Another Coward Smacked (By Email)

I have been responding to a lot of the articles I have been reading about the Warren thing. Here's one and my go round with the "lady" who wrote it. First her "article" then my email, her email and my email.

Free the Saddleback One
By Debra Saunders | SF Chronicle
Gay civil rights groups -- the Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force -- are calling on President-elect Barack Obama to yank his invitation to Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren to give the inaugural prayer on Jan. 20. They demand tolerance from others, but won't spare any for those with whom they disagree. Unless of course, that person is Obama, who, like Warren, opposes same-sex marriage. Then they get real ecumenical. Not to mention, very forgetful.

"I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian -- for me as a Christian -- it is also a sacred union," Obama said at a presidential candidate forum at the Saddleback Church in August. Obama could not make his opposition to same-sex marriage clearer.

It's true that Obama opposed Proposition 8, the same-sex marriage ban approved by California voters in November, on the grounds that codifying a same-sex ban would be "divisive" -- whereas Warren endorsed the measure.

Obama supports civil unions -- "I think my faith is strong enough and my marriage is strong enough that I can afford those civil rights to others, even if I have a different perspective or a different view," Obama explained. Warren spokesperson Kristin Cole told me that Warren "is OK on civil unions, but does not believe in redefining marriage."

Then why are gay leaders applauding the election of Obama, while calling on him to exclude the participation of the Warren? It makes no sense -- unless they had convinced themselves that Obama did not mean it when he said he opposed same-sex marriage. As long as they think he lied, he still can be their hero.

Because Warren clearly meant what he said, he's a villain. Forget the campaign Warren began to organize 1 billion Christians to fight global poverty and scourges like AIDS. Ignore the countless children he has helped save. Think only of the feelings he has wounded.

In the modern world, words speak louder than actions. And there is always an incriminating video clip out there.

In that spirit, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force cited an interview Warren gave on beliefnet.com and charged that Warren went "so far as to equate the marriages between same-sex couples with incest and pedophilia."

Warren did say, "I'm opposed to the re-definition of a 5,000 year definition of marriage. I'm opposed to a having brother and sister be together and call that a marriage. I'm opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that a marriage. I'm opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that a marriage."

Is that equating same-sex marriage with incest and pedophilia? If it you want it to, sure. Or you could see the quote as proof that Warren holds traditional religious views -- and cut the guy some slack.

You know, show tolerance while seeking tolerance.

Instead, many critics have chosen to brand Warren as a "hater" and a "bigot" -- words that fire up the base and alienate everyone else. They are sending the message that anyone who dares speak as Warren did -- except Obama, of course -- runs the risk of being tarred and feathered, 2008-style. Think Scott Eckern, who resigned as artistic director to spare the California Music Theatre in Sacramento from a boycott threatened because of his $1,000 donation to the Yes on Prop. 8 campaign.

I suppose the Warren critics could argue that gays and lesbians simply want the same rights as others; that this is a big country, with room enough for the traditionally devout and same-sex couples.

Except groups like the Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force do not want to make room for people like Rick Warren. They want him muzzled and out of the picture.
write to her if you find her distasteful : dsaunders@sfchronicle.com

Here's my email to this person:
TITLE: You're right it's so intolerable to be offended when someone called you a pedophile...wait.
There have been a lot of heterosexuals in the new business taking the liberty of telling a lot of gay people how to feel this week. This is embarrassing, but no one seems to have much shame about it. The reason this shame or decency is missing is precisely because of people like Rick Warren and the media and the politicians that legitimize him. Wait keep reading.

I have no problem with Rick Warren having the 1st amendment right to say whatever he wants. And I don't care how he feels about me or his views on wether or not I'll be invited into his idea of heaven, a place I don't want to go. But what I think is utterly intolerable is the double standard that is taking place in the public sphere around this issue. That is to say, any public figure, politico, journalist, radio host, that related as identical any group other than gays (women, blacks, hispanics, jews, veterans, the disabled, or god forbid black women) to those committing pedophilia, incest or bestiality (which are crimes in our country) they would immediately be shunned and universally rebuked. Except if they were talking about gays. We shouldn't have to do the old mammy routine for our rights, but if we're going to have to we shouldn't have to beg for a little decency when were doing the shuffle. It is this aspect that I object to about Obama - who I have known all along is no alley of the LGBT community - raising this ignorant hateful man to a position of national prominence, even more than the one he has eked out for himself. And this is why when I read articles legitimizing his work and political value, or see Catholic heterosexual white men telling gay people their struggles are not relevant, not equivalent to those blacks experienced prior to having legal protections, I want to, pardon the crudity, barf. We are the only group of tax paying American citizens to be subjugated and not represented according to our taxation. Regardless of how you feel about us or how gross it may or may not be to sodomize a man (in a homosexual relationship) vs. a woman (in a heterosexual one), somewhere deep down pangs of basic fairness must cry out.

Maybe think a little more clearly about how what you say might negatively influence the real lives of people before you go to print. The only solice I have is knowing that we will outlast religion. As long as there are people, so to shall there be homosexuality. We will outlast intolerance. I just want to be there personally to see it.

With disappointment,
Brian

Her response:
I never said it is intolerable to be offended, and Warren didn't call you a pedophile.

DJS

My response:

Not personally, he said that what we do, I'm assuming he meant sodomy rather than having our long term monogynous relationships legally protected under the government that we pay equal taxes to support was equivalent to pedophilia, bestiality, and incest. Your parsing is transparent, I hate to say. I know this must be a moment of great (albeit, so far private) shame for those of you on the right with an intellect, which you clearly have, as you write well. But I want to let you know we are not scary. And allowing us rights and being civil to us and not writing hateful divisive things about us - would actually improve the quality of your lives. Like I say, Warren and those of you with heavenly ambitions have nothing to worry about from me. I don't want to alter or change your marriage or your religion, I just want the same freedoms and more over legal protections extended to my heterosexual brother and sister.

But you have to understand that when you demean the right of people to not want to be called pedophiles, you are not being very charitable. When you try an parse your way out of it, you are being cowardly. If you stand behind your article that is one thing, and I'm sorry you feel that way. But I think you're intelligent enough to know better.

Either way, thanks for your response, however terse.

Brian