PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Rev. Joseph E. Lowery and Pastor Rick Warren

                 President-elect Barack Obama has chosen two ministers to lead prayers during his inauguration.  Protestant evangelical pastor Rick Warren will deliver the opening prayer or invocation.  Civil rights leader and Methodist minister Joseph E. Lowery will deliver the benediction.  We have heard a great deal over the past few days about Pastor Rick Warren because of the reaction of the LGBT community to Obama’s choice of the anti-equality right wing preacher.  We haven’t heard as much about Rev. Lowery, the legendary civil rights leader.  I thought it would be interesting to compare their stories and their views.  The contrast is striking not only for their different views regarding the LGBT community but in their different views of Christianity and human rights.

                Joseph E. Lowery was born on October 6, 1921 in Huntsville, Alabama. He attended Knoxville College, Payne College and Theological Seminary, and the Chicago Ecumenical Institute. Lowery earned his doctorate of divinity. In 1950 he married Evelyn Gibson, a civil rights activist and leader in her own right.  After graduating from seminary in 1950, he was ordained as a Methodist minister and received his first assignment in Mobile, Alabama.  After Rosa Parks’ arrest in 1955, Lowery helped lead the famed Montgomery bus boycott.  Inspired by Montgomery, Lowery followed up by leading a successful drive against the segregated bus system in Mobile.  Hoping to build upon these victories, Lowery and other black southern ministers, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the openly gay Bayard Rustin, met in Atlanta at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, to form an organization that would provide leadership and structure for the civil rights movement.  The organization founded by Dr. Lowery, Dr. King, Rustin and others was the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which Lowery would eventually lead as its president from 1977 to 1997. 

                Dr. Lowery is referred to as the “dean of the civil rights movement.”  In 1959 Dr. Lowery’s property and that of several other civil rights leaders, was seized by the State of Alabama as part of a libel suit. Though innocent, the four ministers were found guilty by an all white jury and ordered to pay $3 million in damages.  As a result of the judgment, much of Lowery’s personal property was seized even though the ruling was reversed four years later by the U.S. Supreme Court.  Like many other civil rights activists Lowery was subjected to violence and imprisonment. In 1965, Lowery played a key role in the Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights. Dr. King named Rev. Lowery chairman of the delegation that would deliver the protesters’ demands to the segregationist Governor of Alabama, George Wallace.  Wallace denounced the march as a threat to public safety and warned that he would take all measures necessary to prevent it.  State troopers and Sheriff’s Department officers, some mounted on horseback, awaited the marchers. In full view of the news media, the lawmen brazenly attacked and beat the peaceful demonstrators with clubs, bull whips and tear gas.  Televised images of the brutal attack and images of marchers left bloodied and severely injured roused public support.  What came to be known as “Bloody Sunday” focused the nation’s attention on the extreme measures used to prevent black citizens from exercising their constitutional right to vote, leading Congress to enact the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  Thirty years later, in 1995, George Wallace apologized to Dr. Lowery, as Lowery led the 30th Anniversary reenactment of the march.

                After the assassination of Dr. King, Rev. Lowery moved to Atlanta.  Lowery expanded his agenda to encompass the fight against poverty and violence and to work to end apartheid in South Africa.  Dr. Lowery was among the first five African Americans to get arrested at the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C. during the Free South Africa movement.  He co-chaired Nelson Mandela’s 1990 visit to Atlanta.  As a leader of an organization called the Coalition to Change the Georgia Flag, he played a crucial role in efforts to modify the design of Georgia’s state flag, which had prominently featured the Confederate battle flag.  Although that crusade encountered bitter opposition, the supporters of change eventually prevailed. In 2001 Clark Atlanta University established the Joseph E. Lowery Institute for Justice and Human Rights.  He is still involved in the battle for equality for all people.

                Lowery does not shy away from controversy.  At the funeral of Rosa Parks in 2005 he said: We know where the weapons of mass destruction are. They are not in Iraq. They’re in Detroit and Chicago and Atlanta and Montgomery. That’s where the weapons of mass destruction are.  50 million people in this country with no health insurance. That’s a weapon of mass destruction. Minimum wage is a weapon of mass destruction.

                In 2006, at Coretta Scott King’s funeral, Dr. Lowery received a standing ovation when he remarked, before four U.S. Presidents including George W. Bush:  “We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here.  Millions without health insurance.  Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor.”

                Reverend Lowery is also a strong and eloquent supporter of LGBT civil rights and marriage equality.  Affirmation, as newsletter for United Methodists with “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns” stated this about Lowery: 

Noted over the years for his ability to not only “talk the talk” but “walk the walk,” Lowery addressed a series of justice issues that still challenge us in this first year of the 21st century. Among these issues are … the risk the church takes when it restricts, limits and excludes those whose orientation is homosexual. Dr. Lowery wondered out loud, “how could the church, because of a person’s sexual orientation, deny ministry to those whom God has called?” He suggested that he would prefer to err on the side of inclusion rather than exclusion.

                In 2004, Dr. Lowery explained his support of marriage equality to ABC News:  “When you talk about the law discriminating, the law granting a privilege here, and a right here and denying it there, that’s a civil rights issue. And I can’t take that away from anybody.” (ABC News, 03/13/04).  Rev. Lowery has recently stated that he is in favor of civil unions and has some discomfort with the use of the word “marriage.”  Nevertheless the 87 year old Lowery has stated that he is in favor of full equal rights for LGBT couples.

                Dr. Lowery was the keynote speaker at University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s 21st annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration on January 17, 2007.  In a packed ballroom, Rev. Lowery told the story of an African-American, Washington, DC pastor who led his congregation down what Lowery saw as a path of divisiveness, preaching in favor of a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage.  Rev. Lowery spoke about respect for all people and how that played into civil and human rights as a whole.  He said that if you are one who says, “I believe in human rights for all people, except for…” then you really don’t believe in human rights or equality at all.  He said no matter what race, color, religion, creed, sex, gender, or sexual orientation… we are all deserving of human rights, civil rights and equality.

                As he marched for civil rights in the 1960’s alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Lowery said, he prayed the country would one day elect a black president, “but I never thought I’d live to see it.”  Rev. Lowery hopes Obama can unite a country divided over war and embroiled in a recession.  “He’s been touched by the hand of God to lead this nation and, indeed, lead the world through leading this nation to an era of peace and abundant life,” Lowery said. As for the benediction, Lowery said, “I’m honored and overjoyed, [I’m] looking forward to it with great anticipation.”

                Rev. Lowery will be joined at that inauguration by Pastor Rick Warren who was asked to give the invocation.  Warren was born in San Jose, California, in 1954.  He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from California Baptist University in Riverside, his Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (1979) in Fort Worth, Texas, and his Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.

                According to Warren, his call to full-time ministry came as a 19-year-old student at California Baptist when, in November 1973, he and a friend skipped out on classes and drove 350 miles to hear W. A. Criswell.  Afterward, Warren stood in line to shake hands with Criswell.  “When my turn finally arrived,” said Warren, “something unexpected happened. Criswell looked at me with kind, loving eyes and said, quite emphatically, ‘Young man, I feel led to lay hands on you and pray for you!’ He placed his hands on my head and prayed: ‘Father, I ask that you give this young preacher a double portion of your Spirit. May the church he pastors grow to twice the size of the Dallas church. Bless him greatly, O Lord.’”

                Warren is the founder and pastor of the Saddleback Community Church in Orange County, California.  Warren held Saddleback’s first public service on Easter Sunday, April 6, 1980, with 200 people in attendance.  Pastor Warren, a charismatic Southern Baptist, went door–to-door to survey the people in the area surrounding his new church.  He found that the region’s younger population did not connect with their parents’ churches. He believed that they were looking for a more welcoming, less formal approach.  Pastor Warren preaches in casual clothing, in a theater-style auditorium with no pews and no traditional hymns.  The congregation listens to contemporary music often performed by a live band.  His positive message sermons are focused on real life social issues and the personal problems faced by his congregation.  Warren’s goal is to draw people in – to give the people what they want.  The church provides a social support structure.  Members are urged to meet during the week in small organized groups of people with common interests and life experiences.  Members are encouraged to bring non-members to these meetings and to services, but only those who pledge obedience can be members of the church:  “Members are expected to abide by the lifestyle guidelines of our membership covenant.  Those who engage in immoral activities are subject to church discipline.”  Saddleback has grown to 20,000 congregants and is located on a 125 acre campus style facility.

                Through Pastor Warren’s Internet marketing, tens of thousands of subscribing pastors around the world have learned about his church, follow his “marketing” techniques and preach his sermons.  In the past decade, many pastors have worked to replicate his methods, creating new churches and transforming existing ones into “purpose driven” churches to increase membership. 

                Pastor Warren’s book, “The Purpose Driven Life” is one of the best-selling books in the world, with more than 30 million copies sold.  The book is a 40 chapter/40 day plan to find the purpose of your life by becoming more obedient to god.  Through his books and internet marketing, Pastor Warren has developed a huge national and international following.  He and his wife, Kay, decided to reverse tithe, giving away ninety per cent of the tens of millions of dollars they have earned.  They have purportedly met with members of the gay community to talk about fighting AIDS.  Warren has made repeated trips to Africa and has sent out volunteers to forty-seven countries.  Pastor Warren’s five-point plan for global action, the P.E.A.C.E. plan, calls for church-led efforts to tackle global poverty and disease, including the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to support literacy and education efforts around the world.

                The plan is to use the international network Pastor Warren has created to expand the purpose-driven life around the world to tackle social problems.  “There is only one thing big enough to handle the world’s problems, and that is the millions and millions of churches spread out around the world,” he says. “I can take you to thousands of villages where they don’t have a school. They don’t have a grocery store, don’t have a fire department. But they have a church. They have a pastor. They have volunteers. The problem today is distribution. In the tsunami, millions of dollars of foodstuffs piled up on the shores and people couldn’t get it into the places that needed it, because they didn’t have a network. Well, the biggest distribution network in the world is local churches. There are millions of them, far more than all the franchises in the world. Put together, they could be a force for good.”

                 Warren believes that his AIDS relief efforts represent an elevated form of Christianity over those non-evangelical do-gooders whom he compares to “Marxists” because they’re more interested in good works than salvation.  According to Warren, churches have a moral obligation to promote abstinence and faithfulness as the only healthy behavior.  Warren’s prevention approach to HIV/AIDS has been criticized by some.  Michelle Goldberg and the Episcopal Diocese of Washington have disclosed some insights into Rick Warren’s much-vaunted international work. Goldberg has written a new book The Means of Reproduction, about the impact of religious fundamentalism on reproductive freedom worldwide.  She reveals some of the impact of Warren himself from her reporting in Uganda:

When it comes to his public persona, Warren is something of a magician. He has convinced much of the media and many influential Democrats that he represents a new, more centrist breed of evangelical with a broader agenda than the old religious right. This is, in many ways, deceptive. Yes, Warren has done a lot of work on AIDS in Africa, but he supports the same types of destructive, abstinence-only policies as the Bush administration. One of his protegés, Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa, has been a major force in moving that country away from its lifesaving safer-sex programs. He’s been known to burn condoms at Makerere University, the prestigious school in Uganda’s capital, and in his Pentecostal services, marked by much sobbing and speaking in tongues, he offers the promise of faith healing to his desperate congregants, a particularly cruel ruse in a country ravaged by HIV.

And the Right Reverend John Bryson Chane, Eighth Bishop of Washington, has this to say about Warren:

Mr. Warren has been rightly praised for his efforts to deepen the engagement of evangelical Christians with impoverished Africans. He has been justifiably lauded for putting the AIDS epidemic and global warming on the political agenda of the Christian right. Yet extravagant compassion toward some of God’s people does not justify the repression of others. Jesus came to save all of humankind, and as Archbishop Desmond Tutu has pointed out, “All means all.” But rather than embrace the wisdom of Archbishop Tutu, Mr. Warren has allied himself with men such as Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda who seek to “purify” the Anglican Communion, of which my Church is a member, by driving out gay and lesbian Christians and their supporters.

                Unlike Rev. Lowery, Pastor Warren does not believe in human rights “for all.”  When he was in Uganda, addressing the anti-gay “Christians” opposed to universal human rights, Warren stated that homosexuality is not a natural way of life and thus not a human right. “We shall not tolerate this aspect at all.”  Warren’s comment was made while he was speaking in support of Ssempa, the Ugandan evangelist who supports criminalization of homosexuality and identifies gays and lesbians as sex abusers. 

                Saddleback church expressly excludes homosexuals from its membership.  Warren is a supporter of the ex-gay movement that tries to cure people of their homosexuality.  Saddleback has a 12-step style program called Celebrate Recovery.  There are subgroups in the program that cater to people with “addictions”.  There is reportedly a group for those who struggle with “same sex attraction”.  Supposedly, once a homosexual is “cured” and rejects same gender attraction to become obedient to God, they can become a member of the church.

                Pastor Warren believes that opposition to gay marriage is a “humanitarian issue” because “God created marriage for the purpose of family, love and procreation.”  Warren claims that he’s not homophobic and that he has “gay friends”; but he believes that marriage equality for gays and lesbians is equivalent to an adult marrying a child, a brother marrying his sister, or polygamy.  Warren was a leader in the effort to pass Prop 8 in California.  In October he implored his followers to vote for Proposition 8 because “there are about 2 percent of Americans are homosexual, gay, lesbian people. We should not let 2 percent of the population…change a definition of marriage that has been supported by every single culture and every single religion for 5,000 years.”

                Rev. Lowery’s life has been dedicated to the fight for equality for all people.  He personifies the idea of “inclusiveness”.  He and other civil rights leaders used their religion as a force for empowerment of others, not to seek power for themselves.  Pastor Warren is about empowerment of the church as a means of controlling the individual.  His goal is to draw people in to the social structure of the church and to surround them with church influences.  The church will guide you, lead you, “cure” you and save you so that it can tell you your life’s purpose. 

                I believe that preservation of power is the reason Warren and other religious leaders fight so hard against LGBT rights.  If the much vilified LGBT people are free and equal and can live happily in society despite their sinful lifestyle then how can Warren convince people that the road to happiness is through obedience to his church and his idea of “God’?  Rick Warren opposes our very existence because we are a threat to his.  The difference between Lowery and Warren is as simple as the difference between dedication to social good and dedication to social control.  

                The LGBT community worked for and voted for Barack Obama in very large numbers.  On the night of his election, we celebrated his victory while California, Arkansas and other states passed laws to take away our rights.  Now, on the day of his inauguration Barack Obama will give a national stage, along with his tacit approval and acceptance to a man who professes that LGBT people are sinners, who need to be “cured” and whose sinful relationships are the equivalent of “a brother and sister being together”, “an older guy marrying a child” and “one guy having multiple wives.”    The reason the LGBT community is justified in their criticism of the selection of Warren to give the invocation is not about marriage or any policy decision, it’s about human dignity.  By welcoming him, Obama has made the LGBT community feel very unwelcome, just as a Jewish person would feel in the company of a Nazi or an African American would feel in the company of a Klansman.  And you can be sure that in the weeks and months ahead, while we are fighting for our rights in California, New York, New Jersey, Vermont and Maine, Rick Warren will be there, using his national stature to raise money and to recruit people in the fight against us.

Advertisement