TurnBackHate.com invites you to sign our petition protesting President-elect Barack Obama's decision to invite Pastor Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church to deliver the invocation at the Inaugural ceremony on January 20th, 2009. There can be no doubt about it: Pastor Warren is a minister of hate who has repeatedly and unapologetically used rhetoric that is offensive, insulting, hurtful, and spiteful towards ordinary Americans of all walks of life. Whether you're watching the Inauguration on TV or online, listening on the radio, or attending the ceremony on the Mall in Washington, we hope you'll join us in silently and non-disruptively turning your back on Pastor Warren when he delivers the invocation.
Pastor Warren has a long and illustrious track record of hate speech, not just against gay and lesbian Americans but against women, Jews, Holocaust victims, and other groups with which he disagrees. Though we strongly disagree with his views, we respect Pastor Warren's right to his opinions as well as his right to preach his views to his congregation. What we find most offensive and repellent are not Pastor Warren's beliefs, but the ways in which he chooses to express those beliefs. We don't think someone with these views deserves a national platform that is supposed to symbolize our spiritual growth as a nation on a day that is supposed to be about national unity. This isn't about one community or one group. Pastor Warren's rhetoric insults all kinds of ordinary Americans: women, Jews, Holocaust victims, atheists, non-Christians, gays and lesbians, as well as those who disagree with Pastor Warren's views.
TurnBackHate.com supports President-elect Barack Obama's vision of a new kind of politics: a politics that respects the dignity and humanity of every American regardless of who they are and what they believe. We believe that the invocation at the Inaugural ceremony is an historic tradition which honors our nation's spiritual, moral, and political progress. Consequently, we expect that individual chosen to deliver the invocation ought to represent our nation's highest ideals -- among them our tradition of inclusion, tolerance, and our ever expanding concept of what it means to be an American. Inauguration Day is a time of renewal, reflection, and unity for the nation. This year especially, it is also a time of celebration and rejoicing for those whose freedoms have been won at great cost to earlier generations. Now is not the time for division and disunity. We ask only that the individual selected to deliver the invocation come from a spiritual tradition that recognizes that the long arc of history bends towards justice -- and inclusion.
Come to TurnBackHate.com now and sign the petition. You can help us by spreading the word about what we're trying to do and telling your friends, family, and co-workers about the petition. We're sending a message to President-elect Barack Obama, Members of Congress, and to all our fellow Americans that we're turning our backs on leaders that try to divide us with hateful rhetoric.
