WORLD NEWS TRUST: The Purpose Driven Cheat (Mary Lyon)

(World News Trust) -- It’s amazing how much mud is flying in this presidential contest -- and not just that which is being flung nonstop at Barack Obama. Mudslinging is common during political campaigns, but sometimes that mud isn’t exactly a guided missile. There are moments when it’s splattered about with such zeal that it just gets all over everything -- not just the flingee. In the case of the weekend’s Saddleback Forum, one might well suspect that there was way more than a single flinger.

The McCain campaign is doing everything it can think of to make its guy look good, at the expense of everyone and anyone who comes within earshot, as well as the truth. This time, they may well have dragged Pastor Rick Warren down into the muck with them. Misery loves company, perhaps? Or do the fleas on this dog need a robust new host to come lie down in the dog bed?

Full disclosure here: I have not read Warren’s bestseller “The Purpose Driven Life,” although I have heard and appreciated the testament from legions of people who are glad they did. A truly decent and wonderful man must have written such a book that’s meant so much to so many. But I’m not so sure about the author’s integrity anymore, at least not after this past weekend.

There’s been suspicion aplenty since last Saturday evening when it was whispered that there was no “Cone of Silence” into which John McCain was faithfully sequestered to prevent his hearing Barack Obama’s opening-hour interview with Warren. Warren even made a reference to this “Get Smart” mechanism in his introduction to McCain’s hour that followed. This one’s familiar by now (transcript taken from Rick Warren’s own website):

more

http://www.worldnewstrust.com/wnt-reports/commentary/the-purpose-driven-cheat-mary-lyon.html

from the title of his book...

And then I went to google-land and it's there in many forms, including a guy on World Net Daily (!) who's pissed about the purported across-the-board cave-in to us liberals.

It's a great play on words, though, isn't it?

TaDAAA!

From DeepPissedOff Mom!

:toast:

:hug:

Thanks, bridgit!

lol

K&R

Visions of boogers flying through the air...

Hey, it's late...

:P

This is highly credible given your initial reaction to the book by Warren. It gives your critique all the more credibility. (I'd never heard of the book)

When I heard about the cone of silence my first reaction was how utterly ridiculous. Then I though, if secret service lets these guys do that, I'll be shocked. But only one of them was 'in the cone' for the regulation time period.

This campaign is turning into an example of election fraud beyond the shenanigans of the last two presidential elections - the whole thing is a fraud when the public is denied real coverage of the candidates on the issues and diverts attention to side shows and personalities. They should be ashamed, but, by their record, they lack the capability for that emotion.

I like the site a lot, btw!

I like your work a LOT, too. Sounds kinda maudlin, but it's true. An honor, sir!

What horrifies me even more is how easily much of John and Jane Q. Public insists on falling for this shit again and again and again, election cycle after election cycle after election cycle. Are they just THAT easily manipulated? (I think, sadly, that we all know the answer to that one.)

:patriot:

Good stuff, thanks, Mary. :)

Very glad you liked it!

:yourock: :hi:

speakers haunting the airport hotels of North America.
He's a typical example of the 21st century the medicine
show barker. Buy my miracle elixir and all your problems
will be solved.

He tipped his hand on Saturday night. Just another agenda-driven audience whore.

Like I said in the column - "For me, the whole sordid episode has now transformed Pastor Rick Warren into just another guy I don’t want to trust anymore."

Its not exactly my kind of book, but I saw Warren on TV about a year ago and I was really impressed with him. He seemed to be well-rounded, open minded, and very honest. This is very disappointing to me, but that will teach the preacherman to not mix his religion with politics. Its always a bad combination.

They're not supposed to be "selling" ANYTHING. Even God. They're supposed to be leading by example. Not trying to build empires. Jesus wasn't into building a kingdom here on earth. Why do these guys all seem to want nothing else, and nothing but?

Remember when the controversy arose a few months ago with Barack Obama using similar words in his speech that Duval Patrick had previously used in speeches he had given in Massachusetts? Barack Obama, besieged by questions from the press, had a lot of "e'plaining" to do -- not for just a few moments, but for days.

Fast forward to Saddleback and the current discrepancies in what we were told were the rules of the game, and the questions of fair play not seeming to hold equally for both sides, Obama and McCain. We subsequently heard some minor milk toast utterances on this issue. Andrea Mitchell hit it the next day and was immediately attacked by the McCain campaign, which even requested a meeting with the network on the subject. Since that recoil by the press, with the obvious exception of Andrew Sullivan, the silence on the subject is now deafening.

What a deplorable double standard. It's okay to publicly insinuate that Obama plagiarizes, but it is not okay to insinuate that McCain exaggerates, perhaps even creates or borrows, stories to stoke our patriotic and/or religious sympathies, when signs he has done so fly as high as the United States flag on Memorial Day. But McCain is a war hero, and 72 years old at that, possibly the next President of the United States, so let's just not talk about that, okay?

Thanks for the wonderful thread, Mary. Nice to hear from you again. :hi:

Sam

Somehow I get the feeling we're being made.

:hi:

:hug:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Purpose-Driven-Cheat-by-Mary-Lyon-080819-27.html

Already got a comment on there from somebody who thinks I'm full of it. Which I usually am! :P :headbang: :hi:

First off KNR in support of calimary who is doing the good service of being a media reporter of 'honest important information' as opposed to a media reporter of 'corporate driven spin'. Thank you for this service Mary Lyon. American democracy could use more in the media like you.

I confess to a discomfort from this OP-Ed. It stems from my natural distrust of those who who earn a living by preaching religion on television. Truth be told I am NOT a Christian, furthermore my belief system places me far out on the fringe from what would be considered any standard belief system. No I am not an atheist but most would agree that I am closer to being one than not.

All that said, my discomfort is with the acceptance of Pastor Rick Warren as being...well honest.
It is my bias to accept that televangelists are about equal to used car salesmen when it comes to honesty. When it comes to televangelists involvement with politics, well I would rather trust the used car salesman every time! The used car salesman is far FAR less likely to use politics to sell his products, although should the opportunity present itself I would hardly put it past that used car salesman to sponsor legislation that made him more profits!

I am uncertain how to proceed here because I agree with the basic thrust of this piece-that Pastor Warren has been sullied by all this, but I am predisposed to believe that he is the sort that is used to being less than honest as often as he deems necessary. (An ends justifies the means sort of guy). That is about as fair as I can be with my opinion of Paster Warren. I confess that there may be a bit of partisan bias going on with me as well because had the Rev. Jesse Jackson been involved instead of Pastor Warren I would have been more likely to have wanted to defend Jackson. Of course if the Rev. Jackson had indeed been the only thing changed here I would have been hard pressed to defend him at this point,(all things considered). Actually at this point my view of the Reverend Jackson would have been altered drastically-I would have a damned good reason to be questioning HIS character!

The evidence is clear that both Warren and McCain used subterfuge at the very least and there is plenty enough to suggest that both deliberately set out to misrepresent the nature of that question and answer session. The truth is, I believe that this was a premeditated conspiracy to perpetrate a fraud on the American public. Was Pastor Warren dragged through the mud? YES, yes indeed he has been dragged through the mud! My feeling here is that the good Pastor was one of the creators of that mud so it is up to him to drag himself out of that mud. Like a drunk battling alcoholism, this is something Pastor Warren needs to do for himself-I do NOT feel it best that his 'fans' do it for him. Confession is good for the soul, I'm sure that Pastor Warren agrees here, I am not holding my breath though because as I have already said, I think he is one of those 'ends justifies the means' sort of guys.
c