Bill Berkowitz: Rick Warren, Have You No Shame?

BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY
by Bill Berkowitz

Why doesn't Rick Warren -- the mega-church pastor, the best-selling author, the man who hangs out with world leaders, and who has an opinion on just about everything -- condemn the horrific anti-gay legislation pending in Uganda?

Anyone that has followed the career of Pastor Rick Warren knows that he is a very busy man. The founder of the Lake Forest, California-based Saddleback Church has things to do, people to see, and projects to push forward. In this maelstrom of activity, Warren apparently does not have the time nor will to condemn one of the most horrific and outrageous anti-gay proposals to come down the pike in years.

Among other things, Warren recently did an extensive interview with The Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life, delivered a sermon at a prayer breakfast in Rwanda before a number of Rwandan leaders, including President Paul Kagame, and he is currently working on a follow-up to "The Purpose Driven Life," a book that has sold more copies than any other book in history, other than the Bible, has been translated into more than 60 languages, and has been on The New York Times Best Sellers list for advice books for one of the longest periods in history. His new book -- expected out in January -- is titled "The Hope You Need."

Of course, not everything Warren touches turns to gold; it was recently announced that Saddleback's publishing partnership with Reader's Digest magazine had gone kaput, and was to be dissolved less that a year after it had been conceived. Starting next spring, however, the multimedia project -- called the Purpose Driven Connection -- will become an online project, operated solely by Warren's Saddleback Church.

The shameful proposal, however, that Warren refuses to touch has nothing to do with his writing another best seller or partnering with Reader's Digest. It is about Warren's refusal to condemn legislation that is currently being debated in Uganda that would make gay sex punishable by death. It is about his quiet acquiescence to state-sanctioned executions of gay people in Uganda.

According to World Politics review:

"The Ugandan penal code already criminalizes sexual relations 'against the order of nature,' a characterization that is frequently used to prosecute gays. Under the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009, homosexual relations are specifically targeted. Anyone in a position of authority who is aware of a gay or lesbian individual has 24 hours to inform police or face jail time. Individuals found to engage in efforts to sexually stimulate another for the purpose of homosexual relations, or found touching another for that purpose, will face life in prison.

Those who engage in 'aggravated homosexuality' -- defined as repeated homosexual relations or sexual contact with others who are HIV/AIDS infected -- will face the death penalty."

Martin Ssempa, a charismatic Ugandan pastor is amongst those that have endorsed the legislation. According to an item posted at Progressive Daily -- "the blog of Daily Queer News" -- Rick Warren has hosted Ssempa at his Saddleback Church. In fact, Newseweek's Lisa Miller pointed out in a recent column that Ssempa has not only made appearances at Saddleback, but also he "has been embraced warmly by Warren and his wife, Kay."

Miller noted that in October, Warren supposedly "distanced himself" from Ssempa and the Ugandan legislation, saying, "Martin Ssempa does not represent me; my wife, Kay; Saddleback Church; nor the Global PEACE Plan strategy. In 2007 we completely severed contact with Mr. Ssempa when we learned that his views and actions were in serious conflict with our own."

"Our role, and the role of the PEACE Plan, whether in Uganda or any other country, is always pastoral and never political. We vigorously oppose anything that hinders the goals of the PEACE Plan: Promoting reconciliation, Equipping ethical leaders, Assisting the poor, Caring for the sick, and Educating the next generation."

Regarding the specific Ugandan proposal, Warren said "The fundamental dignity of every person, our right to be free, and the freedom to make moral choices are gifts endowed by God, our creator. However, it is not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations."

In a piece for The Daily Beast earlier this year, Max Blumenthal wrote that Ssempa, the head of the Makerere Community Church -- "a rapidly growing congregation" -- was "Warren's man in Uganda." Blumenthal pointed out that Ssempa "enjoys close ties to his country's First Lady, Janet Museveni, and is a favorite of the Bush White House." Ssempa's "stunts have included burning condoms in the name of Jesus and arranging the publication of names of homosexuals in cooperative local newspapers while lobbying for criminal penalties to imprison them."

During a "Meet the Press" appearance on November 29, Warren "challenge[d]" President Barack Obama over his stand on abortion, LifeNews.com reported. "We've had 46 million Americans who aren't here. Those who could be here since Roe v. Wade, who are not voting. I think that innocence is a holocaust. I really do," Warren said.

"Now, I don't understand the idea of it should be rare and less. Well, either you believe it's life or you don't....why would you believe it should be rare?.... If a baby, a fetus is not a life, then why restrict it?" he continued.

"I'm not pro-life, I'm whole life, which means I don't just want to protect that little baby girl before she's born; I want to make sure she gets an education, she's not raised in poverty, she gets her vaccinations," he said. "And so this is what I call the whole life platform, which, beyond just pro-life of protecting that unborn child, goes on."

"We've got to care about the child after she's born and make sure she gets an education, she grows up healthy and grows up to be a productive human being," he said.

During the interview, Warren also reiterated his support for abstinence-only programs in the public schools, expressed concern about high unemployment, and the growing number of orphans worldwide.

Kate Sheill, an Amnesty International sexual rights expert, characterized Uganda's proposed legislation as "illegal" and "immoral." "They criminalize a sector of society for being who they are, when what the government should be doing instead is protecting them from discrimination and abuse," said Sheill.

In addition, Officials from countries including the U.S., the UK, Canada, and France have publicly opposed the law," World Politics review reported.

"This is an act of terror and murder against an already beleaguered minority, and Warren is an accessory to it," Andrew Sullivan wrote on his blog, The Daily Dish. "As a powerful figure in distributing AIDS funding in Uganda, he cannot bring himself to oppose a law that would condemn someone in a gay relationship to death, and imprison him or her for touching another human being, and inciting a wave of informing on family members and friends and acquaintances in order to terrify a sexual minority. This alleged man of God cannot speak out on this -- except to protect his own p.r. His schtick of actually being the nice evangelical -- a schtick that got him to Obama's inauguration -- is a lie. If he cannot condemn this fascist act of violence against a tiny minority of vulnerable human beings, then his position in this struggle is clear enough."

While speaking with David Gregory on "Meet the Press" regarding gay rights, Warren said that he "understood that so many people today get stigmatized for different things. Now, of course, I have biblical beliefs on -- about homosexuality. But when somebody's dying on the side of the road, you don't walk up to them and say, you know, 'What's your nationality?' or, 'What's your lifestyle?' or, 'What's your, your gender preference?' or, you know, anything else. You just help the guy. … My role is to love everybody."

When asked about whether he would oppose gay marriage if the issue returned to the ballot in 2010, Warren said: "I didn't fight it in the last issue. As a pastor, I happen to believe what the Bible says. But I also believe that I understand the pain that people feel from rejection. So I care about both angles."

"As a pastor, my job is to encourage, to support. I never take sides." Of course, Warren takes sides all the time. He took sides in favor of California's Proposition 8 that made same-sex marriage in the state illegal; he supports the so-called "ex-gay" movement.

During his "Meet the Press" appearance, Warren said that he was not pro-life, but rather "whole life": "[T]his is what I call the whole life platform, which, beyond just pro-life of protecting that unborn child, goes on," Warren stated. Apparently Warren's "whole life" program doesn't include condemning what human rights leaders around the globe have characterized as immoral, illegal, and shameful.

BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY

Bill Berkowitz is a longtime observer of the conservative movement and a frequent writer for Z Magazine, Religion Dispatches and other online publications. He documents the strategies, players, institutions, victories, and defeats of the American Right from a progressive perspective.

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