Many of the members here at TPM Cafe are offended by Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration. The bad feelings about Warren stem largely from his open support for California's recent Proposition 8, as well as his vocal opposition to homosexuality. Truthfully, I knew little about Warren before Obama's choice caused an uproar. The reason I know of Warren at all is because Warren often hyped his book, "The Purpose Driven Life", with the story of how Ashley Smith, who was taken hostage by Brian Nichols after he'd murdered four people at an Atlanta courthouse, convinced Nichols to give himself up by reading from the book.

"I asked him if I could read. He said, what do wouldn't to read? I said, well, I have a book in my room. So, I went and got it. I got my Bible. Then I got a book called "The Purpose Driven Life." I turned it to a chapter that I was on that day, which was chapter 33. And I started to read the first paragraph of it. After I read it, he said, stop, will you read it again? So, I read it again to him." - Ashley Smith

Was Warren purposefully driving book sales with a fable?

You might remember Ashley Smith, the woman who was taken hostage a few months ago by the Atlanta courthouse shooting suspect. Well, in a new book, she admits giving Brian Nichols methamphetamine from her own stash to put him at ease. She says she refused to take any that night. Nichols held her hostage after allegedly going on a shooting spree which left four people dead, including an Atlanta judge.

Thomas Roberts, CNN News, September 27, 2005

While reading up on Warren over the last few days, I ran across many amusing things he has said. Clearly, he's not a leader of the pack over in the IQ bell curve's right-sided deviations.

I think if people know the real story about Terri(Schiavo) -- they think that she's on life support. She's not. They think she's brain dead, she's not.

This is a woman who is not dying, at least she wasn't, until they started starving her. She's in a vegetative state. That is not brain dead, and doctors will tell you person can live in a vegetative state 15, 20, 30 years.

CNN Larry King Live, Interview With Rick Warren, March 22, 2005

Rather odd description, since what caused her persistent vegetative state may have been anorexia. Here's an interesting Warren spin on Easter:

Easter is the greatest significant event in history, in fact, it split history into A.D. and B.C. Even people who don't believe that Jesus Christ died and was resurrected for our sins use Easter as a reference point every single day of their life. When you write a date April 3rd, April 4th, 2007, you're using this -- what's the focal point? It's Easter, because God came to earth and split his try into A.D. and B.C., it's the most significant event.

Encore Presentation: What Would Jesus Really Do?, CNN News, April 8, 2007

Easter is observed the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the day of the vernal equinox...sort of. The Roman Catholic Church has decided through ecclesiastical convention, that the day of the vernal equinox used for auguring the dynamic date of its celebration will always be March 21, even though in reality, it can be either the 20th or the 21st of March. Easter is celebrated just after the beginning of spring on a variable date determined by moon phases, using a constant for the determinant equinox, which may or may not be accurate. This is illiterate fuzzy-bunny paganism, not Christianity. Warren's knowledge of Greek Philosophy is remarkably poor for a theologian.

Well, first, there are historical evidences for the text. The Bible itself is the most historically attested book in history. This is true. You can take this in any encyclopedia. For instance, you know, we base a lot of our things -- we read Shakespeare today. Did you know that there's not a single original manuscript of Shakespeare in exist, not one. They're all copies of copies of copies, same thing with Plato, same thing with Socrates.

CNN Larry King Live, Interview With Rick Warren, November 22, 2004

Any copies of  Socrates' Writings would be miraculous. Which of the several different versions of the Bible does Warren assert is the one that has been "historically attested" to be accurate? Since he is associated with a Baptist sect of Christianity, shouldn't he be making attestamental nods to Martin Luther's schismatical Biblical Addendum that changed  "durch den Glauben": to the diametric: "allein durch den Glauben"?

Divorce statistics are quite bandied around. People say that half of all marriages end up in divorce. That's just not true. 40% of first marriages end up in divorce; about 61% of second-time marriages end up in divorce; and almost 76% of third-time marriages end up in divorce. So the odds get worse, and what's balancing this out when we hear 50% end up in divorce is just not true. Most - the majority of marriages do last, but what you have is these people whose second third and fourth time are getting divorced, and so the divorces keep coming in to equal the marriages.

Warren is a revisionary historian from the blind faith school. Here's another excerpt from the same BeliefNet interview:

But the issue to me is, I'm not opposed to that (gay marriage) as much as I'm opposed to the redefinition of a 5,000-year definition of marriage. I'm opposed to having a brother and sister be together and call that 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 marriage.

Pastor Warren, needs to spend a bit more time reading the Old Testament if he believes that there is a 5000 year definition of marriage that does not include incestuous, child and polygamous variants. There are non-Christian historical traditions of child marriages; there was for generations, a well-defined divine right to incestuous marriage, that caused hemophilia and imbecility in European monarchies, and polygamy has been around for all of human history. There is also some evidence that same-sex unions have been around for much of the last 5000 years.

One of the most telling indications that Warren isn't a high-wattage bulb is exemplified in his statements about why it took him over twenty years to realise that HIV wasn't only caused by two guys playing stable the pony in the back-forty corral:

Warren: (W)e've had a three-day conference, Larry, on what the church can do about HIV AIDS and for the last two, three days we were -- we had about 2,000 leaders from around the world, 17 countries and about 38 states. And, they came in and my wife Kay (ph) and I did this conference for three days. We actually had about 60 speakers, some of the doctors who discovered AIDS, kind of the who's who of authorities on that.

King: In the past, Rick, you will admit the evangelicals and a lot in the church didn't look at AIDS.

Warren: Oh, yes.

King: Didn't deal with it and in fact called it God's revenge against gays.

Warren: Yes, yes. Well, you know, they were wrong and we were wrong to be quiet. I never called it that but we were wrong to not speak up. The fact is AIDS is not a gay plague. AIDS is a human plague and it involves -- actually more women have AIDS than men do. You know the face of AIDS in America is usually a white, gay guy but the face of AIDS around the world is a black or brown woman and, to me...

King: And most in Africa.

Warren: Mostly in Africa. To me it really doesn't matter. The question isn't how did you get it? It's what do you do now? I mean if I'm driving down the street one day on the freeway and I see somebody laying on the side of the road bleeding to death and I go over to them, my first question is, was this your fault? No, I just help the guy, OK. If I go into the hospital with a cardiac, coronary, I don't want the doctor coming up saying, oh, been eating too many Krispy Kremes?

King: Well, wouldn't you admit though that that's one of the things that turned a lot of people against the church?

Warren: Oh, I think you're right.

King: When they took this attitude of I'm right and you're wrong.

Warren: No, I absolutely think you're right and actually in this conference we were calling the church, to use a biblical term, to repent to basically say we were wrong. We were just flat out wrong about this and it's time to speak up.

What I told these people at the conference was, you know, AIDS, I think it's an evil disease in that it sucks the life out of people. It's a terrible, terrible disease. But there are some evil attitudes that people have toward people who have AIDS too. There's the attitude of avoidance, which is -- I don't even want to talk about it. It has to do with sex or homosexuality. I don't even want to talk about it. There's the attitude of distance, don't get near me. There's the attitude of intolerance. I don't like you. I hate you. And, there's the attitude of ignorance or superstition. I'm afraid of you.

CNN News, Larry King Live, Interview with Rick Warren, December 2, 2005

Warren seems to have found a soulmate for his wife, and together they make a good anecdotal argument disproving Intelligent Design:

[Begin Videotape]

Kay Warren: I was flipping through this magazine and there was an article on AIDS in Africa. And I didn't care. I didn't know. I thought it was a gay disease.

There was little box in the middle of the article that said 12 million children orphaned in Africa due to AIDS. And it just absolutely rocked my world to think that there could be 12 million children anywhere orphaned due to anything.

Soledad O'Brien: Those children are now Kay Warren's purpose. This pastor's wife is now an AIDS activist and world traveler.

In Mozambique she met a woman named Juanna (ph).

Kay Warren: She was literally under a giant tree, skeletal, emaciated. She was just this bag of bones.

Soledad O'Brien: Later, Rwanda.

Unidentified Male: We're now in Kibuye, and we're going to the district hospital.

Kay Warren: Hello. How are you? Nice to meet you.

Soledad O'Brien: Everywhere Kay goes she finds more children alone, left to raise themselves.

Kay Warren: This is a picture of a little girl, a child head of household. Both of hers parents have died of AIDS and her 15-year-old brother is taking care of her.

Soledad O'Brien: In Uganda, orphans gave her drawings and letters.

Kay Warren: "I am 10 years old. I lost my parents' love when my father died, and now I am in a school for orphans."

Soledad O'Brien: Not long after joining the fight against AIDS, Kay waged her own battle, first against breast cancer, then against skin cancer.

Kay Warren: I know what it's like to be so sick you want to die, and it has -- it has increased my empathy and my ability to relate to people who are sick.

Rick Warren: Twenty-five years ago the first case of AIDS was detected.

Soledad O'Brien: Today the Warrens are hosting their second International AIDS Conference at the massive Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. More than 2,000 church leaders are attending.

Rick Warren: Three issues that caused evangelicals to come late to the -- to the issue. The first was we didn't realize how big it is -- big the issue was. Second, I think, as Kay pointed out, it involves sexuality, and a lot of people just are uncomfortable talking about heterosexuality or homosexuality. And third, I think that we've been too involved in other issues.

Kay Warren: We want to move past that, we want to demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ. We're sorry for that. Can we move forward?

Soledad O'Brien: Kay has apologized several times for the church's earlier attitudes about HIV and AIDS. The Warrens say they've permanently changed perceptions at their church and they're hoping to change perceptions at other churches around the world.

Kay Warren: I want the church to be known what it's for, not what it's against.

[End Videotape]

CNN News - American Morning, December 1, 2006