Joan Walsh Tweets Rick Warren: "Class warfare against the poor. Is that what Jesus would do?"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Note: This is one of those articles that's impossible to post here under the DU "4 Paragraph rule"...a lot of "one-sentence paragraphs"...so I just posted the opening.

:patriot:

Tuesday, Jul 26, 2011 18:27 ET

Rick Warren's wealth-driven tweet
I criticized an anti-tax tweet that was more Limbaugh than Christ. Warren said he'd pray for me -- then deleted it
By Joan Walsh



http://www.salon.com/news/rick_warren/index.html?story=/opinion/walsh/2011/07/26/walsh_rick_warren

Twitter was jumping for hours after the Obama-Boehner debt-ceiling throw-down Monday night, but one tweet cut through the chatter. Rev. Rick Warren, the conservative impresario of Saddleback Community Church known for his work on poverty and AIDS issues, let loose mid-evening with the observation:

HALF of America pays NO taxes. ZERO. So they're happy for tax rates to be raised on the other half that DOES.

[valerief]

1. Like Rick Warren gives a rat's ass what Jeebus said. He's in this for the $$$ like all the other

thieves.

[mod mom]

7. exactly.

[hfojvt]

12. he claims to give away 90% of his money

because of book royalties, that 10% he has left is still lots of money, but he gives away a lot more money.

[valerief]

17. You think all his money comes from royalties??? nt

[hfojvt]

18. supposedly he doesn't take a salary from Back in the Saddle Church

Where do you think his money comes from?

[valerief]

20. The 1%ers. His message is to keep the masses fighting each other so they can be robbed blind

by the 1%ers.

[gratuitous]

2. Warren's tweetback: "I'll pray for you"

This is equivalent to "Thank you for your concern." I'd like to know what Tubby the Preacher thinks of what Walsh tweeted to him, but instead of engaging the discussion, he dismissed her legitimate point. That's not pastoral or being the leader he fancies himself, that's being a coward.

[mzmolly]

23. He needs to pray for himself.

eom

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[arbusto_baboso]

4. Well, Warren's Supply-Side Jesus probably WOULD conduct class warfare against the poor.

And righties, whether political or religious, are all about twisting meanins to suit their own personal prejudices. Of course, in religion, that has a name: Blasphemy.

[Mimosa]

5. Typical right wing comment about taxes.

Warren doesn't realise you can't squeeze blood from stones. In other words, the half he claims don't pay taxes pay plenty of FICA. But they just barely get by with incomes which have been decreasing .

So typical of fat right wingers. *ick*

[hfojvt]

11. pay FICA, pay state income taxes, pay sales taxes, pay property taxes

pay excise taxes on gasoline and phones, but, hey, who's counting.

Another thing is, one reason fewer people are paying income taxes is that they were thrown a nickel in the Bush tax cuts so that the rich could be given bundles of hundred dollar bills. For political cover, they cut taxes by $300 at the bottom so they could cut taxes by $3,000,000 at the top.

But God forbid we undo that, eh, Rick?

[hfojvt]

6. my thing about Warren's tweet

is that doesn't it make a good argument for politicians to be falling all over themselves to cater to 50% of the voters? I mean if 10-20% of the group that pays taxes also wants to raise taxes on the rich, that's a pretty solid majority of the people right there.

So why isn't the government representing this majority. Why do they instead, Obama included, keep proposing more tax cuts for the rich?

[tanyev]

8. Half of America pays "no taxes" because 1% of America controls 40% of the wealth.

http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105

[Mimosa]

9. Rec your link. Tanyev, that needs to be shown.

That was the best article ever on the issue.

[beac]

15. And churches, even grifting cover operations like his, pay NO taxes, so

why isn't he advocating that THEY pay their "fair share"... hmmmmm????

[H2O Man]

10. Beautiful! Recommended!

Thank you for this.

[DearAbby]

13. Clear evidence "Trickle down" does not work

when half the country (number is rising) are so impoverished, they don't qualify to pay federal income tax. We all know that everyone pays some sort of taxes, even the poor. Ten Years is long enough for this little experiment, time to change course.

[spanone]

14. is that chuck todds dad?

[City Lights]

16. The resemblance is striking! eom

[starroute]

19. Liberal Christian blogger Fred Clark had two good entries on this

http://www.patheos.com/community/slacktivist/2011/07/26/the-purpose-driven-lie/

Stupid or evil? Both. That’s such an old lie, told so often by old liars and debunked so frequently that Warren can’t have believed it unless he had spent the previous three decades somewhere with no television, no radio, no newspapers and no Bibles.

After his original tweet created a firestorm, Warren deleted it and fired off a few attempts at conciliatory statements — things like, “Whenever I think I understand it all, I realize I haven’t been listening” or “You are 100% right! It did sound mean.”

These aren’t corrections — his lie hasn’t been retracted. Nor are they apologies. They are excuses and they are not believable.

The nasty lie he told was not a faux pas, or an innocent bit of misinformation.


http://www.patheos.com/community/slacktivist/2011/07/26/to-whom-much-has-been-given/

What was he thinking? That’s easy. He was thinking the same thing as anyone is thinking when they let something so venomous slither through their lips. He was thinking, “I feel spite towards people who earn so little income that they do not owe federal income taxes and I shall now express that spite by saying something false and bullying and spiteful about them.”

A more interesting question is why was he thinking that? Where did this spite come from? And what does he imagine to be true of his followers — virtual and actual — that would lead him to assume that they would share this spite, that they would find it clever and amusing and, God help them, edifying? . . .

Why do so many of our supposed spiritual leaders think that expressions of contempt for the very people Jesus loved the most are acceptable? Why would they ever imagine that such contemptuousness toward the vulnerable would be seen as praiseworthy?

[GreenPartyVoter]

26. Thanks for passing those on!

[Bake]

21. Hey, pRick: "Render unto Caesar ..."

Jesus once said, "If anybody wants to be my disciple, let him sell all that he has, and give the proceeds to the poor. Then take up the cross and come, follow me."

And they all went away sorrowful, for they had great possessions.

There's a lesson there, Pastor Prick. And it sure as hell isn't your "prosperity gospel."

Bake

[Starry Messenger]

22. Gee, where are all his defenders who say RW luvs him some poor people?

Ruling class swine, snake-oil salesman, bigot.

[spanone]

24. ironic rick, you're one of the half of americans that don't pay taxes....asshole

[Maven]

25. Obama should have him back at his second inauguration.