Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Alternative Invocations

The response to Rick Warren as an inaugural speaker includes a plan for alternative invocations. Write your own expression of hope, inclusiveness and unity for the inauguration!

Meanwhile, over on Streetprophets Blue Gal posted this video. (If you haven't visited Streetprophets you should; it's run by DailyKos and talks about progressive religion).

8 comments:

Fred Preuss said...

How about reading the constitution and separating church and state? Leave the bible and preachers at home.

Anonymous said...

OT, but here's an interesting twist in the never-ending Prop. 8 battles. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Prop. 8 proponents filed a lawsuit in federal court this week seeking to declare unconstitutional the California law requiring public disclosure of the identity of those making state political campaign contributions -- Gay marriage foes want campaign contributions anonymous, citing 'harassment.'

The story says:

***

Proponents of a ballot measure that banned same sex marriage filed a lawsuit in federal court this week seeking to overturn state campaign finance laws that require that names and personal information of donors to state political campaigns be made public.

They claimed that donors to Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California after one of the most heated campaigns in recent memory, have been the victim of threats and harassment because of their support for ending same-sex marriage was made public.

“This harassment is made possible because of California’s unconstitutional campaign finance disclosure rules as applied to ballot measure committees where even donors of as little as $100 must have their names, home addresses and employers listed on public documents,” Ron Prentice, head of the Protect Marriage Coalition, said in a statement.

Since 1974, state law has required that donors who give more than $100 must have their names disclosed.

The law was intended to prevent money laundering and to provide disclosure of who is making contributions to political campaigns. It has withstood several previous legal challenges. Experts on the 1st Amendment experts said they did not believe the suit stood much of a chance of success.

“This trashes the 1st Amendment and it is a thinly veiled attempt to eliminate transparency as to the role of money in state election campaigns,” said Mark Rosenbaum, legal director of the ACLU of Southern California. The ACLU was a major opponent of Proposition 8.

Anonymous said...

The Subtext: do the H8ers know that their next initiative campaign (if H8 is overturned and they have to try again, or if another initiative is filed to repeal H8) is DOOMED, if they have to rely on PUBLIC contributions again?

Anonymous said...

My heavens. They are ashamed of their support? That says it all....

Anonymous said...

sorry that anon was me, IT

David said...

IT,

Agree. Mama always said that if you'd be embarrassed if someone found out what you did, then maybe you shouldn't do it ;)

Anonymous said...

What do you know, Obama knows some gays after all!

Openly gay appointments:
Fred Hochberg, head of the Export-Import Bank. I'd have been more impressed if he had appointed him to the now-empty Commerce cabinet position, frankly.

Nancy Sutley, White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Bard Kiley, Director of the Office of Management and Administration.

I guess it's okay to be out in government again? because under Bush, it was okay to discriminate against GLBT federal employees.

And for the "Whistlestop tour", "Lesbian couple Lisa Hazirjian and her partner Michelle have been invited to join the Whistle Stop Tour and appear onstage with Obama and Biden during events."

I hope they kiss in front of Warren and make his head explode. Oh wait, straight guys like it when girls do it, right? I get so confused....

IT

Anonymous said...

Episcopal Cafe has posted an article Rick Warren offers a home to conservative Anglicans based on a story in Christianity Today. It says in part:

***

[The Episcopal Church has] already considered me an adversary after partnering on projects with Kolini, Orumbi, and Nzimbi, and writing the TIME bio on Akinola.
But since last summer... I’ve been on Gene Robinson and other’s attack list for my position on gay marriage. ....[Our] brothers and sisters here at St. James in Newport Beach lost their California State Supreme Court case to keep their property.

We stand in solidarity with them, and with all orthodox, evangelical Anglicans. I offer the campus of Saddleback Church to any Anglican congregation who need a place to meet, or if you want to plant a new congregation in south Orange County.

***

Even more disturbing is a comment that cites to some really troubling company that Warren is keeping in Africa in connection with H.I.V./AIDS -- Rick Warren's Africa Problem: Team Obama likes to cite Warren’s work on AIDS in Africa to combat criticism about the controversial pastor. But how does burning condoms in the name of Jesus save lives?

Warren and his allies have been working to remove condoms as a mechanism to prevent H.I.V./AIDS and to solely rely on abstinence training. The article notes in part:

***

But since the Warren inauguration controversy erupted, the nature of work against AIDS in Africa has gone unexamined. Warren has not been particularly forthcoming to those who have attempted to look into it. His website contains scant information about the results of his program. However, an investigation into Warren’s involvement in Africa reveals a web of alliances with right-wing clergymen who have sidelined science-based approaches to combating AIDS in favor of abstinence-only education. More disturbingly, Warren’s allies have rolled back key elements of one of the continent’s most successful initiative, the so-called ABC program in Uganda. Stephen Lewis, the United Nations’ special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, told the New York Times their activism is “resulting in great damage and undoubtedly will cause significant numbers of infections which should never have occurred.”