OMG Can We Please Get Over Rick Warren?

(And, while we're at it, Jeremiah Wright, too...)

I know that Rick Warren supported Proposition 8. And there is a little bit of extra annoyance about his being the inauguration pray-er because he's a pastor from California. That part does feel a little bit like salt in the wound.

HOWEVER, the truth is that the overwhelming witness of the Bible puts poverty at the top of the list of God's big concerns. This debate over the gays is peanuts, really, and mostly a fund raising and distraction tactic for at least some of these Pat Robertson types. Abortion has been similarly exploited, and is similarly, biblically, peanuts.

What's refreshing about Warren is that while he may hold these views, he puts them in the proper position on his list of priorities - near the bottom.

Jeremiah Wright comes into this for me because (Press Club weirdness aside, although maybe that's the actual problem) his pro-African American stance, and his honest confrontation of American hubris and imperialism got turned into a caricature in the national media.

Rick Warren already has a book out and a much bigger church, so I don't expect the outcry, so to speak, to hurt him nearly as much as the feeding frenzy hurt Jeremiah Wright. But still, at this point I'm amazed at how little time gets spent paying attention to the core of peoples' ministries. Thanks, sensationalizing newsmedia.

One last thought - it's interesting how the vehement editorializers never manage to suggest somebody else. I'm free that day, if Pastor Rick needs to bow out....

PS Thanks to H for this commentary by Melissa Etheridge