A wolf in sheep's clothing: Rick Warren Across the Pond

News Type: Opinion — Seeded on Thu Dec 18, 2008 6:27 PM EST

Article Source: Guardian Unlimited

politics, gay-marriage, abstinence, dominionism, 1st-ammendment, five-issues, moral-arbiter, polarising-figure, unofficial-national-pastor

Seeded by jade-log

If nothing else, Rick Warren is a miracle worker in the realm of public relations. He is a man who compares legal abortion to the Holocaust and gay marriage to incest and paedophilia. He believes that Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and other non-Christians are going to spend eternity burning in hell. He doesn't believe in evolution. He recently dismissed the social gospel – the late 19th- and early 20th-century Protestant movement that led a religious crusade against poverty and inequality – as "Marxism in Christian clothing". Yet thanks to his amiable attitude and jocular tone, he has managed to create a popular image for himself as a moderate, even progressive force in American life, a reasonable, compassionate alternative to the punitive, sex-obsessed inquisitors of the religious right. And Barack Obama, who should know better, has helped him do it.

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In fact, though, Warren has taken the standard Christian conservative approach to the epidemic, which favours abstinence and prayer over condoms and sex education. I once attended Sunday services at the church of Martin Ssempa, one of Warren's protégés in Uganda and a major force in that country's devastating move away from safe-sex campaigns. It is a heartbreaking thing to watch a tongue-speaking faith-healer promise a room full of sobbing people – many of them poor, many infected with HIV – that Jesus can cure them, if only they believe in him unconditionally (belief demonstrated, of course, in part by tithing generously).

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#1 - Thu Dec 18, 2008 6:28 PM EST

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How the hell did Rick Warren get inauguration tickets?: Barack Obama knows liberals are upset he picked the conservative evangelical preacher to pray at the inauguration. And he doesn't care.	Salon.com	Fri Dec 19	0
Pro-Lifers Rip Rick Warren on Obama Invocation	CBN	Thu Dec 18	73
Obama, in a 'slap in the face,' invites right-wing evangelist to the inauguration	WSWS	Fri Dec 19	1
Obama's Inaugural Mistake	The Washington Post	Thu Dec 18	1
For inauguration prayer, Obama splits ticket	Associated Press	Thu Dec 18	0

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A wolf in sheep's clothing: Rick Warren Across the Pond

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