They claim Warren is "intolerant" while they are being even more "intolerant" in their criticisms and whining.
Today alone, on memeorandum, I see people canceling their inauguration parties, complaining about things on Warren's website and generally having themselves a temper tantrum over the choice.
But not all of the gay community players are showing this level of intolerance. Some are actually showing they are not hypocritical in nature by speaking of tolerance while they are being extremely intolerant, and one such example is Melissa Etheridge, over at Huffington Post.
Well, I have to tell you my friends, the universe has a sense of humor and indeed works in mysterious ways. As I was winding down the promotion for my Christmas album I had one more stop last night. I'd agreed to play a song I'd written with my friend Salman Ahmed, a Sufi Muslim from Pakistan. The song is called "Ring The Bells," and it's a call for peace and unity in our world. We were going to perform our song for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a group of Muslim Americans that tries to raise awareness in this country, and the world, about the majority of good, loving, Muslims. I was honored, considering some in the Muslim religion consider singing to be against God, while other Muslim countries have harsh penalties, even death for homosexuals. I felt it was a very brave gesture for them to make. I received a call the day before to inform me of the keynote speaker that night... Pastor Rick Warren. I was stunned. My fight or flight instinct took over, should I cancel? Then a calm voice inside me said, "Are you really about peace or not?"
I told my manager to reach out to Pastor Warren and say "In the spirit of unity I would like to talk to him." They gave him my phone number. On the day of the conference I received a call from Pastor Rick, and before I could say anything, he told me what a fan he was. He had most of my albums from the very first one. What? This didn't sound like a gay hater, much less a preacher. He explained in very thoughtful words that as a Christian he believed in equal rights for everyone. He believed every loving relationship should have equal protection. He struggled with proposition 8 because he didn't want to see marriage redefined as anything other than between a man and a woman. He said he regretted his choice of words in his video message to his congregation about proposition 8 when he mentioned pedophiles and those who commit incest. He said that in no way, is that how he thought about gays. He invited me to his church, I invited him to my home to meet my wife and kids. He told me of his wife's struggle with breast cancer just a year before mine.
When we met later that night, he entered the room with open arms and an open heart. We agreed to build bridges to the future.
As readers here understand, I did not vote for Obama, do not think he will make a good president, but with that said, I am happy to see that he is reaching out, as he promised to, and attempting to build bridges where he can.
He has lost some support from more of the extreme left base but he has gained the eye and attention of others that are more in the middle.
To me, that is a great trade for Obama and kudos to him for not backing down in the face of the hard left's empty threats.
If they don't like his choices for his cabinet, or his choices for his inauguration, they have no one but themselves to blame, they voted for him, so now they need to sit down, shut up and let the man make the choices that are his to make since he was the one elected and they were not.
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