Rick Warren/Pope Benedict vs. The Gays

I was going to do another post on Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inaugurationl, but I'm visiting my mom and family in Mountain Home, Arkansas for Christmas.

I was going to say how much I disagree with Thom Hartmann, Melissa Etheridge, and Chris Crain about how great it is that Obama reached out to the anti-gay Christian evangelicals. I still don't buy the Rick Warren PR that he is a "moderate" evangelical who accepts gays. Maybe he has been less of a bigot than Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and James Dobson, and I would welcome a dialogue between the LGBT community and Warren, but I agree with Rachel Maddow that this was a bad mistake for Obama. Obama has helped improve Rick Warren's national reputation as an important religious leader and sends the wrong message to gays and lesbians who supported him. After the last 8 years, and the passing of Prop. 8 in California, it would have been a nice change to have a more gay-friendly, inclusive religious figure give the inaugural invocation, or better yet, keep religion out of the inauguration all together.

And those pointing to Saddleback Church scrubbing the anti-gay stuff off their website, or Rick Warren's concillatory words to Melissa Etheride were premature: Now Warren has come out swinging against gay activists, accusing us of "Christophobia":
Rachel Maddow: "Christophobia"? Rick Warren Scandal Getting Wierder

Even worse than Rick Warren, the POPE says that saving humanity from homosexuality is as important as saving the environment. Pope Says Humanity Must be Saved from Homosexuality

Peter Tatchell tells why the Pope is wrong! Why is Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church so scared of gays??

Anyhow, I'm going to spend the rest of the week here with my family and try not to think about Rick Warren or The Pope's war on gays and lesbians.