ribs-warren-rick.thumbnail.jpgI know, I know — another Pastor Rick™ post. What are you gonna do, complain to management? Go ahead. But when you do, please mention that this post contains ACTUAL NEWS.

The Rev. Rick Warren will be the featured speaker at the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Service in Atlanta the day before he gives the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration.

The 10 a.m. service at Ebenezer Baptist Church on Jan. 19 is the highlight of nearly more than a week of events to fete Atlanta’s famous son.

Wow, that was fast.

Presidential Inaugural Invocation-giver to Keynote Speaker at the official ceremony honoring the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr in less than one week! I wonder how the invitation is being received among African-American church leaders?

The Reverend Mark Whitlock, senior pastor at Christ Our Redeemer AME Church in Irvine, said Obama’s invitation opened the door for positive communication between the conservative movement and the civil rights movement.

"I think this is nothing but a wonderful statement about the progress that makes up our lives," said Whitlock. "Rick Warren – someone many would consider in the southern Baptist tradition – has embraced diversity. We can come together in the common love of Christ in contrast to our social opinion."

What kind of diversity has Pastor Rick™ embraced?  Dr King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, had specific opinions about marriage equality that she made very clear in 2004.

Constitutional amendments should be used to expand freedom, not restrict it, Coretta Scott King said Tuesday.

"Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union," she said. "A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages."

Got that, Ebenezer Baptist Church? Prop 8 is gay-bashing in the opinion of the late Mrs King.

That makes Pastor Rick™ a gay-basher. But, of course, you probably feels it’s fine to have Pastor Rick™ give the Keynote, since he’s standing on the Inaugural platform the very next day to ask the Lord’s blessing on the swearing-in of America’s first African-American president.

And there’s not much I can say to argue with that, is there now?

Heckuva job, Barack.