Rick Warren Saddleback Church Covers Up Extremist Ideology

SOURCE:

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

Rick Warren Saddleback Church Covers Up Extremist Ideology Filed under Barack Obama, Religion by jclifford at 8:12 am

The controversy over the plan to have right wing preacher Rick Warren give an official religious invocation to introduce Barack Obama’s Inauguration just grew another kink. It seems that Rick Warren’s church, the Saddleback Church, is engaged in a coverup designed to hide Rick Warren’s extremist ideology.

Soon after it was announced that its leader, Rick Warren, would be giving an invocation at the Inauguration, the Saddleback Church began taking down parts of its web site in an attempt to prevent people from seeing the kind of weird ideas that the church actually preaches. For example, on December 16th, the Saddleback Church web site had a page of questions and answers about its beliefs. Here’s what it looked like then:

Why the coverup if, as Rick Warren claims, truth is eternal? If Rick Warren is happy to preach these weird ideas to people at his church, then how come he isn’t willing to share them all with the rest of us? Come on, preacher Warren - let it shine, let it shine, let it shine! Truth is eternal, online. I discovered this coverup by looking at Google’s cache, and now, thanks to that, I’ve been able to save the page as a PDF, which you can see for yourself here. I’ve put it on the IrregularTimes.com server, where Rick Warren won’t be able to make it disappear.

What really tickles me is that this page is the Saddleback Church’s page of frequently asked questions. It’s right there in the name of the file: faqs_saddleback.asp - FAQs stands for frequently asked questions. But now, this page has been erased. What does that tell us about how Rick Warren and the Saddleback Church feel about questions?

Apparently, there are no frequently asked questions at the Saddleback Church. It’s not the kind of church where questions are appreciated. Rather, it seems that when church members bring up questions, they’re erased.

Actually, its not just the questions that are deleted from the Saddleback Church web site. Rick Warren’s answers to the questions are deleted too. Amongst those answers are the following nuggets:

- If you’re in debt, you shouldn’t stop giving money to the Saddleback Church, because you’re more likely to get out of debt if you give Rick Warren money.
- Stopping embryonic stem cell research is more important than curing grave and fatal illnesses. Rick Warren urges his followers to “speak out against overzealous stem cell research, even though you know it slows down the process of finding a possible cure for someone you love.”
- Jews should convert to Christianity, because the only sin for which we can go to Hell is “rejecting God’s saving solution in his son Jesus Christ.”
- Homosexuality is a sin, and so the Saddleback Church won’t accept homosexual couples as members. Church members ought to confront homosexuals and tell them that they’re sinners.
- Belief in evolution and belief in the Bible are incompatible.
- God gave human beings dominion over dinosaurs, which were around at the birth of human civilization - “Man and dinosaurs lived at the same time.”
- Plesiosaurs might not be extinct at all.

But this isn’t all - there’s a lot more to Rick Warren and Saddleback Church than just this one web page. A further search for other coverup materials seems to be called for.

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Controversial Rev. Rick Warren to Speak at King Memorial Service

By Matthew Cardinale, News Editor, The Atlanta Progressive News (December 22, 2008)

(APN) ATLANTA – Controversial pastor Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, who at least once has compared homosexuality to incest, has been booked to be the keynote speaker at Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Commemorative Service, according to a copy of the program obtained by Atlanta Progressive News.

The service is scheduled for January 19, 2009, at 10am, at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church and is included in the official program of the ten-day King Center’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration which begins on January 10.

Local homosexual activist Darlene Hudson says she learned the news when contacted by APN and expects there will be protests.

Hudson was part of a small group of protesters in 2004 when King’s daughter, Bernice King, marched against same-sex unions in Atlanta along with Bishop Eddie Long.

"I'm completely baffled by this Rick Warren piece," Hudson said. "Inviting someone of his caliber, of comparing GLBTQ people to bestiality, that's a pretty low blow in our community, and to pedophiles, that's pretty grappling information to try to deal with."

"I don't think it's gonna be very favorable within the gay community. As soon as this begins to move through the community, there's gonna be some quick organizing around it. You can't just sit idly by and allow this rhetoric to continue," Hudson said.

"I think they should call for an apology before he goes up," Hudson said.

"If we have to take some stands, I know our community will. We don't have time for this kind of hate this guy can perpetuate."

Warren’s upcoming speech in Atlanta was first noted on Blog for Democracy.

"My mind is confused about how Rev. Rick will talk about Dr. King's legacy of equal rights and then still preach about who is excluded from God's love," blogger Bernita Smith wrote.

Warren made national headlines in recent days when equality activists criticized Warren’s selection to give the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Warren not only was a supporter of California’s Proposition 8, which, as previously covered by Atlanta Progressive News, sought to redefine marriage--after the courts had previously redefined it, in California--to mean one man and one woman.

Warren also compared homosexuality with incest in recent remarks to Beliefnet.com.

"The issue to me is... I'm opposed to redefinition of a 5,000 year definition of marriage. I'm opposed to having a brother and sister being together and calling that marriage. I'm opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that marriage. I'm opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage."

Warren’s upcoming King speech is on January 19; the inauguration in Washington, DC, is the following day.

The King Center did not immediately return two voicemails seeking comments, left for Steve Cline and Barbara Harrison.

COMMUNITY REACTION

Community members had mixed reactions to the planned King memorial speech. Homosexual activists were livid, while progressive Black leaders expressed a range of views.

"It’s just absurd. It’s ridiculous. In my opinion, nobody should be given a platform that’s that divisive," Betty Couvertier, WRFG radio host and homosexual activist, told Atlanta Progressive News. "They’re promoting discrimination."

"He [Warren]... puts the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community... in this other place that doesn't give us humanity. People talk about civil rights and human rights," Couvertier said.

"I think it's inappropriate for him to be involved in the inauguration. I think it’s inappropriate for him to be involved in the King event," State Sen. Vincent Fort, a prominent civil rights leader, told APN.

"What he represents in his slander of the gay community-- it is slander--seems to be antithetical to the spirit that Obama was communicating during the campaign as well as the spirit of the King Center--antithetical, at cross purposes," Fort said.

"Rick Warren in his slander of the gay community seems to be divisive at best. There are people who say he’s not so bad because he proposes greater emphasis on poverty and the environment. That's all well and good," Fort said.

Fort said he didn’t think someone would be invited to speak who “has good views on poverty or the environment but [says] we don't like Black people."

"It's troubling. We’re not saying don’t talk with him, don’t communicate with him. There should be conditions. We could talk to him and meet with him, but to have him a central figure, that's a little bit different," Fort said.

"He should not play a symbolic role in this kind of event, we don't need to put him out there as a lead figure," Fort said.

"If it had been me, I probably wouldn't have invited him. Hopefully he can grow to become more tolerant," Fort added.

State Rep. Tyrone Brooks declined comment. "I don't agree with everyone they invite. They can invite who they want to invite. I don't work at the King Center. Who they invite is their business," he said.

"I disagree with Rick Warren on gays. He also talks about HIV, poverty, and global warming. Those are issues I agree with him on," Rev. Timothy McDonald of the First Iconium Baptist Church said.

"If we concentrate on those issues we might find some opening on issues I disagree with," McDonald said.

"How are we gonna build bridges? Dr. King always talked about dialogue with those opposed to us, those who disagree with us," McDonald said.

"I would be disappointed if the homosexual activists were not upset... but [they] should not expect the whole nation to be upset," McDonald said.

"We can have some dialogue on the gay issues. I disagree with [his comments regarding] incest and all that. If I don't work with him, how is he gonna change it?" McDonald said.

"I would say to my gay brothers and sisters, the sun will still rise on January 21. He's not going to say anything about gays or incest. I just don't want folks to blow up," McDonald said.

"The keynote address, I do not agree with. Several of those they've had for 10 years I said they never should have chosen them. They chose them for whatever reason and the sun still came up the next day," McDonald said.

"Would I go run down there to hear him? No," McDonald said.

BRIEF BACKGROUND ON KING DAY EVENTS

It is ironic that in fact, the first King memorial march, which took place in Memphis, Tennessee, the day after King was assassinated, was co-organized by his friend and advisor, Bayard Rustin, who was openly homosexual.

As previously reported by APN, Rev. James Orange, who passed away earlier this year, had been the annual organizer of the King March taking place on his birthday each January.

Rev. Orange ensured that march–which was one part of an annual series of events preceding King’s birthday–continued to have an activist focus.

"He [Orange] was doing it under the MLK Center for Nonviolent Social Change. About 10 years ago, the King Center decided they no longer wanted to sponsor the march," State Rep. Tyrone Brooks told APN in an interview for Rev. Orange’s obituary.

"That’s when he decided he would just organize a committee of activists and he would continue to sponsor the march. He didn’t tell me that they ever gave him a reason," Brooks said. "I said, we don’t need the King Center to do the march, we can do it."

Today, the march is completely separate from the King Center events.

Orange founded the M.L. King Jr. March Committee-Africa/African American Renaissance Committee, Inc., in 1995. He and Rev. Joseph Lowery registered the organization with the State of Georgia in 2001.

The current CEO of Africa African-American Renaissance is James’s son, Cleon Orange. His wife, Cleophas, is Secretary, as of an April 2008 filing.

For the past seven years, the King March festivities have included an annual Bayard Rustin breakfast, organized by an ad hoc group of activists.

The King Center has typically not included the Rustin breakfast as part of its schedule of events; however, Rev. Orange, while he was alive, had included the breakfast in his calendar, Hudson said.

As of today, Rev. Orange’s King March website, while not completely updated, does list events for 2009 on its homepage, including the Rustin breakfast.

Several homosexual activists have participated in planning in the King March for several years, Hudson said.

Next year’s march is being organized by Rev. Orange’s wife and daughter, Hudson said.

At least two planning meetings already took place at the King Center although the events are separate from the King Center, McDonald said.

BRIEF BACKGROUND ON KING FAMILY CONFLICT OVER HOMOSEXUALITY

The conflict over equality for homosexuals has been a recurring theme in the history of the King family.

As mentioned earlier, Rustin worked behind the scenes to advise King on nonviolent organizing strategy and helped him build the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) in the 1960s and 1970s.

Yet, he did not receive much credit for his work because opponents of the CRM used Rustin’s sexuality as a wedge issue to distance Rustin’s colleagues from him.

For example, former US Rep. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., once told the media there were “immoral forces” within the CRM, presumably referring to Rustin. King at one point distanced himself from Rustin in order to work with Powell on legislation.

Rustin co-organized the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Three weeks before the march, former US Sen. Strom Thurmond charged Rustin of being a homosexual socialist with an arrest record, all of which were true.

Shortly thereafter, King defended Rustin, and the two began working together again.

Rustin and King co-organized what is today the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

Dr. King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, had both been supporters of homosexual equality.

One of their daughters who was very supportive of equality, Yolanda King, passed away in 2007.

Another one of their daughters, Bernice King, as mentioned earlier, joined with Bishop Long to march in Atlanta against same-sex unions, in 2004, stirring national controversy.

"25 or 30 years ago, the barometer of human rights in the US were Black people. That is no longer true. The barometer for judging the character of people in regards to human rights is now those who consider themselves gay, homosexual, lesbian," Rustin said shortly before his death.

About the author:

Matthew Cardinale is the News Editor for The Atlanta Progressive News, and is reachable is matthew@atlantaprogressivenews.com.

Revised syndication policy:

Our syndicaton policy was updated June 2007. For more information on how to syndicate Atlanta Progressive News content, please visit: http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/extras/syndicate.html

The Prop 8 Debate I: The Mormon Boycott entry ONE

It's been said that "Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows", but when you mix in Bigotry, Homophobia and Religious Fundamentalism, the resulting brew is anything but Saintly.

By: Aurora Grajeda
SFCA 100608

In simple terms:

The Mormon Church and affiliates are against same-sex marriages, they poured millions to pass Proposition H8 in California, the LGBT Community and Allies responded with nationwide protests and a call to Boycott the Mormon Church and their business interests, the Church and it's supporters are calling 'foul', claiming the LGBT Community is engaging in Hate-Speech and suppressing 'Freedom of Expression'

Their latest salvo is a full page advertisement in The New York Times, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty published a full page advertisement that makes inaccurate and unsubstantiated claims about supposed "violence and intimidation" against religious groups by "mobs" since the passage of Proposition 8. You can see the ad here: http://www.nomobveto.org

GLAAD's Call To Action:

It is unacceptable to publish these kinds of dishonest claims. The New York Times needs to hear from you. Contact them TODAY and demand that they discontinue allowing inaccurate claims in their advertising: letters@nytimes.com.

For tips on writing letters to the editor, see GLAAD’s Media Essentials Training Manual:
http://www.glaad.org/media/media_essentials/07_mediaessentials_toolkit.php.

They are advocating for Religious Liberty? This truly tops the cake, please pray tell Becket Fund, in what way do we curtail your Religious Liberty? Interesting to note the way they list religions in their AD 'Jewish, Christian, Hindu, whatever', hmmmm... I wonder what the 'whatever stands for', let's see, how many mayor religions are there? last time I check, the consensus was that there were 4, Could it be that the fourth one stands for the "M" Religion and these, allegedly, defenders of Freedom of Religion couldn't even bring themselves to list it?
It'd be interested if they fee that the Muslim Faith also has a right to exist, HEY BECKET FUND AND ALLIES, CAN YOU ANSWER THAT QUESTION IN WRITING?

The Mormon Church came into another state with millions or dollars to impose their religious belief on other people by taking away their Constitutional rights, the question before us is: doesn't everybody has the right to spend their money as they choose? What's wrong in choosing how and where we spend our money? They interpret the Church's spending millions to take away rights as 'Freedom of Expression' and they label our boycott as 'Hate-Speech' and 'Violence'; talk about speaking from both sides of the mouth.

In their AD, they claim that 'some of the violence is being stoked by public statements denouncing the LDS for merely participating in the debate at all--as if that were somehow illegal', first of all, we are not saying that their meddling in other people's lives is illegal, (unless they are violating their 'Religious tax-exempt status'), second, they didn't just merely participated in the debate, they acted to perpetrate an act which clearly goes against the principles of equality accepted in this country and, third, what about the separation of Church and State? Didn't they participated to effectively impose their religious beliefs on others by amending a Constitution?

Check out what they have to say about the Demonstrations, far too many, however, seem never to have been demonstrations in the first place, but more nearly mobs, seeking not to persuade but to intimidate, another claim they have yet to substantiate is the claim that thugs send white powder to terrorize any place of worship, and this jewel of hypocrisy "Religious ware are wrong; they are also dangerous", really, isn't that what the Mormon Church and others are doing?.

There are 13 signatures listed in their AD, let's look at who some of them are, I'll start with Armando Valladares -- Depending on which side's claims you look at, he was either a Cuban Prisoner of Conscience imprisoned for 22 years and lauded by President Reagan who appointed Valladares to serve as the US ambassador to the "United Nations Human Rights Commission" and would later confer on him the nation’s highest civil honor, the "Presidential Citizens Medal" or, he was a former member of the secret police of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista -- a cop from the Batista’s dictatorship, detained "that is the press of the time" for placing in public places bombs packed in cigarette boxes; a member of a terrorist cell in which Carlos Alberto Montaner also participated. They were convicted and for that reason Armando Valladares went to prison in Cuba

That was a little background info on him, but who is he today and what is he doing?

From WikiPedia:

"He is currently the President of the Valladares Project, an international non-profit organization which advocates children’s rights. Valladares is Chairman of the International Council of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation".

"The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a non-profit organization that works on "defending human rights and promoting liberal democracy in the Americas." The Human Rights Foundation was founded in 2005 by film producer Thor Halvorssen. Its offices are in New York City.

"According to a 2005 article by a conservative news website, the foundation ideologically emphasizes property rights and free markets as the basis for human freedom and criticizes traditional human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for undermining capitalism"

And this is Armando Valladares latest incarnation as "Defender of Human Rights" And making common cause with people and entities taking away rights from an entire community.

Now let's look at another signator to the Becket Group's AD: William A. Donohue: He has been the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in the United States since 1993.

William A. Donohue began his teaching career in the 1970s working at St. Lucy's School in Spanish Harlem. In 1977, he took a position as a college professor teaching at La Roche College in McCandless, Pennsylvania. In 1980 he received a doctorate in Sociology from New York University (NYU).[1]

His first book was "The Politics of the American Civil Liberties" Union and he became associated with the conservative Heritage Foundation where he is an adjunct scholar. His books on the ACLU made him one of the group's most prominent critics and firebrands.

While Donohue was in college in New York, Virgil C. Blum, a Jesuit at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, founded the Catholic League to counter Anti-Catholicism in American culture. Blum died in 1990; in 1993, Dr. Donohue became the director of the organization. Under his direction, the organization has become far more prominent and vocal.

Donohue publishes The Catalyst, the Catholic League journal. He serves on the board of directors of the National Association of Scholars. He serves on the board of advisers of the Washington Legal Foundation, the Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society, Society of Catholic Social Scientists, Catholics United for the Faith, Ave Maria Institute, the Christian Film & Television Commission and Catholic War Veterans. He has received several awards from the Catholic community and was voted one of the top 100 Catholics of the 20th century in a survey of Catholics conducted by the internet site, Daily Catholic. He received the 2005 St. Thomas More Award for Catholic Citizenship from Catholic Citizens of Illinois.

The Catholic League is registered as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. In 2006, according to its Form 990, its revenue was $16,590,333, and Donohue's salary and benefits amounted to $343,420

Weeeell, the second signator to the "Freedom of Religion AD" Is a "Defender Of Civil Liberties" lending his signature to the highly misleading Ad.

Next, let's look at Chuck Colson - currently, he is working with his non-profit organization devoted to prison ministry called Prison Fellowship, has a radio show and is a lecturer and author.

In 1968, Colson served as counsel to presidential candidate Nixon's Key Issues Committee.

On November 6, 1969, Colson was appointed as Special Counsel to President Nixon.

Colson was responsible for inviting influential private special interest groups into the White House policy-making process and winning their support on specific issues. His office served as the President's political communications liaison with organized labor, veterans, farmers, conservationists, industrial organizations, citizen groups, and almost any organized lobbying group whose objectives were compatible with the Administration's. Colson's staff broadened the White House lines of communication with organized constituencies by arranging Presidential meetings and sending White House news releases of interest to the groups.

In addition to his liaison and political duties, Colson's responsibilities included: performing special assignments for the President, such as drafting legal briefs on particular issues, reviewing Presidential appointments, and suggesting names for White House guest lists. His work also included major lobbying efforts on such issues as construction of an antiballistic missile system, the President's Vietnamization program, and the Administration's revenue-sharing proposal.

Colson was known as President Nixon's hatchet man. Slate magazine writer David Plotz described Colson as "Richard Nixon's hard man, the 'evil genius' of an evil administration." Colson has written that he was "valuable to the President ... because I was willing ... to be ruthless in getting things done". This is perhaps complimentary when read in comparison to the descriptions of Colson which pepper the work of Rolling Stone National Affairs' Political Correspondent, Hunter S. Thompson during the period. Colson authored the 1971 memo listing Nixon's major political opponents, later known as Nixon's Enemies List. A quip that "Colson would walk over his own grandmother if necessary" mutated into claims in news stories that Colson had boasted that he would run over his own grandmother to re-elect Nixon. Plotz reports that Colson sought to hire Teamsters thugs to beat up anti-war demonstrators. John Dean maintains that Colson proposed firebombing the Brookings Institution and stealing politically damaging documents while firefighters put the fire out.

Colson's voice, archives from April 1969, was heard in the 2004 movie Going Upriver deprecating the anti-war efforts of John Kerry. Colson's orders were to "Destroy the young demagogue before he becomes another Ralph Nader." In a phone conversation with President Nixon on April 28, 1971, Colson said, "This fellow Kerry that they had on last week...He turns out to be really quite a phony."

Watergate and Ellsberg scandals

Colson also became involved in the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP or CREEP). At a CRP meeting on March 21, 1971, it was agreed to spend US$250,000 on "intelligence gathering" on the Democratic Party. Colson and John Ehrlichman appointed E. Howard Hunt to the White House Special Operations Unit (the so-called "Plumbers") which had been organized to stop leaks in the Nixon administration. Hunt headed up the Plumbers' burglary of Pentagon Papers-leaker Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office in September 1971. The Pentagon Papers were military documents about the Vietnam War which helped increase opposition to the war. Colson hoped that revelations about Ellsberg could be used to discredit the anti-Vietnam War left. Colson admitted to leaking information from Ellsberg's confidential FBI file to the press, but denied organizing Hunt's burglary of Ellsberg's office. He expressed regret for attempting to cover up this incident in his 2005 book, The Good Life

Another signator is: Chris Seiple Another Christian(?) (Following the Prince of Peace?) http://www.fpri.org/about/people/seiple.html

-- Chris Seiple is a Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Research Institute and
President of the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE). Before coming to IGE, Seiple was an Earhart Fellow at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University , where he received his Ph.D. in 2007.

Seiple serves on the board of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA. He is a member at the Council on Foreign Relations (New York), the International Institute for Strategic Studies (London), and is Founder of IGE’s Council on Faith & International Affairs. He is the author of The U.S. Military/NGO Relationship in Humanitarian Interventions.

Chris Seiple "Stewarding American Power: Recommendations for the Next President"

Event on January 8, Under written by: The Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation
Chris Seiple, President of the Institute for Global Engagement in Washington DC which promotes sustainable environments for religious freedom worldwide. As a faith-based organization, IGE believes firmly in universal human dignity and is committed to the protection of all faiths through the rule of law. Dr. Seiple combines expertise with experience in fashioning some practical suggestions about how we, through the president we elect, might steward American might - spiritual, cultural, economic, and military - in a globalizing and hurting world."

Gee, a "Defender of Universal Human Dignity" also making common cause with people taking it away from a Community.

Next we will look up Dr. Alveda C. King, this signator is listed in the Becker Fund's Ad as "Civil Rights Activist", but it doesn't clarify if she is for protecting them or for taking them away, judging from her political views, the latter seems to be the correct answer. (From: Wikipedia)

Dr. Alveda C. King is an American politician, author, and activist. She is a niece of the civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr.. She is currently a Senior Fellow at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, a conservative "think-tank" in Washington, D.C. She is a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives and the founder of King for America.

Education

King has an M.A. in business management from Central Michigan University. She received her doctorate from Saint Anselm College.

Political views

King is a pro-life speaker and often speaks on college campuses about pro-life issues.

She endorsed Senator Sam Brownback for the 2008 Republican nomination.

Family

The mother of six, and a grandmother, she is the niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr..

One year after her famous uncle was assassinated, her father, A.D. King, died unexpectedly. Some believe he may have been murdered, though the details surrounding his death are not well known.

Another signature reads Marvin Olasky - Let's take a brief look at him, his travels and his deeds, or misdeeds depending on where one stands -- From: Wikipedia

Born in Boston, Massachusetts into a Russian-Jewish family, Olasky became an atheist at 14, shortly after his Bar Mitzvah. In college, he discovered Marxism and joined the Communist Party USA in 1972, after graduating from Yale University in 1971 with a B.A. degree in American Studies. In 1976, however, Olasky became a Christian after reading the New Testament in Russian, studying Puritan sermons, and reading Walker Percy, Whittaker Chambers, and C.S. Lewis. Also in 1976, Olasky graduated with a Ph.D. in American Culture from the University of Michigan.

Career and works

Olasky began working as a speech writer and public affairs coordinator for DuPont in 1978, and in 1983 began teaching journalism at the University of Texas, becoming a full professor in 1993. His initial writings gave him to opportunity to win funding from the Bradley Foundation in 1989, allowing Olasky to begin his most famous work, The Tragedy of American Compassion, which was first published in 1992. Largely ignored at first, this book in 1994 and 1995 gained the endorsement of William Bennett and Newt Gingrich, who gave a copy to every incoming Republican freshman representative in the 1994 Congress. Critics blasted the book for its criticism of government programs and said the book was short on research; supporters said it was well-researched and used it in the 1995-1996 welfare reform debate.

The Tragedy of American Compassion argues that private individuals and organizations, particularly the Christian church, have a responsibility to care for the poor, and contends that challenging, personal, and spiritual help, common until the 1930s, was more effective than the government welfare programs of recent decades. Olasky states that government programs are ineffective because they are disconnected from the poor, while private charity has the power to change lives because it allows for a personal connection between the giver and the recipient. He demonstrates his points by a chapter by chapter overview of poverty-fighting in America from colonial times to the 1990s. The book, with its sequels, became a key work defining "compassionate conservatism" (a term coined by Doug Wead)[citation needed] as it relates to welfare and social policy.

In 1995, Olasky became an occasional advisor to then Texas gubernatorial candidate George W. Bush, who put some of Olasky's policy suggestions into action during his term as governor by encouraging the use of religious charities to solve social problems. Christian ministries were called in by the state government to help in a variety of ways, most notably with the rehabilitation of drug and alcohol abusers and the counseling of prisoners. Their disputable success[citation needed] led Bush to make faith-based programs a major component of his 2000 presidential campaign, and in 2001, Olasky saw the national implementation of his ideas when President Bush created the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. During Bush's campaign, Olasky attained brief mass-media notoriety when he was understood by many to have claimed that the 2000 John McCain candidacy was equivalent to a pagan religion of Zeus. Olasky was actually playing off Tom Wolfe's novel A Man in Full, where a main character converts to the "religion of Zeus." Olasky was observing that McCain emphasized in campaigning the classical virtues, such as courage, while "compassionate conservative" Bush emphasized biblical virtues such as mercy -- and Olasky learned that wry comments during a heated campaign are verboten.[1]

Next in line for scrutiny is one with a 'funny' (he, he, he) last name and with a gargantuan dose of hypocrisy to go along, Douglas Laycock

From THE PEW FORUM ON RELIGIOUS AND PUBLIC LIFE Transcripts page:
Event Transcript

Under God? Pledge of Allegiance Constitutionality

Friday, March 19, 2004
10:00 - 11:30 a.m.
National Press Club
Washington, D.C.

Speakers:
Doug Laycock, Counsel of Record for 32 Christian and Jewish clergy, urging the Court to affirm the 9th Circuit's ruling
Jay Alan Sekulow, Chief Counsel, American Center for Law and Justice; Counsel of Record for United States Senators and Congressmen and the Committee to Protect the Pledge, urging the Court to reverse the 9th Circuit's ruling

Moderator:
E.J. Dionne, Jr., Co-Chair, Pew Forum; Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution

"I come to these cases with a fairly simple theory, which is that people of every religion, including the majority and the minority, and people of no religion at all, are entitled to believe their own beliefs, speak their own beliefs, and act on their own beliefs as long as they're not hurting anybody else, and to be left alone by government and have government not take sides. And a corollary of that is that none of these groups can use the government to try to force the other side to join in or participate in their own religious observances."
-- Douglas Laycock

This guy's balls are made are out of bronze or foam rubber, fearless at having them broken by simple intellectual honesty, also making common cause with religious people imposing their beliefs on others via the Government.

Now is Kevin J. Hasson, Esq.'s turn, the big cojuna of the Becket Fund, the claim is that "Hasson enjoys broad credibility in the national media"
From: The Becket Fund's Website
Hasson is also highly praised by the "Federalist Society", which has a membership of ultra right wingers feverishly working on taking away rights from everybody else.

Kevin J. Hasson, Esq.
Chairman and President
The Becket Fund

Kevin J. "Seamus" Hasson is Founder, Chairman of the Board, and President of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a bipartisan, interfaith public-interest law firm that protects the free expression of all religious traditions. Since 1994, Hasson and the Becket Fund have successfully represented clients from nearly every faith tradition including Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus, Native Americans, Unitarians and Zoroastrians. Along the way, the Becket Fund has won kudos from thinkers from Pope John Paul II to Elie Wiesel.

Hasson enjoys broad credibility in the national media. He has been widely quoted, appearing for example, in Newsweek, US News and World Report, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor and USA Today, as well as in regional media from The L.A. Times to The Chicago Tribune to The Philadelphia Enquirer. He has appeared on broadcast news programs including The Today Show, Dateline NBC, McLaughlin One on One, NPR’s Talk of the Nation, and CNN Talkback Live. He’s also appeared twice on Al-Jazeera, debating Saudi clerics.

Hasson lectures and debates frequently, in venues ranging from Oxford to the Vatican, from Harvard to BYU. He is the author of "The Right to be Wrong: Ending the Culture War over Religion in America."

I mentioned that The Federalist Society praised Hasson and in case you didn't know who they are, here is a tidbit about them:

S P E C I A L R E P O R T

H I J A C K I N G J U S T I C E
The Federalist Society, a Right-wing network of lawyers, judges and supporters, is undoing civil rights and other gains made through the courts

By George E. Curry & Trevor W. Coleman
Emerge, October 1999

Another signator is: Nathan J. Diament, The public policy director for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, let's take a quick look at him and on who are some of the players attacking the LGBT Rights, from the Boston.Com: Episcopal diocese sets same-sex wedding ban

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | May 13, 2004

Although rabbis have almost total authority within Jewish congregations, for Orthodox Jews "there is no conceivable basis under Orthodoxy's understanding of halakha [Jewish law] which would sanction a same-sex marriage," according to Nathan J. Diament, public policy director for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations. Similarly, in Conservative Judaism "The Rabbinical Assemblies' Law Committee has deemed it inappropriate for a Conservative rabbi to perform such marriage," said Aaron Kischel, executive director of the New England region of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

And "Last but not Least" of this strange brew of signators to The New York Times dishonest Becket Fund's AD, a more strange Evangelist, Richard Cizik, by his being an Evangelist, speaks volumes about him, but there are aspects which makes you take a second look at him, as in this interview in Salon.Com Lost faith in the GOP Evangelical leader Richard Cizik explains how Iraq, corruption and other failures are transforming the political piety of America's religious voters.

But my being a gullible, trusting-kind-of-person without the scintilla of skepticism, I'd like to ask him about other precepts in the Bible/Leviticus, does he follows all of them? Or, as many Evangelical Christians do, Picks and Chooses in a sort of as in a Evangelical Biblical Cafeteria?

I will give him some points on this piece, written on Earth's Day 2007.

Richard Cizik
Earth Day: A Biblical Mandate

I will celebrate "Earth Day" and encourage Christians of all denominations and traditions to do so. Why? We believe that God created the earth, entrusting its care to man, and that He will one day recreate it in "the new heaven and new earth." We are called to "witness" to our faith as believers.

Participation in this event is an opportunity to express love for God and care for what He has created. We evangelicals call this "creation care." Care for the entire creation -- the environment and "all creatures great and small" -- is a biblical obligation (Gen. 2:15). We should walk in God's ways (Deut. 10:12) and try to inspire people by offering broader vistas of thought and service.

Can we hear the voice of the biblical prophet Ezekiel: "Is it not enough for you to drink the water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet?" Here's a modern-day question: Is it enough for you to enjoy a pleasant climate? Must you destroy it? Is it not enough for you to enjoy the myriad of creatures? Must you extinguish them? Major segments of the earth are dying and we are responsible. Earth's resources are not infinite.

A new moral awakening is sweeping our land. It's a re-awakening to the heart of the Gospel ethic: to steward the natural world in order to preserve for ourselves and future generations a beautiful, rich, and healthy environment. It is "revision-ing" our lives. Taking part in "Earth Day" is a response to this new calling.

Thus, our family will worship together at National Cathedral in Washington with other environmental, scientific, and faith leaders and then enjoy the outdoors together. It's all part of a faith commitment we've made to do everything in our power to preserve this precious gift the Creator has given us.

Richard Cizik is vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals. His primary responsibilities include editing publications such as NAE Washington Insight, directing NAE's Washington Insight Briefing and Christian Student Leadership Conferences, setting its policy direction on issues before Congress, the White House, and Supreme Court, and serving as a national spokesman on issues of concern to evangelicals.
Posted by Richard Cizik on April 22, 2007 11:06 AM