Rick Warren, And The Convenience-Driven Web Page.

Frankly, the whole "Controversial, creationist to give invocation at Obama inauguration" thing bored me. I mean, I guess the polemical side of me enjoyed watching the toxic underbelly of the gay lobby take time out from vandalizing Mormon churches in California to stage a new insurrection was . . . I guess a bit fun, but . . .

I didn't really get it. Sure, Proposition 8 made for the only interesting political fodder out here, as the same constituency that delivered all 54 of our electoral votes to Mr. Obama also voted to rid the state of definitional marital oblivion. Mr. Warren was far more tepid on the matter than many to his ideological left who voted to oppose gay marriage. Mr. Obama graciously appeared with Warren, on stage, in his church at Saddleback. It stands to reason that Mr. Obama would also reward this gracious treatment with an above-board, quid pro quo, if you will.

So anyway, the fact that Mr. Obama asked this high-profile evangelical to say a prayer at the inauguration is something I found far less intriguing than many. That was, until, I discovered that Saddleback's website has now expunged the Q&A section that includes their positions on homosexuality, creation and dinosaurs.

Really. I wouldn't be surprised a bit if Mr. Warren accepts a position as so kind of ad hoc, White House clergy, who suddenly finds definitional wiggle room between salvation and gay theological upstart ministries.

Thankfully, Jesus wasn't a web page, or in any way a personality or character that bore all the spiritual, two dimensional hallmarks of the Saddleback web page--or it's founder. The very fact that He didn't delete his cache-file is the only reason any of us can escape the recycle bin--and ultimate deletion ourselves:

Pilate: "Art thou the King of the Jews?"

Jesus: "Thou sayest."



Compared to:



The World: "Is the Bible the inspired, infallible word of God?"

Rick Warren: "Error 404. Page Not Found."


Lastly, in a turn-the-world-on-its-head twist of the lens, High-profile atheist and bad-boy Las vegas magician, Penn Gillette, posted this holiday message on YouTube, where he, quite frankly, says that despite his complete and total non-belief in a God of any kind, says that anyone convinced of the actual existence of a Hell has something inherently wrong with them if that belief does not tranlate into a sincere effort to save others from it:



I know. Seems like the world is upside down. Oh . . . wait. It is.

-R