Like other fair-minded Americans, Karger was “struck by [Warren’s] comment in the Wall Street Journal” which “compared gay people to those that commit incest, pedophilia, and then of course his great allies, polygamy, the Mormons.” (Karger was surprised Warren called out polygamists because Mormons worked closely with him to pass Prop 8.)
Most who are angry would be satisfied with any pastor other than Rick Warren. (For example, why not invite Jim Wallis?) The issue, to people like Karger, is not that an invocation will take place during the Inauguration but that “such a polarizing individual” is being allowed to give it.
When asked if the LGBT community should heed the wisdom of liberals and progressives in this country and “chill out about Rick Warren” and help the country unite so that the economy and other problems can be attended to, Karger stated:
In a civil rights battle---and we are still in our infancy, this is a relatively new battle---we never rest. This is our cause. This is for equal rights. This is to make it easier for future generations of young people who are discovering their sexual orientation and feeling different and trying to make it easier for them. That’s what this battle about. The equality portion is what the fight is. Gay marriage is just one of the symptoms of that. The big battle is over equality and civil rights and those 1,048 marriage laws.
Karger further described how younger people find it difficult to let their church, their friends, and their family know they are gay or lesbian and this struggle is about working to make it better” for them and “there’s nothing that will delay that or forestall that.”
A Response to Calls Asking People to Chill Out About Warren
I’m not even gay. I am a straight, white American male just getting into life. But, I refuse to acquiesce or give in to those who attempt to convince me of the potential benefits of Rick Warren.
Benefits may exist, but the cons far outweigh the benefits. And really, what many progressive-minded people seem to be arguing is that if there are benefits, forget the cons! They won’t matter because benefits exist!
Think of this within the context of civil rights. Also, think of this within the context of the idea Evangelicals have which is that earth should be “God’s kingdom” and that biblical truth reigns supreme.
Think of how Evangelicals like Rick Warren seek to control every aspect of human life and more recently, seek to control how Americans handle the physical aspect of their marriage---sex.
You may have seen in the news this year that a pastor issued a sex challenge for his congregation. (Actually, two instances were reported in the press---one involving a Florida pastor challenging his congregation to have sex for 30 days and one using a toilet to convey the idea that toilet water is like lust. The one involving the toilet and Ed Young, which was a 7-day challenge, is the sex challenge I am referring to.)
Pastor Ed Young declared that the church had “allowed culture to hijack sex.” Christians, Young said, are “the real sexperts.” Christians understand that “God wants us to do it his way.” Young wanted churches to reclaim sex because he believed it can strengthen marriages.
Young said the goal of the challenge was to get the “church to talk about sex, because, after all, God is the one who invented sex, and he tells us to do it, but he says to do it in marriage.”
Young also declared, “God says sex should be between a married man and a woman," Young says. "I think it's one of the greatest things you can do for your kids because so goes the marriage, so goes the family.
Religion’s anti-gay activism that goes back to conservative singer Anita Bryant taking on the movement being ignited by Harvey Milk is and has always been about religion being able to control what is and is not done in the bedroom between two (or more) human beings.
If you have any doubts on the idea that this issue is about sexual behavior and not gay marriage, check out this excerpt from ChristianAnswers.net:
