In an interview scheduled to air tonight on Dateline NBC, Rick Warren says the following:
No [I would not change my position] ... and the reason why is we all have biological predispositions. I'm naturally inclined to have sex with every beautiful woman I see. But that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.
Unfortunately, the only internet source I can find for this quote thus far is from Here.
I want all of you on DKos to think about exactly what Rick Warren is saying because he's comparing my sexual attraction to alcoholism. Yes, alcoholism.
What do alcoholics do? They go to 12-step meetings and Alcoholics Anonymous which teaches that alcoholism is a genetic predisposition, that alcoholics will always be alcoholics, and that only through a Higher Power can an alcoholic find recovery. Hmm... sound familiar? Sound like ex-gay therapy???
Genetic predisposition is also a term commonly associated with mental illness. Mental illness is often treated through psychological treatment both behavioral and cognitive. Sometimes, proper treatment of mental illness requires electroshock therapy. Hmm... sound familiar? Sound like ex-gay therapy??? (If you don't think that there are still gay teenagers whose parents and pastors force them into electroshock therapy to "cure" them, then you're surely mistaken. This evil practice continues.)
So it seems that, in Rick Warren's mind, homosexuality is like alcoholism and like mental illness. In Rick Warren's mind, same-sex marriage is like incest and child molestation.
And you wonder why I'm pissed about giving a man like Rick Warren center stage at an inauguration for ALL Americans? You see, I've never liked Rick Warren. Having been raised Nazarene, I became familiar with denominational differences at an early age. In the Nazarene church, they taught us why everyone except Nazarenes are going to Hell. One of those condemnations had to do with predestination theology.
"A Purpose-Driven Life" is nothing more than a front for predestination theology. Don't believe me? Do a little research into Rick Warren's theological background and his Calvinist influence. In fact, read some of Talk To Action's writings about Rick Warren. Remember these Rick Warren outrages? I do. Why don't you?
Mega-church minister linked to paramilitary video game or The Purpose Driven Life Takers (Part 1)
"A Purpose-Driven Life" has fostered and furthered the doctrines of exclusion and dominionism that I learned to reject in my young adulthood. You see, to Rick Warren, only God's elect and chosen may enter Heaven. That doesn't include gays.
Now, I could go on and on about this subject because it embodies every level of resentment, bitterness, and even hate that I have developed over the last eight years. But, when I hear Kossacks saying that the Rick Warren invitation is no big deal, my mind interprets it as a tacit endorsement of the man's values. He IS different from James Dobson, Pat Robertson, D. James Kennedy, and Jerry Falwell -- he spreads the same hatred with different rhetoric. If you don't catch on to that with his above statement comparing gays to alcoholics and mental patients, then you delude yourself.
Then again, I'm just a gay white boy, former Fundamentalist, and native West Virginian. What the f*&k would I know about homophobia, huh?