|
Edited on Thu Dec-18-08 03:43 AM by BigBearJohn
Transcribed (by me) from Anderson Cooper 360 today:
Hillary Rosen:
<snip>
"From what I gather, every gay person who paid attention to this today felt like we were kicked
in the stomach. This is just kind of outrageous that you would choose such a divisive figure to
speak out in a blessed prayerful moment at a day of bringing the country together. I think it's kind
of an outrageous mistake on the part of the Obama campaign.
This is not a policy difference. This is not even about gay marriage. That can be a political or
policy difference that obviously Obama has with many gay and lesbian people. This is about the way
that Pastor Warren has used homosexuality as a weapon, that he uses religion as a weapon to suggest
that gay relationships are akin to incest and pedophilia and other things. That's the problem.
It's not a matter of a policy difference, it's a matter of using this sort of moral religious
authority to divide one group from another."
<snip>
<snip>
"The inauguration day is not a political negotiation. That's not what this is for. If you want to
have a political negotiation, have it. If you want to talk about issues that evangelicals and
progressives can agree on, do that. But what this is, this is a symbol to America about the kind of
people that we respect and the messages that they deliver."
<snip>
<snip>
"I want to make 2 quick points about this. First, the glibness about 'well, you know, it's just a
bunch of gays being unhappy that people don't agree with them' is wrong. You know, at one time the
Bible was used to justify slavery. If this was a preacher out there using moral weapons against
African Americans, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. So, second of all, the fact that
we are actually having this conversation means that this is a mistaken choice. This is a day when
people are to be brought together. There are hundreds of preachers across the country with stature
and thoughtfulness and other ways to bring this country together on an inauguration day for the new
President. That's the choice he should have made."
<snip>
<snip>
"This is a day to make everybody feel good about the new President and the new direction of the
country. This choice today is making a lot of people feel lousy about it. You can find people that
everybody likes."
<snip>
Robert Zimmerman:
<snip>
"There is no question Reverend Warrens' comments are divisive and ignorant and I, for one, personally
believe in the rights of both gays and lesbians to marry. It's a moral right that should be
protected by the law. But I believe the inauguration of Barack Obama is must bigger than Rick
Warren. And I think obviously the goal here is to try to bring everyone together, to bring people
to the table who we differ with, so that we can try to in fact bring them around. It's very
important to know how the evangelical community has stood up on issues such as world poverty or the
AIDS pandemic or environmental causes. How we are seeing in fact progress made in vote after vote
to bring the vote around for the rights of gays and lesbians to marry.
This is not about the issue of gay rights. This is about individual respect for humanity and
human decency and Reverend Warren's comments disqualify him from that. He uses faith to preach fear
and I think what's critical here to note is and this is what my hope is what inauguration day
represents is a chance to open up dialog that hasn't existed before and by opening up these dialogs,
we can bring people together around common ground and respect for one another."
<snip>
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
