

Now the three Americans are saying they had no intention of provoking the anger that, just one month later, led to the introduction of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009. You can’t preach hate and not accept responsibility for the way that hate is manifested.

The U.S. should also lead diplomatically in standing against this evil.

Christianity in social clothing

While some evangelicals are rebranding themselves, turns out college evangelicals are also working on their image.

Christianity Today reports that there has been a shift in how campus ministries are trying to connect with students by emphasizing the social aspect of the gospel.

University of Alabama history professor John Turner told the magazine that ministries with a sincere commitment to social issues can repair the "poor image of campus evangelicals" among students who associate them with homophobia and political conservatism.

"One way for evangelicals to counter these negative stereotypes and put themselves in a position to talk about Jesus is to engage in meaningful social justice work that even non-evangelicals can appreciate. There is a danger of losing sight of evangelistic goals. But not taking these steps presents an even greater danger to those same goals."

Scott Bessenecker, associate director of missions for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, said his organization "is trying to help students embrace and engage the social dimensions of the gospel in a way that will inspire individuals to say, 'I want to follow this Jesus.'"

One can't read the article without thinking of the "social gospel" movement which is more than a century old and still has a strong following among mainline Protestant denominations.

Evangelical leader Rick Warren caught some flak in 2008 for saying the social gospel was in many ways "just Marxism in Christian clothing." Still, however, he said evangelicals should care more about issues such as poverty.

Such caring would be a good start toward an image in the likeness of Christianity's namesake.

Rick Warren's confident appeal

Rick Warren obviously has confidence in the Saddleback Community Church congregation to whom he appealed, with sound expectation of success, for $900,000 to make up for a Christmas shortfall.

LBGT community mockery and progressive critiques both overlook the collective strength evident in the letter's frank appeal, with its notable lack of histrionics.

Warren is addressing a well-educated audience which, hard times and all, has members with wherewithal.

As he and they both know. The Orange County Register reports:

Members of Saddleback Church say they expect the congregation to respond with a big "Amen" and cash to Pastor Rick Warren's appeal for $900,000 by New Year's Eve.

"This is a great opportunity for God to express himself," said Jim Walls, from Trabuco Canyon, who received the news after coming home from a ski trip. "It's a great opportunity for the church to honor God. It's a great opportunity to raise the points of faith that our shepherd Rick Warren lives."

Warren's willingness to make a frank, public appeal into the face of what he knew would be a firestorm from his critics simply underlines his confidence in his parishioners. And the lack of push-back from the Saddleback pews demonstrates theirs in him.

Ssempa returns video fire at Rick Warren (hits self)

Repudiated Rick Warren friend Martin Ssempa, Pastor of the Makerere Community Church, has issued a video response [segments with analysis] which includes all of the errors and distortions of the earlier United National Task Force letter.

Evangelism repositioned, de-acidified, sugar- and money-coated

Gone are the halcyon days of Jerry Falwell declaring 9/11 the result of "throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked." Evangelism, writes Sarah Posner in the Guardian, has been "rebranded:"

The re-branding was the product of evangelicalism's survival instinct in the face of the parody-ready Falwell prototype. One of America's leading evangelicals is now Rick Warren, whose mega-bestseller, The Purpose-Driven Life (2002), begins:

"This is more than a book; it is a guide to a 40-day spiritual journey that will enable you to discover the answer to life's most important question: What on earth am I here for?"

The new evangelicals write books not about how God will smite you, but how God loves you and wants nothing more than your greatest personal, spiritual, and material fulfillment. The middle of the decade saw the publication of televangelist Joel Osteen's Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential (2004) and TD Jakes' Reposition Yourself: Living Life Without Limits (2007). Joyce Meyer's Seven Things That Steal Your Joy: Overcoming the Obstacles to Your Happiness (2004) and Approval Addiction: Overcoming Your Need to Please Everyone (2005) are equally at home at Bible study and coffee klatch, in the church bookstore and at Wal-Mart.

Oh, my.

Focus on the Family opposes Ugandan anti-gay legislation

No LBGT advocate, Focus on the Family has at last drawn a line at Ugandan gay genocide. Colorado Springs Gazette blogger Mark Barna writes:

“As a Christian organization, Focus on the Family Action (the political arm of the family group) encourages pro-family policies. As such, we respect the desire of the Ugandan people to shield their nation from the promotion of homosexuality as a lifestyle morally equivalent to one-man, one-woman marriage. But it is not morally acceptable to enact the death penalty for homosexuals, as some versions of the bill are reported to require.”

“My reaction is to denounce this. It sets a horrible precedent and has a potential for developing hatred.”

Otherwise the Barna news story on the same topic isn't quite as rife with errors as a Richard Land exposition on health care reform. Nonetheless sweepingly erroneous, Barna writes:

Moreover, it’s unfair to single out American evangelical leaders and organizations for not condemning the bill when many world leaders, including President Barack Obama, and human rights groups have also been silent on it.

In fact:

• The White House issued a statement of opposition to the legislation on Dec. 11.
• Human Rights Watch opposition dates to the introduction of the legislation on Oct. 14.
• Amnesty International's opposition also dates to the inception of the legislation.
• Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper took a stand against the legislation in November.
• British Prime Minister Gordon Brown denounced the legislation in November.
• Sweden's stand against the legislation includes a threat to cut off aid and dates to November.
• The European Parliament adopted a denunciation of the legislation on Dec. 17.
• Australia's denunciation of the legislation dates to Dec. 21.

Barna is correct when he writes that "numerous Christian leaders and groups have weighed in." (For example: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

Focus on the Family is a welcome and unexpected late-comer to the family of opponents, not yet joined by the Southern Baptist Convevtion Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

Archbishop of York condemns Ugandan anti-gay bill

Archbishop of York John Sentamu, a senior Anglican cleric who was born in Uganda, approached the celebration of the birth of the Prince of Peace by taking a stand against Uganda's gay genocide bill.

He told BBC:

I'm opposed to the death sentence. I'm also not happy when you describe people in the kind of language you find in this private member's bill. ... [It is] a diminishment of the individuals concerned.

About a third of the Ugandan population considers itself to be affiliated with the Church of Uganda (Anglican).

Sentamu's measured, authoritative voice is an important counter on this issue to the counterfactual, poorly written letter directed by the hastily organized Ugandan National Task Force Against Homosexuality at Saddleback Community Church pastor Rick Warren. The Task Force demanded an apology from Warren, who urged his "fellow pastors in Uganda" to oppose the measure.

About 40% of Uganda's population is Roman Catholic.

Joining Sentamu, Mark Silk writes, was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kampala, Uganda, Cyprian. K. Lwanga, who in his Christmas message said:

The recent tabled Anti-Homosexuality Bill does not pass a test of a Christian caring approach to this issue.

Video of Archbishop Lwanga's message:

Ugandan pastors shoot back (inaccurately) at Rick Warren (hit their own feet)

Monday the very new Ugandan National Task Force Against Homosexuality shot back at Rick Warren, demanding an apology for his letter to fellow pastors in Uganda condemning the proposed Uganda law that would imprison and in in some cases execute homosexuals.

A letter signed by the 20 members and published on Martin Ssempa's Web site said:

Your letter has caused great distress and the pastors are demanding that you issue a formal apology for insulting the people of Africa by your very inapropriate (sic) bully use of your church and purpose driven pulpits to coerse us into the 'evil' of Sodomy and Gaymorrah (sic).

It is a rewrite of a letter sent to Christianity Today last week by the group's chairman, Ssempa (a "former Bush Administration favorite"). Parts of Ssempa's letter are included verbatim in the Task Force letter.

For example, both letters say:

As you yourself say about evil, – “the Bible says evil has to be opposed. Evil has to be stopped. The Bible does not say negotiate with evil. It says stop it. Stop evil."

The task force letter shares errors and misleading language with Ssempa's original, whose claims are compared to the text of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill by Warren Throckmorton.

Both letters say that the purpose of the bill is to protect “the boy child” in the same that the law protects “the girl child.” As Throckmorton points out, that overlooks the opening section of the bill, "which states the purpose." The law is intended to eliminate homosexuality from Uganda by eliminating practice or speech intended to support homosexuals.

Ssempa's letter is properly castigated by GayUgand for "Lying," and the Task Force letter is vulnerable to essentially the same criticisms.

If factual accuracy were the principal issue, the debate would be over and the Ugandan pastors would have helped consign the anti-gay legislation to a permanent spot on the trash heap of history.

SBC's Richard Land distraught that health reform is passing

His Nazi libels and "death panels" prevarications failed to stop health reform, so Richard Land is sad.

The Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) chief is so sad and so busy (like Mike Huckabee) lamenting legislator support for health reform that he still doesn't have time to say a word or two against Uganda's gay genocide legislation.

Five conservative Republican House members understand the importance of taking a stand on that. Where is the ethics in Land's silence?

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni urged by Republicans to stop anti-gay bill

Five House Republicans, all "men of faith," have igned letter urging the president of Uganda to oppose the gay death penalty legislation:

The letter was signed by Reps. Frank Wolf of Virginia, Chris Smith of New Jersey, Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania, Trent Franks of Arizona and Anh "Joseph" Cao of Louisiana.

They call the gay genocide legislation antithetical to the Christian belief in the "inherent dignity and worth" of all human beings, and there are reports that he agrees and has assured U.S. officials that he will block the bill.

Many top U.S. and British religious leaders have also taken clear stands against the legislation and the Vatican has stepped forward against anti-gay violence.

Ugandan gay death legislation dance continues

Mark Silk covers the Ugandan anti-homosexuality act.

We're still looking for Richard Land on Uganda. ERLC has a link to the Baptist Press Warren story, but thus far, that's all she wrote.

Anglical Church head Rowan Williams condemns Ugandan 'gay genocide' legislation

Dr. Rowan Williams

Buried in an interview with the London Telegraph is Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams' first public declaration of opposition to the Ugandan gay genocide legislation. His wording implied that all members of the Anglican Communion, obviously including those in Uganda, should oppose the legislation. He stopped just short of calling out Ugandan Archbishop Henry Orombi.

The Telegraph's George Pitcher wrote [emphasis ours]:

"Overall, the proposed legislation is of shocking severity and I can’t see how it could be supported by any Anglican who is committed to what the Communion has said in recent decades,” says Dr Williams. “Apart from invoking the death penalty, it makes pastoral care impossible – it seeks to turn pastors into informers.” He adds that the Anglican Church in Uganda opposes the death penalty but, tellingly, he notes that its archbishop, Henry Orombi, who boycotted the Lambeth Conference last year, “has not taken a position on this bill”.

Williams' hand was apparently forced by the dramatically announced opposition of similarly reluctant Saddleback Community Church pastor Rick Warren (Williams interview is dated Dec. 11, shortly after Warren's statement), and a parade of other religious leader opposition, including the implicit opposition of the Vatican. Ekklesia reported that several British Christian organizations had also expressed opposition, "including Accepting Evangelicals, Changing Attitude, Courage, Ekklesia, Fulcrum and the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement."

Williams became a focus of criticism when he remained silent on Uganda yet issued a sharp, immediate rebuke to the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles for on Dec. 5 choosing as bishop the Rev. Canon Mary D. Glasspool, a lesbian who has been in a partnered relationship for two decades.

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori took a stand against "the pending Ugandan legislation that would introduce the death penalty for people who violate portions of that country's anti-homosexuality laws," in effective contrast with Williams' silence.

The effect of growing international pressure on the legislation is still unclear. It is part of an Africa-wide slide toward repression of homosexuals, the Guardian reported today (12/13) [emphasis ours]:

There is wide support for [Ndorwa West, Uganda, MP David] Bahati's [anti-homosexuality] law which, while being an extreme piece of anti-gay legislation, is not unique. As far as gay rights are concerned, it would appear that much of Africa is going backwards. Nigeria has a similar bill waiting to reach its statute books and already allows the death penalty for homosexuality in northern states, as does Sudan. Burundi criminalised homosexuality in April this year, joining 37 other African nations where gay sex is already illegal. Egypt and Mali are creeping towards criminalization, using morality laws against same-sex couples.

. . .

He [Bahati] denied reports that international pressure might result in parts of the bill being toned down. "We are not going to yield to any international pressure – we cannot allow people to play with the future of our children and put aid into the game. We are not in the trade of values. We need mutual respect."

That is a contradiction of the earlier Bloomberg News (12/9) report that both the death penalty and life imprisonment would be dropped from the legislation.

Vatican addresses 'gay genocide' laws & like abuses

Thursday without actually mentioning Uganda. the Vatican voiced to a United Nations panel on sexual orientation and gender identity its opposition to "all grave violations of human rights against homosexual persons, such as the use of the death penalty, torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment."

LBGT bloggers (1, 2) saw the statement as tacit opposition to Uganda's gay genocide legislation, although the statement was explicitly a reiteration of a Vatican position taken last year. It also echoed the Vatican's March position condemning violence against homosexuals without supporting the proposed U.N. Declaration on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, recognizing "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" as new categories that need human rights protections.

Scott Long of Human Rights Watch reported that the statement Thursday "stunned" many in attendance and was in part the result of a lobbying effort:

Among the many people who contributed to this truly historic result, in which the Catholic Church affirmed a tradition of peace and charity, I particularly thank Boris Dittrich, who lobbied the Holy See for almost a year to declare this position.

Long also said in an email:

One of the panelists proposed that Rev. Rick Warren, instead of issuing statements from California that rights abuses are bad, needs to go to Uganda-he's preached there before-and tell Ugandans that he opposes jailing LGBT people.

The Reverend Philip J. Bené, J.C.D., legal attaché to the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, said [emphasis mine]

Mr. Moderator,

Thank you for convening this panel discussion and for providing the opportunity to hear some very serious concerns raised this afternoon. My comments are more in the form of a statement rather than a question.

As stated during the debate of the General Assembly last year, the Holy See continues to oppose all grave violations of human rights against homosexual persons, such as the use of the death penalty, torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. The Holy See also opposes all forms of violence and unjust discrimination against homosexual persons, including discriminatory penal legislation which undermines the inherent dignity of the human person.

As raised by some of the panelists today, the murder and abuse of homosexual persons are to be confronted on all levels, especially when such violence is perpetrated by the State. While the Holy See’s position on the concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity remains well known, we continue to call on all States and individuals to respect the rights of all persons and to work to promote their inherent dignity and worth.

Thank you, Mr. Moderator.

When Vatican in 2008 opposed the decriminalization of homosexuality, it was made clear that "no-one can or wants to defend the death penalty for homosexuals, as some people aim to insinuate."

Conservative & liberal voices raised together against anti-gay Ugandan law

Candace Chellew-Hodge puts to sleep the view that Christian leaders signing the statement [.pdf] are just lefties. She writes of the signers:

The first to jump out at me was Ronald Sider from Evangelicals for Social Action. Sider was also a signer of the Manhattan Declaration that clearly spells out its opposition to marriage equality for gays and lesbians here in the states, along with promising civil disobedience to laws allowing such marriages and actively fighting against abortion rights and the curbing of (their) religious freedoms. While Sider may want to prevent gays and lesbians from marrying, at least he has the decency to honor the sanctity of all life, including gays and lesbians. Other conservative signers include Sam Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Council. Rodriguez also signed the Manhattan Declaration and was a supporter of California's Proposition 8 to overturn marriage equality in that state, and has been called the "Karl Rove of Hispanic evangelical strategy." Another notable signer is Mercer University professor and author David Gushee, who has refused to sign the Manhattan Declaration.

Undriven Rick Warren mag dumped [Addendum]

Addendum >>
Unable to inspire enough subscribers, Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Connection quarterly magazine has been sent to the shredder by its partner, the bankrupt Readers Digest Association (RDA).
Launched as one of RDA's “most important and far-reaching ventures ever,” after four print issues the $29-a-year subscriptions magazine and service is closing down its print product "due to a lack of subscriptions." The Christmas issue ends it.
Next, the spin ... wait for it ... .
Yes, later there's another view. The mag didn't fail (What happenened to "lack of subscriptions"?). Actually, the Purpose Driven Connection's Web site is so successful they're responding to reader feedback by going all-digital.
Translation: Readers wouldn't buy the mag but Rick and RDA think they can make a few dollars off a Web site. Yes, now that the magazine's editor Frank Lalli - veteran editor of Money and George magazines - is out on his keister (firing staff saves money), no doubt with others.
Warrens' version of the spin is painfully embarrassing to read:

Our biggest discovery was learning that people prefer reading our content online rather than in print, because it is more convenient and accessible .. [Discovered that, didja? Like the entire newspaper industry worldwide hadn't noticed.] ... So when we heard the feedback and noticed subscriptions to the print magazine lagging behind Internet usage, in spite of strong retail newsstand sales, we jumped at the chance to go all digital. Thankfully, Reader's Digest was willing to help us make the transition. [Maybe recover some of the money lost in that bath they took on your print mag?]

What would you think of the Christian Science Monitor's journalism if they had spun similar tales in October 2008, rather than explaining how print-publication losses left them little choice and staging their transition to full digital

Addendum

In June, while reviewing the 94 magazines owned by RDA, president and CEO Mary Berner held the Purpose Driven Connection venture up as the company's model for future success. The New York Times Stephanie Clifford reported:

For about $30, subscribers get a quarterly magazine with religious workbooks, along with DVDs featuring Mr. Warren, and membership in a social-networking Web site, including tips on what to pray for each week. It is available through churches and at Wal-Marts, and Ms. Berner wants to introduce other unorthodox distribution strategies.

“That is the model going forward,” she said.

...

“It’s an unabashed commitment to and focus on a market that’s ignored but is incredibly powerful,” she said.

...

If the new direction works, Ms. Berner said, she may consider introducing magazines around Rick Warren-like religious personalities, along with increasing the amount of spiritual content in Reader’s Digest itself.
“As far as I’m concerned, I don’t care what the religion is, what the spirituality is, as long as it’s legitimate, there’s a built-in community and it’s global,” Ms. Berner said.

By mid-August, all the other board members had resigned and Berner was leading the company through bankruptcy and contemplating a cut in pay to $1.5 million a year.
RDA's interactive division was reorganized in September, although Purpose Driven Connection was characterized as "in development stages" at the time.
Finally came the announcement that there were "too few subscribers," attended by a refusal to giving any numbers defining what "too few" is.
Instead, death of the print product was spun by Warren into a fortuitous transition to all-digital.

Saddleback recants (almost)

Confusing, both because correction was delayed until the raging controversy quieted, and because the original statement was clear. Nonetheless, a Saddleback Church minister reportedly told church members that he never intended to say Baptist women are obligated by scripture to stay in violently abusive relations.

It began on Jan. 8 when Associated Baptist Press (ABP) lit a fire simply by reporting:

Rick Warren, the Southern Baptist megachurch pastor chosen to offer the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama's Jan. 20 inauguration, says the Bible does not permit a woman to divorce a spouse who is abusing her.

Half a year passed before Saddleback Teaching Pastor Tom Holladay, who actually voiced the controversial audio clip, said in a statement to Saddleback Church members that it was all a misunderstanding. According to ABP, he said he was just trying to explain to explain "the difference between an angry exchange between spouses and domestic violence" and:

"We believe that one violent incident is obviously more than enough to demand the need for a separation ... ." And if an abusive spouse refuses to repent and try to change, there eventually comes a point at which he or she has abandoned the marriage and it cannot be saved.

That's a little convoluted but not incomprehensible. Even so, in the course of the audio clip (transcript) he said, “I wish there were a third [reason for divorce] in Scripture, having been involved as a pastor with situations of abuse… There is something in me that wishes there were a Bible verse that says, ‘If they abuse you in this-and-such kind of way, then you have a right to leave them.’”

Momlogic has former Saddleback Church member Sheri Ferber's account of receiving the kind of counsel apparent in the now-deleted audio clip. Momlogic notes that Saddleback has been asked to comment but has failed to do so.

This is of more than passing importance in part because Warren was chosen to give the invocation at Barak Obama's presidential inauguration, in part because Warren has a politically active ministry which includes calling presidential candidates to his Faith Forum and in part because the submission Southern Baptist doctrine requires of women can be dangerous.

The foundations, impact and validity of that submission are a matter of ongoing debate. But the necessity of keeping the vulnerable safe should not be.

A prayer unanswered

The Washington Post's "On Faith" panel of 19 writers discusse the "State of our Disunion" while lamenting how Rick Warren's Inauguration Day prayer is far from being answered.

Warren prayed that Americans would "have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes, even when we differ."

Instead, note the Post's Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham, "clarity, responsibility, humility and civility seem to have given way to self-righteousness, anger, resentment, and what columnist Kathleen Parker calls 'a political era of uninhibited belligerence' that is finding expression in sermons, at town hall meetings, on radio talk shows, even on the floor of Congress -- especially when we differ."

Susan Jacoby, whose entry has attracted about 400 comments, discusses how faith and hatred often co-exist. She says:

What we are seeing is the rage of a minority--we don't know exactly how large, but we do know that it is almost entirely white and concentrated in the South and Southwest--at an African-American president who is considered not only wrong in his policies but illegitimate as the leader of our nation.

Jacoby also tells of a college student afraid to tell her parents she supports Obama for fear they'll no longer pay her tuition and writes:

Many Americans spent a good deal of time last November patting themselves on the back for having elected an African-American president. What we are seeing now is the bitterness of an unreconciled minority that will never accept the legitimacy of that election.

Would it be that she were wrong but the full sweep of post-Civil War Southern history says she isn't.

Still, we long for the day when Warren's prayer is answered.

Warren contradicting Warren (again)

Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren returned to television Monday with a blistering round of self-contradictions which moved Levellers to call him out for fabrication. Warren told Larry King:

. . . I am not an anti-gay or anti-gay marriage activist. I never have been, never will be.

During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never -- never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop 8 was going.

The week before the -- the vote, somebody in my church said, Pastor Rick, what -- what do you think about this?

And I sent a note to my own members that said, I actually believe that marriage is -- really should be defined, that that definition should be -- say between a man and a woman.

And then all of a sudden out of it, they made me, you know, something that I really wasn't. And I actually -- there were a number of things that were put out. I wrote to all my gay friends -- the leaders that I knew -- and actually apologized to them. That never got out.

There is, however, video footage of Warren issuing "a statement" and "endoresement" of Proposition 8. View below:

Warren also revisited himself again regarding his characterizations of same-sex marriage. He told King:

There were some things said that -- you know, everybody should have 10 percent grace when they say public statements. And I was asked a question that made it sound like I equated gay marriage with pedophilia or incest, which I absolutely do not believe. And I actually announced that.

Again, there's video of Warren contradicting Warren:

We look forward to Warren's eventual reconciliation with himself.

Rick Warren's connections

Rick Warren did not walk out of the inaugural ceremonies and disappear. He pursues his ministry, here teaching the value of connections among believers.

Warrenology (for heaven's sake?)

Warrenology was invoked by Mark Silk of Spiritual Politics yesterday for another run at Rick Warren's inauguration invocation.

He and Dan Gilgoff now agree with us that Pastor Warren's ever so carefully inclusive prayer, wasn't.

Until he actually stood to deliver at the inauguration, a great many of us thought Warren was a contender for the "America's Pastor" role created by the Rev. Billy Graham. As Beliefnet's Steven Waldman explained:

[Graham] pulled it off by using broadly inclusive language. In 1989 he referred just to "God" and in 1993 he declared: "I pray this in the name of the one that's called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace." Note, too, that he used the word "I" rather than "we," which would have assumed all in the audience were Christian.

Warren, says Mark Silk, "wanted to have it both ways--gesturing at inclusivity while sacrificing nothing to exclusivity."

It didn't really work, and one scholar and friend of Warren's has flatly called it "a mistake," although Warren's core audience on the evangelical right seems to have been well-pleased.

What were we to expect of a man given to inspirational references to Hitler youth, confusion of gays with pedophiles (and later denying that), support of condom-burning African regimes and other, similarly interesting views and involvements?

Whatever Warrenologists may conclude about the big guy's intentions and effects, he was never asked to audition for the role as "America's pastor." Not by a president who not only pulled an unprecedented range of American faith traditions into his inaugural festivities, but was also the first to acknowledge nonbelievers.

Ours is a more complex, democratic era than the one the elder Rev. Graham handled so well. Warren has the ambition but not the internal poise and or inclusive breadth of presence required to preside as Graham did.