He's nothing more than a slightly more gentle natured Jerry Falwell. He touts his AIDS work and poverty work, but in reality this is a way to cover over and soft pedal his unabashed bigotry toward gays and lesbians.

There are scores of pastors Obama could have chosen who would have been centrist in their appeal to both progressives and conservatives. Yet, Obama picks a pastor like Warren. Why? My guess is that he wants to make hard-right evangelicals feel welcome in his administration. As if they voted for him anyway.

I find this entire episode deeply insulting. I think a constructive dialogue needs to take place between progressives and conservatives in America, but the choice of Warren sends a completely incorrect message. It legitimizes his bigotry.

And I'm sure during the period of Abolition, there were theocrats who bitched about the end of slavery too.

For people like Warren, there always has to be a contingency. The same kabuki dance they go through- pulling ideas and made up statistics out of their ass to one single end- justifying their own ignorance, bigotry and hatred. That's it. That's what evangelical Christianity is all about. It's not about living in the ways of Christ, it's not about caring for the "lesser of men", it's not about living in peace, promoting harmony, feeding the poor or comforting the sick.

It's about money and power, pure and simple. You take a minority group- gays and lesbians- and excoriate them relentlessly while pulling in converts and cash and using that to expand your own political and social power. For an example on how well this works and to what disastrous ends, research Hitler, Adolf re: Jews.

Jesus has nothing to do with it. He just offers cover.

And, Rick- gay people make up a lot more than just 1 or 2 percent of the population. Many people believe it to be closer to 10 percent. And with our society slowly becoming more open and accepting of GLBT people (no thanks to you) people are coming out more and living lives true to ourselves, as opposed to living a lie as we would have had to do as recently as fifty years ago.

Regardless of the numbers- we gays and lesbians are American citizens and -surprise!- also human beings. We are afforded the same rights as all Americans, whether you happen to like it or not.

What you both state as the traditional form of marriage has undergone a multiplicity of changes and variations throughout human history. Using current western, American culture as the bellweather as to the nature of marriage and what constitutes it, ignores the multiplicity of cultures and their definition of marriage throughout the millenia.

In feudal Japan, homosexual relationships were part of the culture and same sex marriage was even legal during Christian Rome until outlawed by Constantine. I also remember seeing a documentary on the History channel that stated that same sex marriage was conducted by clergy in mideval England, but outside the church as opposed to inside. As I can't recall the name of the documentary, I would suggest instead that you view "Tying the Knot" from director Jim de Seve. It addresses these issues and is readily available through Netflix.

As to "dontmakemechokea#@%$" and your argument about "marrying a goat"- this is the same tired, illogical slippery slope argument used by many who oppose gay rights. No one is advocating inter-species marriage. We are advocating equal rights under the law.

Seperately, one could take a very Postmodern tack in regard to history and presume that, since the majority of western history has mostly been written by heterosexual men, the instances of same sex equality may have been, conveniently for them, glossed over.

when we and our society as a whole re-focus our priorities away from mindless decadence and over-consumption and dedicate ourselves again towards the stewardship of our communities and environment.

We've been on a consumption binge since the post World War Two era, fueled by cheap oil and available resources, as the article mentions. The problem is, we have a distinct 'leap before you look' mindset in this country. Sustainability was derided for decades by individuals, corporations and our government itself.

The solution to this problem is not only the necessity of green energy, but we as Americans will have to undergo a re-structuring of our lifestyles and our mindset about them. No longer will we be able to assume that everyone in this country is entitled to a sprawling home with a large front and back yard, in whatever climate we so desire to live in. We have to re-think our vast over-consumption, our petulant instant-gratification lives, and realize that our actions have a massive impact on our environment not only in our nation, but around the globe. We are a nation of gluttons that must at long last go on a diet.

It will happen and it will be a shock for those of us raised in the culture of endless renewal. But, as has happened with other generations, we must now make the tough decisions necessary for our survival. It can be done. But it requires working together.

As for Vegas, I agree that it speaks to our most negative aspects. It's gaudy, impulsive and built upon personal greed. We tricked ourselves for years that this kind of thing was an example of our affluence, but it was just crapulence in disguise.