Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Pam Spaulding, posting at Pandagon, catches Rick Warren in an absolutely ridiculous lie. On Larry King Live he claimed that he had never, ever endorsed the passage of Prop 8 in California:
es, you know, Larry, there was a story within a story that never got told. In the first place, 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.
Yeah. Except that he did. On video. In a message to his own church on the church's website. Here's the video:
Does he not realize that video doesn't just disappear because he wants it to? Here's a transcript of the relevant portion:
This is not even just a Christian issue, it's a humanitarian, a human issue, that God created marriage for the purpose of family, love and procreation. So I urge you to support Proposition 8 and pass that word on.
What would Jesus do? I'm pretty sure he wouldn't go on national television and lie through his teeth.
Politics
Comments
Thanks for the transcript, Ed -- I was afraid I'd have to actually listen to him.
Posted by: Squiddhartha | April 9, 2009 9:24 AM
There is other video out there where Warren also equates or relates being gay to abhorrent practices, so his "I'm not anti-gay" rhetoric makes him some combination of liar and severely deluded; I'm going for both.
Warren tries very hard to present an image that he and evangelicals are main-stream when in fact they'd be main-stream only in a Orwellian-like Christian theocracy. They benefit from the spoils of innovation established with processes they continue to attack and claim are not true.
Besides lying about gays, he's also a huge liar regarding our nation's history and its relationship to religion, along with also lying about science.
Posted by: Michael Heath | April 9, 2009 9:30 AM
Like Squiddhartha, I want to say thanks for quoting the relevant portion of the transcript. I'm reluctant to begin videos that may end with me in apoplexy.
Posted by: Moderately Unbalanced Squid | April 9, 2009 9:49 AM
"A court of four guys" as he holds up three fingers.
Snort.
Posted by: Spidergrackle | April 9, 2009 9:54 AM
The question that immediately comes to my mind is why is he lying? Why is feeling embarrased about Prop 8? And won't such a public denial get him in deep trouble with his core supporters? It is all very strange.
Posted by: Cheddar | April 9, 2009 10:18 AM
So Rick Warren is just going where the wind blows. This is a surprise how?
To bad the rest of the 'evangelicals' can't figure it out.
Posted by: yoshi | April 9, 2009 10:19 AM
Cheddar, he has to deny his involvement - 3 times - before he can become enlightened.
And as far as his core supporters, if they are like most of the fundies I've had the displeasure of meeting, they have all majored in camel-swallowing in one of their three trips through the 10th grade.
Posted by: Blaidd Drwg | April 9, 2009 10:58 AM
"..they have all majored in camel-swallowing in one of their three trips through the 10th grade" is a vicious sterotype, and I know several fine people who might describe themselves as fundmentalists - but I still laughed, darn it.
Posted by: JimV | April 9, 2009 11:15 AM
What would be really funny is if a pro- gay marriage advocacy group were to make advertisments wondering if/ suggesting that Warren is all for gay marriage by using the clips where he says that he is not anti- gay or anti- gay marriage.
Posted by: AL Jeremy | April 9, 2009 11:18 AM
Reminds me of, "I did NOT have sex with that woman. Monica Lewinsky". Except, of course, that little lie couldn't be easily falsified with a videotape...
Posted by: Adrienne | April 9, 2009 11:18 AM
Pandagon quotes Warren saying: "I’m opposed to having a brother and sister be together and call that marriage. I’m opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that a marriage. I’m opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage."
Aren't all of those arrangements in the Bible?
Abraham married his half-sister, Sarah.
Solomon, supposedly blessed with wisdom from God, had many wives.
Not sure about the "child" for a wife, but King David, when he was old, had a beautiful young woman to tend to him and keep him warm at night.
Posted by: Mick | April 9, 2009 11:23 AM
Rick Warren promotes a purpose driven life and the purpose of his life is to attach his nose to the ass of whoever holds power. Despite his many faults, you have to recognize that he has a gift for reading the prevailing winds and aligning himself accordingly. He has apparently recognized that the hate driven politics of the fundies wasn't a winning strategy and isn't likely to be in the foreseeable future.
Posted by: Kevin | April 9, 2009 11:35 AM
And don't forget Lot having sex with his daughters (oh, but that's okay, because they thought they were the only people left on the planet ... and they weren't married when they did it.... oh wait...).
Posted by: Umlud | April 9, 2009 11:40 AM
I did not need that image this morning, thank you.
Posted by: D. C. Sessions | April 9, 2009 12:30 PM
I think the good pastor Warren is learning that talking to choir is different from talking to people that don't already agree with you. Seems to really boggle him that people won't just take his word on things.
Posted by: bdc | April 9, 2009 1:58 PM
Yeah, bigamy appears very, very early in the Bible. In Genesis, as soon as the Bible starts listing the descendants of Adam, there's a bigamist just a few generations down, and there is absolutely no moral condemnation whatsoever of it. Polygamous relationships were perfectly acceptable in the OT.
Posted by: AL | April 9, 2009 2:09 PM
Liar for Jesus
Posted by: Brando | April 9, 2009 2:15 PM
Oh, don't you see, that video is from the synoptic version of Rick Warren. Just because the Book of St. Larry has a differing account doesn't mean that the Gospel as a whole is inconsistent. Oh, heaven forbid.
Posted by: Blake Stacey | April 9, 2009 2:47 PM
Rick Warren logic:
Sounds like a two bit hustler to me. That, or brilliant apologetics. One or the other, take your pick!
Posted by: 386sx | April 9, 2009 3:22 PM
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.
Ummmm, the video is pretty much a flat out contradiction with that statement up thar!
"...every culture for five thousand years, and every religion for five thousand years..."
He sure likes that five thousand years number a lot. Gee I wonder why. What a maroon.
Posted by: 386sx | April 9, 2009 3:30 PM
Mick:
Numbers 31:18
To be sure, the Israelites didn't "marry" the girls, unless you count their enslavement and rape as marriage.
Posted by: David Ratnasabapathy | April 9, 2009 3:47 PM
You missed an example of the first one, so here it is: What about Adam and Eve's kids? Weren't no one else around to get it on with except the sibs, and they musta, 'cuz here we all are....
Posted by: Eamon Knight | April 9, 2009 3:58 PM
You missed an example of the first one, so here it is: What about Adam and Eve's kids? Weren't no one else around to get it on with except the sibs, and they musta, 'cuz here we all are....
You guys forgot about the demons and the "sons of god" and the "giants" and all those other whatever creatures people used to procreate with back then in the biblical era. (Probably unicorns too. I wouldn't doubt it.)
Posted by: tweety386sx | April 9, 2009 4:04 PM
Ahh unicorns. hawt.
On a more slightly more serious note, I think the fact that the new "leader" of the evangelical masses is a opportunistic liar with no principles is a very good thing. It means that they aren't all that fanatical anymore.
Of course the stupid remains but you can't have everything.
Posted by: Coriolis | April 9, 2009 4:59 PM
He's pissed off the fundies.
Warren's 'backsliding' on marriage damages church
A Washington, DC, pastor and outspoken opponent of same-sex "marriage" says California mega-church pastor Rick Warren has done "tremendous damage" by apologizing for his support last fall of California's marriage protection amendment.
Rick Warren said Monday on CNN's Larry King Live that he has "never been and never will be" an "anti-gay marriage activist," and made a point to inform the program's host that he apologized to his homosexual friends for comments he made in October to his church in support of Proposition 8 in California.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Church/Default.aspx?id=483576
Posted by: Owen | April 9, 2009 6:51 PM
Steven Colbert would be so proud - NAILED!
Posted by: CHV | April 9, 2009 7:37 PM
Yanno, I live in Orange County (home of frighteng behemoth Saddleback Church)... would it be wrong of me to just start sending them douchebags in the mail?
Posted by: Briny Deep | April 9, 2009 10:43 PM
He didn't say he's not anti-gay, just that he's not an anti-gay activist. He even explains what that means -- it means he doesn't go to meetings.
So why don't you people just lighten up?
Posted by: Gary Carson | April 11, 2009 12:11 PM
Gary Carson:
WTF are you smoking these days? Whatever it is, send me a sample.
Posted by: democommie | April 11, 2009 1:19 PM