An Open Letter to Pastor Rick Warren

Dear Pastor Warren,

Congratulation, I suppose, are in order on the occasion of your having been invited to deliver the invocation at the historic inauguration of President Elect Obama. 

You will excuse me if I don’t stand and cheer.

Like you, I share the privilege of being a pastor. I know that, as pastors, we cannot be ‘all things to all people’. Many people have expectations for us that even Jesus himself couldn’t meet. We are God-representatives. We are not God. Alas, we are very, very human. And, therein lies the rub.

So, let me begin with the first sentence in your book, “A Purpose Driven Life.” 

“It’s not about you.”

I take comfort in that sentence whenever I think about your invocation at that historic inauguration. You are the representative of one of the largest religious groups in America. I suppose, then, it is fitting that you should lead us in prayer on what e e cummings must have had in mind when he wrote the words ‘most this amazing day’.

I thank God, however, that it’s not about you. 

I heard you laugh when Ann Curry asked if you were ‘homophobic’. And, you were right to do so. Being opposed to marriage for LGBT people does not necessarily make you homophobic. 

It does, however, make you heterosexist. 

Heterosexism is a social disease, the root cause of which is straight, white male privilege. It is the assumption that the ‘normal’ societal paradigm for marriage and family is male-female which has its basis in the ‘family values’ of scripture. 

That is a decidedly false assumption. The biblical family was hardly male and female with 2.5 children. Polygamy was the norm, and the ‘family’ included slaves, male and female, adult and child. Furthermore, miracles aside, by ancient and modern cultural standards Mary was an unwed teen and Jesus was an illegitimate child.

But we know that scripture doesn’t tell the full story. John’s Gospel ends with these words, “But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” (John 21:25). 

Jesus himself said, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” (John 16:12)

Gracie Allen, one of my favorite saints, is reported to have said, “Never put a period where God has placed a comma.” 

Or, to quote the opening sentence of your book, “It’s not about you.”

You would be wrong, however, to think that you are not homophobic. Your ministry with people with AIDS is deeply commendable. Admirable, in fact. But to respond to the accusation of homophobia with the defense of your AIDS ministry is to find you guilty as charged, even though you probably would not be convicted by a jury of your Saddleback peers. 

AIDS does not equal Gay. Hasn’t for a very long time, if it ever did. AIDS is now a pandemic, thanks, in part, to the homophobia fueled by the Religious Right which prevented earlier, more aggressive research and inhibited intervention.  MORE of this post @ Telling Secrets