TurnBackHate.com invites you to sign our petition protesting President-elect Barack Obama's decision to invite Pastor Rick Warren 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 and has insulted gays, lesbians, Jews, atheists, practitioners of the social gospel, Holocaust victims, and ordinary Americans who want to put the politics of hate behind us. I hope you'll join us in silently and non-disruptively turning your back on Pastor Warren when he delivers the invocation.
Since launching my website and petition at TurnBackHate.com, I've heard dozens of ideas for how we should protest Pastor Warren at the inauguration: flying rainbow flags, singing a protest song, wearing special clothing or accessories, booing Rick Warren, and so on and so forth. These are all legitimate ideas but they all have a problem: they either needlessly limit the number of people who can participate or could potentially backfire. Turning our backs is the ONLY form of protest that both maximizes the number of participants and minimizes the risk of press backlash.
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.
