Rick Warren Tweets Opposition to Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Jim Burroway

December 11th, 2012

"A unjust law in Uganda is back in the news. I opposed it 3 yrs ago and I still do."That’s Saddleback pastor Rick Warren’s tweet last Friday referencing a video he made in 2009. I had hoped that it would presage a larger statement. But a whole weekend has passed and we’re well into a new week, and nothing’s been forthcoming since then. I’m glad that Warren’s on board against the bill again in 2012. Sending out a 102-character tweet was the least he could do. And so he did it.

When all is said and done in this saga, there will be a recounting of the heros and villains and their names will be known for generations to come. Warren’s just a guy selling books and tweeting aphorisms when he could be speaking out forcefully against one of the great human rights crises of our day. He’s no Desmond Tutu, but I’m can’t say he’s in the company of villains either. Bonhoeffers are sadly scarce when they’re needed most; it’s the Chamberlains who are much too common. And that’s Warren’s problem. He is much too common.

Timothy Kincaid

December 11th, 2012

After four days, you and I both put up a commentary about the same tweet within minutes of each other with roughly the same position.

They say that women who live in the same house get on a certain cycle… does that happen to bloggers who write on the same site

Ben in Oakland

December 11th, 2012

Well, golly gee, Ricky, creating that 140 character tweet must have used about 40 seconds of your time and1 calorie max.
How about going to Uganda, calling a press conference, and denouncing the thing forthe fascism it is?

Steve

December 12th, 2012

That after fostering hatred and intolerance for many years there.

DN

December 12th, 2012

In the context of Rick Warren saying that being gay is like incest or paedophilia, then being asked if that was what he really believes… “Oh I do!”

Then he turned around and said that he never said such things…

It takes a *LOT* more than a single, completely unclear, tweet on a subject to make me forgive him. Which part(s) of the bill do you oppose, Rick? Is it the death penalty? Life sentences? Or is it the concept that anyone who sees anything remotely gay and doesn’t report it goes to jail for seven years?

This man has a *long* way to go before I’ll forgive him.

customartist

December 12th, 2012

A TWEET!? Wow-eee!

Years of campaigning against the very existence of Gays, culminating with gang-beatings, deaths, and the threat of life-long imprisonment or even Execution, and Rick Warren thinks a Tweet balances his Sins from the Pulpit?

I think not! Warren is a failure as a theologian. His people support hatred.

He can take that tweet and shove it.

HE should be the one jailed for life.

Timothy Kincaid

December 12th, 2012

I see a lot of accusations that I do not think have substance.

Robert

December 12th, 2012

What would those accusations be, Timothy? Shouldn’t you be specific if you think something is wrong?

Timothy Kincaid

December 12th, 2012

In the context of Rick Warren saying that being gay is like incest or paedophilia, then being asked if that was what he really believes… “Oh I do!”

Well… not exactly. Check out the full transcript.

He did compare gay marriage to “having a brother and sister be together and call that marriage” (incest), “an older guy marrying a child and calling that a marriage” (most of history), and having multiple wives and calling that marriage (what I affectionately refer to as “Biblical marriage”).

But he also said that divorce was a greater threat to the American family (“Haha! That’s a no-brainer. Divorce. There’s no doubt about it.”) So, if we are to be consistent, we have to say that Rick Warren thinks divorce is worse than incest or pedophilia.

And he did say that he supports equal rights. His words were “I don’t believe that we should have unequal rights depending on particular lifestyles or whatever stuff like that. So I fully support equal rights.”

Although it’s not specific, it seems that he means civil unions or domestic partnership or something.

His choice of comparisons was, frankly, really really bad. But his position (I think) was that of the President at the time.

I am not Rick Warren’s champion. But if we are going to pick one line out of an interview while ignore the immediate preceding sentence, that is not a particularly rational way of measuring a person’s position.

We don’t have to like him… but let’s be sure our reasons for not liking him are accurate.

DN

December 13th, 2012

Well that was fancy – my comment did not post. Is the site having a hiccup or am I banned?

Anyway, the point of it was that I acknowledge I didn’t take the entire transcript into consideration, but pointed out that a) you had no comment when Rob posted this: (I am not posting the url since that might be what’s blocking my comments, but it was from 28 November this year).

and b) When a person compares being gay to consuming arsenic, please don’t tell me that I’m missing some sort of larger context.

DN

December 13th, 2012

The other part of my original comment (that included the url to that btb post) was that you did not address the part where Warren did not clarify what part(s) of the Uganda bill he finds odious…

Does he think it’s wrong to kill gay people for having sex with each other? I don’t know – he didn’t say, but since that’s the well-known part of the bill, I’d say it’s pretty obvious that he does think it’s wrong.

Does he think it’s wrong to make advocating for gay rights illegal? I don’t know – he didn’t say.

Does he think it’s wrong to make it illegal to run AIDS programs? I don’t know – he didn’t say (and before you go accusing me of not looking at the full transcript again, I’m well aware of his church’s charitable work on AIDS so I’ll gladly give him the benefit of the doubt).

Does he think it’s wrong to send straight people to jail for not reporting their loved ones to the police within 24 hours of discovering that they’re gay? I don’t know – he didn’t say.

I grant that 140 characters doesn’t give him a lot of room to flesh out his views on those issues. So write an essay. And send it to Timothy who can make a post about it.

My point here is that saying you oppose a bill with, what, a dozen and a half or so sanctions against even whispering the words “I’m gay,” but is known for its death penalty isn’t enough. If Rick Warren wants to be taken seriously by the gay community, a) he’s got a lot more work to do (and I’ll be very happy to see him grow as a person as he does it), and b) he owes us the intellectual honesty to be more detailed. Even Scott freaking Lively has been more detailed in which parts of the bill he thinks go too far.

And before anyone says that Rick Warren has no obligation to do this, remember – he chose to interject himself into this issue. Nobody did it for him.

Timothy Kincaid

December 13th, 2012

DN

In his 140 characters, he included a link to his 2009 video. You can see it here.

That video will answer some of your questions. He also has Q&A type answers to address others

DN

December 13th, 2012

“When all is said and done in this saga, there will be a recounting of the heros and villains and their names will be known for generations to come.”

Yep – Jim is right. Timothy, you’re splitting hairs.

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