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Rachel Maddow with the latest development on the kill-the-gays bill in Uganda. Pastor Rick Warren finally comes out and denounces the bill. As Rachel notes, better late than never and a positive turn given Warren's influence in Uganda. Apparently Warren isn't too happy about Maddow's reporting and claimed that he had been "mischaracterized by the media".

Rachel assumed that meant her since she's the only person in the media that has been covering this story. She invited Warren to come on her show. That I would like to see. As Rachel reports James Inhofe is now trying to distance himself from the bill as well, and Chuck Grassley wouldn't take the time to respond, but his staff told The Rachel Maddow Show that he's never been a member of The Family. Jeff Sharlet said he stands by his reporting and his sources told him that Grassley travelled to Uganda on behalf of The Family back in the 80's.

MADDOW: An update for you now on a story that we‘ve been covering for many more days in a row than I thought we would be covering it. The story involves Rick Warren.

Rick Warren is perhaps the most famous pastor in America today. He was the source of great political controversy earlier this year when President Obama invited him to lead prayer at the inauguration, despite Mr. Warren‘s history of antigay activism, specifically his support for Proposition 8 in California, which revoked existing marriage rights for same sex couples.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK WARREN, PASTOR: I‘m opposed to having a brother and sister be together and call that marriage. I‘m opposed to older guy marrying a child and calling that a marriage. I‘m opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You think those are equivalent to gays getting married?

WARREN: Oh, I do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Oh, I do.

On the issue of Prop 8 specifically, Mr. Warren made the mistake of trying to deny that he‘d ever taken a position on it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARREN: During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop 8 was going.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: No statement. No endorsement.

That ended up being awkward because of the whole “bearing false witness” thing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARREN: Let me just say this really clearly, we support Proposition 8, and if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8. So, I urge you to support Proposition 8 and pass that word on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: I think that counts as an endorsement. Rick Warren had not only been involved in Proposition 8, he had been involved on tape.

Well, now Rick Warren has been implicated in much worse antigay politics as Uganda—a nation in which he has been intensely involved—is now considering legislation that would imprison and even potentially execute people for the grave crime of being gay.

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Rachel follows up on her reporting on the 'kill the gays' bill being considered in Uganda. Her show attempted to get some responses from the American legislators who have decided to inject themselves so deeply into African politics - with predictable results. Most of them either tried to wash their hands of their part in this absolutely horrid piece of proposed legislation or didn’t bother to respond at all. The scandal ridden John Ensign’s office said he was too busy screwing up the health care bill to give a response.

James Inhofe and Sam Brownback didn’t bother to respond, either. Don’t hold your breath waiting on those two knuckle-draggers, Rachel. I’m sure it will be a cold day in hell before either of them bother to tell the evil “librul” lesbian woman why they could care less if you were killed if you were unfortunate enough to live in Uganda, assuming this law gets passed.

Props to Rachel for keeping after this story. It has to be one of the most disgusting news items I’ve watched in a very long time and these C-Street wingers need to be held to account for their actions. It’s a shame the rest of the media is not giving this story the attention it deserves. They’re too busy chasing around the White House party crashers or Tiger Woods’ mistresses.

Transcript via Nexis Lexis below the fold.

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Rachel Maddow and Jeff Sharlet discuss the ties between C-Street, Pastor Rick Warren and an anti-gay bill in Uganda. Good for Rachel for bringing some attention to this truly horrific story, unlike her cohort at MSNBC David Gregory who forgot to mention Uganda during the softball interview he gave Rick Warren on Meet the Press.

MADDOW: The government of Uganda is considering passing a law to execute gay people. Execute as in by hanging a, quote, “serial offender” or an HIV-positive person who commits same sex act. If enacted, this law would also impose a three-year prison sentence on anyone who knows of a gay person in the country but doesn‘t report that gay person to the government within 24 hours.

Who is supporting and promoting this legislation? Well, one of the proponents is a minister named Pastor Martin Ssempa. He was a familiar face to American conservative Evangelicals, because Mr. Ssempa has been a frequent guest of Pastor Rick Warren at One Saddleback Church in California.

Do you remember Rick Warren? Him being selected to deliver the invocation at Barack Obama‘s inauguration was the little black cloud that crawled inside the silver lining that day for a lot of Americans who support gay rights.

Given with Rick Warren‘s deep involvement with Pastor Ssempa on matters including gay rights and AIDS issues in Uganda, “Newsweek” magazine asked Pastor Rick Warren his opinion of this proposed “kill the gays” law in Uganda.

Mr. Warren responded by distancing himself from Martin Ssempa, but also by refusing to condemn the proposal saying, quote, “It is not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations.”

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The Gist: Rick Warren can't "take sides" on gay executions

3quarksdaily: Will be awarding four prizes every year for the best blog writing in the areas of science, philosophy, politics, and arts & literature. There's cash involved folks! The deadline for nominations is December 2

Say what you will about Bill Gates and Microsoft (and Vista victims should have plenty to say), I try to separate that out from Gates' work with his wife, Melinda, at the Gates Foundation, which is doing great work in helping to fund research and global efforts to combat AIDS. The foundation now appears to be broadening its emphasis to encompass the cause of global health care. (Watch Glenn Beck's hair catch fire at the very thought.)

Bill and Melinda will be on Meet the Press today, and what they have to say will probably be worth listening to. (No one will blame you for skipping the Rick Warren half of the show, though.) It'll also be a nice changeup from the usual menu of gasbag Beltway insiders -- although certain matchups (Dede Scozzafava and Ed Gillespie on Face the Nation, and Howard Dean vs. Mike Huckabee on CNN) will probably be worth seeing for the entertainment value ...

(All times EST)

•ABC’s “This Week,” 9:30 a.m. — Guests: Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican; Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vermont independent.

•CBS’ “Face the Nation,” 1 a.m. Monday — Guests: Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat; former House majority leader Dick Armey, Texas Republican; Dede Scozzafava, former Republican U.S. House candidate in New York; Ed Gillespie, former Bush White House counselor.

•CNN’s “State of the Union,” 8 a.m. — Guests: Sen. Richard Lugar, Indiana Republican; Sen. Jack Reed, Rhode Island Democrat; Rep. David Obey, Wisconsin Democrat; former British prime minister Tony Blair.
•“Fox News Sunday,” 9 a.m. — Guests: Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican; Sen. Evan Bayh, Indiana Democrat; former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, Republican; Howard Dean, former national Democratic Party chairman; Maj. Gen. Carla Hawley-Bowland, commanding general of Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Army’s North Atlantic Regional Medical Command.

•NBC’s “Meet the Press,” 9 a.m. — Guests: Bill and Melinda Gates, co-chairs of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.

So, what's catching your eye this morning?

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Rick Warren apparently called in sick and canceled his appearance on This Week just moments before the show started. I've got to wonder if it was due to some of his fellow church leaders not being too happy with him for this interview he gave on Larry King Live the other night.

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Rick Warren was on Larry King and says he is not against gay marriage:

Warren: You know Larry, there was a story within a story that never got told in the first place. I am not an anti-gay or anti-marriage activist. Never have been, never will be. The whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement. Never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop 8 was going--the week before the vote, somebody in my church said, "Pastor Rick, what do you think about this?" And I sent a note to my own members that said. I actually believe that marriage is really, should be defined. If that definition should be saved between a man and a woman and then all of a suddenly out of it they made me, you know something that I really wasn't. And there were actually a number of things put out.

I wrote to all my gay friends, the leaders that I knew and actually apologized to them. That never got out. There were some things said, everybody should have 10% grace when they say public statements and when I was asked a question that made it sound like I equated gay marriage with pedophilia or incest which I absolutely do not believe. And I actually announced that. All of the criticism came from people that didn't know me. Not a single criticism came from any gay leader that knows me and knows that for years we've been working together on Aids issues....

He says he's not interested in Iowa's court ruling that made gay marriage legal.

I guess he's trying to get in a mea culpa for the BeliefNet interview, which is probably the interview he's talking about here when he says he was misunderstood. It's a video interview with Warren on BeliefNet on Divorce and Gay Marriage.

He nodded his head when the host said that he supported Prop. 8, and in fact did support it over a free-speech issue, but he then said that he supported full equal rights for different lifestyles.

I'm not opposed to that as I am opposed to a redefinition of a 5000-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.

Q: Do you think those are equivalent to gays getting married?

Warren: Oh, I do. For 5000 years marriage has been defined by every single culture and every single religion....

And the reason I supported Prop. 8 was because of a free speech issue. Because, if it had, first the court overrode the will of the people, but second is there were all kinds of threats if you, if that did not pass then any pastor could be considered doing hate speech if he shared his views that he didn't think homosexuality was the most natural way for a relationship and that would be hate speech. ...I just don't believe in the redefinition of marriage.

.

Please leave in the comments all the statements that have been collected by him on this topic.

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Jon Stewart talks to Bishop Gene Robinson about his experience at the Obama inauguration, his brief encounter with Pastor Rick Warren and his hopes for the advancement of gay rights in the United States.

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Since much was made of these two invocations beforehand, I thought it would be useful to take a look at Rev. Rick Warren's and Rev. Joseph Lowery's respective prayers at today's inauguration ceremonies for President Obama.

First there's Warren's invocation, which you can find the transcript to here.

Warren's prayer, as these things go, was frankly pretty bland, but fine for this context. The best part:

Help us, oh God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race, or religion, or blood, but to our commitment to freedom, and justice for all.

When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us. When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone, forgive us. When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us.

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Rev. Lowery's benediction, on the other hand, was surprisingly fiery, especially from the lips of an 87-year-old. Its wrapup was spine-tingling:

Help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid; when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around -- (laughter) -- when yellow will be mellow -- (laughter) -- when the red man can get ahead, man -- (laughter) -- and when white will embrace what is right.

Let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen.

Of course, the righty whiteys are already uptighty about this part of the prayer. (I'm betting Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck do something, since they lead the contingent that sees any discussion of our weaknesses and flaws as being "anti-American.")

What did you think?

Bruce Wilson at Talk2Action has come up with easily the most disturbing audio clip of a Rick Warren sermon I've heard yet -- and that's saying something:

On April 17, 2005, at the southern California Anaheim Angels sports stadium thirty thousand Saddleback Church members, more than ever gathered in one spot, assembled to celebrate Saddleback's 25th anniversary and listened as Rick Warren announced his vision for the next 25 years of the church: the P.E.A.C.E. Plan.

Towards the close of his nearly one hour speech, Pastor Warren asked his followers to be as committed to Jesus as the young Nazi men and women who spelled out in mass formation with their bodies the words "Hitler, we are yours," in 1939 at the Munich Stadium, were committed to the Führer of the Third Reich, a major instigator of a World War that claimed 55 million lives. Rick Warren has exhorted Christians towards Nazi-like dedication in at least several public speeches and also during a one hour video recording of a talk by Warren, explaining his P.E.A.C.E. Plan, that is currently hosted on the official P.E.A.C.E. Plan website. A version of the anecdote can also be found on page 357 of Rick Warren's 1995 book The Purpose Driven Church, which sold over one million copies.

Here's what Warren says, exactly:

What is the vision for the next 25 years ? I'll tell you what it is.

It is the global expansion of the kingdom of God.

It is the total mobilization of his church.

And the third part is the goal of a radical devotion of every believer.

Now, I choose that word 'radical' intentionally, because only radicals change the world.

Everything great done in this world is done by passionate people.

Moderate people get moderately nothing done. And moderation will never slay the global giants. . ."

At which point he launches into a recitation of the achievements of past radicals -- notably, Hitler and Mao:

"In 1939, in a stadium much like this, in Munich Germany, they packed it out with young men and women in brown shirts, for a fanatical man standing behind a podium named Adolf Hitler, the personification of evil.

And in that stadium, those in brown shirts formed with their bodies a sign that said, in the whole stadium, "Hitler, we are yours."

And they nearly took the world.

Lenin once said, "give me 100 committed, totally committed men and I'll change the world." And, he nearly did.

A few years ago, they took the sayings of Chairman Mao, in China, put them in a little red book, and a group of young people committed them to memory and put it in their minds and they took that nation, the largest nation in the world by storm because they committed to memory the sayings of the Chairman Mao.

When I hear those kinds of stories, I think 'what would happen if American Christians, if world Christians, if just the Christians in this stadium, followers of Christ, would say 'Jesus, we are yours' ?

What kind of spiritual awakening would we have ?

What kind indeed.

It probably didn't cross Warren's mind, but the examples he cites are two of the world's most classic cases of totalitarianism. The products of their regimes -- beyond millions of people dead -- included the forced regimentation of thought and no press or free-speech protections whatsoever.

If that's the kind of fervent "radicalism" he admires, then we badly need to ought to take a long look at just what his agenda really is. And so ought Barack Obama.

Digby has more.

[H/t to Lisa Derrick at La Figa.]

The boys over at Red State Update are a little confused as to the message Obama is sending with his choices of both Gene Robinson and Rick Warren to offer inaugural prayers.

A video in support of The Alternative Invocation blogswarm.

PS. The Weblog Awards voting has started. In an embarrassment of riches, Crooks and Liars is competing with its own writers David Neiwert (Orcinus) and Blue Gal (Blue Gal) for Best Liberal Blog. Our own Susie Madrak (Suburban Guerrilla) is up for Best Midsize Blog, and regular C&L contributor Driftglass is up for Best Individual Blogger. You can vote once in each category every 24 hours. Open thread below...

My friend Mike Rogers was simply awesome on Hardball yesterday. Just awesome.

Digby saw it, too. She wrote:

I saw something very interesting today on MSNBC. Barnicle, filling in for Matthews on Hardball, hosted Reverend Eugene Rivers, a well respected, uncontroversial African American preacher, and Mike Rogers, strident gay activist.

Loaded for bear, Rivers came out firing, very aggressively and derisively attacking the gay community for being intolerant and asserting that Warren is a thoroughly acceptable mainstream preacher. ("This is a pseudo-controversy that's been fabricated by the anti-religious left. Fact: Rick Warren is not a divisive figure, there's not one shred of empirical, statistical data to support this unfounded
claim.") That's obviously untrue, but that's not what made me take note of the interview.

The problem was that Rogers took a very unusual tack and said that Rivers coming on the show to defend Warren shows how powerful the gay community is and that he was very happy to see Warren changing his web site just today (to hide his more outrageously homophobic content.) He characterized this as a big victory for gay rights. ("I compliment Rick Warren on seeing the error of his ways and changing his web site.") Rivers was agitated by this and seemed to be frustrated that the dialog wasn't taking the predicted path, rather sarcastically saying things like "well we're all happy now, I guess."

But the really interesting reaction came about when Rogers suggested that if Warren is to be seen as a man who builds bridges between the right and the left that he should quietly and without any kind of fanfare meet with leaders of the gay community and listen to their concerns. Rivers reacted very badly.

Go read the rest.

(From a different angle: on Warren's refusal to meet with several gay and lesbian couples (and kids) for a meal and conversation - after first agreeing to it. What a hypocrite.)

Let me put it this way: I know better than to think I'll win an argument with Michael. It's never happened, and it never will. Every conversation with Michael is dotted with his interjecting, "Can I tell you something?" and my muttering, "Like I could stop you?" He is, hands down, the most talented debater I've ever seen. (Scorpio. Naturally!)

He doesn't just answer the question, he's always ten steps ahead of his opponent. If we could only clone him, we'd never see liberals lose an argument again.

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When you have questions about how upset the gay community is over the choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration, who better to ask than equally anti-gay homophobe Mike Huckabee?

Predictably, Huckabee's response is a big ol' heaping cup of "so what?":

VAN SUSTEREN: Let me jump to another topic, which you probably weren’t expecting, is that President-elect Obama has chosen Rick Warren to give the invocation and there are a lot of gay Americans very upset. What do you make of this?

HUCKABEE: Well, it’s ridiculous for people to be upset with Rick Warren. He’s one of the most influential spiritual leaders of this generation. I’ve known Rick for over 30 years. We were actually in seminary together in Ft. Worth, Texas, back in the mid-1970s. He is today what he always has been, and that’s a humble, gracious, thoughtful, very intellectual capable person. I think it’s a wonderful thing that Barack Obama reached out to him. I thought it was a tremendous expression on Barack Obama’s part. I’m proud that Rick Warren is going to do it and I think that people ought to recognize…look, that’s part of what being religious is all about. You have strong convictions and nobody is going to have a religious leader who is in agreement with everybody.

Talking about avoiding the question. No one is demanding a religious leader who is in agreement with everybody--what a strawman. But it would be nice to have -- in this post-partisan age Obama is allegedly ushering in -- to have "inclusiveness" actually mean all of us.

To understand how angry and disappointed many Democrats are that Barack Obama has invited evangelical preacher Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inaugural, imagine if a President-elect John McCain had offered this unique honor to the Rev. Al Sharpton -- or the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. I know, it's hard to picture: John McCain would never do that in a million years. Republicans respect their base even when, as in McCain's case, it doesn't really return the favor.

Only Democrats, it seems, reward their most loyal supporters -- feminists, gays, liberals, opponents of the war, members of the reality-based community -- by elbowing them aside to embrace their opponents instead.

Well, exactly. Ironically, Huckabee points out exactly why it's troubling to those that Warren has likened to pedophiles: he's one of the most influential spiritual leaders in the county...sending out a message of intolerance. But for fellow intolerant Huckabee, that's a tremendous message on the part of Barack Obama.

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Rick Warren has spoken and commends Obama for taking heat from the base for "inviting someone like me" and making the choice of picking him for the invocation. Good for him. Wow, he just admitted that he's a homophobe and represents the Jerry Falwell wing of the religious right. The LGBT community is furious and rightly so.

Please Rick, do us all a favor and pull out and say he has a stomach ache or something. He knows he's against the gay community except when he serves them some water and donuts and he should thank Obama for the good will and stay home.

Gay bashing is acceptable to the traditional media since it praises Warren almost every chance it gets, but if he made similar statements about Catholics as an example, you know Bill Donohue would be screaming from the rafters.

I know Warren loves the publicity, but there are millions of people upset over this and if he is really a man of GOD, he would ease their suffering and outrage and withdraw fron the proceedings.

Obama represents every American as our President while Warren represents a faction of this country that wants to oppress the rights of a segment of this great nation.