A Pastor Asks A Politician Why He Supports Gay Marriage. It Seems He Wasn't Prepared For His Reply

[HarveyDarkey]

[joshcryer]

1. That was brilliant, haba.

Thanks for sharing this.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Wow! Why don't we have politicians who speak with such clarity? Even...

the ones who agree with him too often mumble and equivocate using safe words.

[ohheckyeah]

3. It was a good answer but

I feel it didn't go far enough. First of all, homosexuality is not unnatural as it is observed in nature all the time. Secondly, unless the country being represented is a theocracy, personal belief is immaterial. Any government should be supportive of equality for all.

[cui bono]

14. Maybe you misheard him? He said he couldn't agree that homosexuality was unnatural.

And he said if the man who asked the question believed that he couldn't agree with him based on the science available.

As to your second point, I didn't hear him say anything that would make me believe he thinks that people are not all equal.

[lakercub]

18. His answer went plenty far

for the type of format. He got his point across, shot down the moron, sounded compassionate, reconciled his stance with his religion...all in a 4 minute clip. I guarantee you, in a format like this, you've never heard a better answer, and you aren't likely to in the near future.

[ohheckyeah]

33. You're probably right.

As I said, it was a good, even great, answer.

[Scootaloo]

4. Well, that was just perfect!

[Change has come]

5. That was refreshing. nt

[Tx4obama]

6. Part of the OP video reminded me of an old Obama speech he gave while still a senator

Excerpt below is from Page 5 of the transcript of the speech

Obama’s 2006 Speech on Faith and Politics

-snip-

For one, they need to understand the critical role that the separation of church and state has played in preserving not only our democracy, but the robustness of our religious practice. Folks tend to forget that during our founding, it wasn't the atheists or the civil libertarians who were the most effective champions of the First Amendment. It was the persecuted minorities, it was Baptists like John Leland who didn't want the established churches to impose their views on folks who were getting happy out in the fields and teaching the scripture to slaves. It was the forbearers of the evangelicals who were the most adamant about not mingling government with religious, because they did not want state-sponsored religion hindering their ability to practice their faith as they understood it.

Moreover, given the increasing diversity of America's population, the dangers of sectarianism have never been greater. Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.

And even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson's, or Al Sharpton's? Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is ok and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount - a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application? So before we get carried away, let's read our bibles. Folks haven't been reading their bibles.

-snip-

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/28/us/politics/2006obamaspeech.html?pagewanted=5&_r=0

2006 Senator Barack Obama: Call To Renewal - Faith and Politics Speech (full speech - five videos)
Video here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017777

[CreekDog]

7. I think that's Kevin Rudd, Australian Labor Party Prime Minister

Good stuff. Polite, articulate, and certain of his belief and unafraid to defend it unequivocally.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23925367

Australia election: Kevin Rudd defends gay-marriage stance

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd: "If you think homosexuality is an unnatural condition, then frankly I cannot agree with you based on any element of the science"

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has delivered a strong defence of gay marriage on live television, days before the 7 September election.

In a Q&A session on ABC News, Mr Rudd said he backed gay marriage after "years of reflection in good Christian conscience".

His defence ignited debate and was praised by gay advocacy groups.

Latest polls show Mr Rudd's Labor party trailing eight points behind the Liberal-National opposition coalition.

Monday's polls also put opposition leader Tony Abbott - who opposes gay marriage - ahead of Mr Rudd as preferred prime minister for the first time.

[HarveyDarkey]

9. That's exactly who it is

Thanks for the link to the article.

[SwissTony]

13. And having Abbott as PM will be a return to the dark ages. n/t

[Rhiannon12866]

8. K&R! This was priceless!

[blue14u]

10. What a great and thoughtful

response...

Thank you for sharing!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

11. Eventually, the Church will have to go back to selling love and not hate or nobody will buy it.

[JRLeft]

23. We'll be better off when everyone leaves religion.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

24. Speaking as a proud atheist, I concur....

In Europe churches are becoming little more than subjects for architectural study.

[JRLeft]

25. Let's hope that happens here. Though atheism is growing in the country at a rapid pace.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

32. A lot of people are questioning everything with the advent of the Web....

Religion is the first casualty of an enquiring mind.

I wish people realized this is true in the Middle East too. Our media presents everybody over there as a Muslim but a large percentage are like, so called, "faithful Christians" in this country that don't actually practice the religion. How many "Christians" even know the name of their local pastor/vicar/priest/minister? Hell, some don't even know where their local church is at and the last time they were even IN a church was for either a wedding or a funeral. (The last two surviving tribal rituals)

[Heidi]

12. Kick, kick, kick!!!

[Demo_Chris]

15. Rec.

[cui bono]

16. Wish our politicians were so forthicoming and steadfast.

None of the hemming and hawing we have over here while our reps try so hard not to offend the most offensive people in the country. our resident bigots.

[Skittles]

17. THANK YOU

I am tired of bigots and racists being catered to; ENOUGH ALREADY

[TexasTowelie]

19. It was in the rewrite segment on The Last Word last night.

Rudd gave one of the most thoughtful answers that I've heard any politician provide in years. He would get my vote.

[Snake Plissken]

21. Michael Higgins did a pretty good job last year

[noiretextatique]

34. i love this guy!!!

too bad he cannot be our president.

[Snake Plissken]

20. We've all heard about the Anti-Christ, well I think it's safe to say Kevin Rudd is the Anti-Bagger

God forbid we manage to elect politicians who can actually think rationally, the bagger's heads would explode.

[Cha]

22. That was an epic reply from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in

Australia!

[LuvNewcastle]

26. That pastor looks remarkably like Mike Huckabee.

I like the forum they have for discussion there. People are actually speaking and listening. In America, those men would have been in a shouting match, and whoever had the best one-liner would have 'won' the argument. I wish we had more of these types of exchanges on American tv. There's a lot we need to discuss in this country.

[Gothmog]

27. Great response

This was a West Wing type response

[woo me with science]

28. Beautiful.

Just beautiful.

[bullwinkle428]

29. K&R. This deserves to be seen far and wide.

[yurbud]

30. that pastor looked like he was about to cry pretty early on in the response

maybe his question was a cry for help.

[Jim Lane]

31. Kevin Rudd (the politician responding) is a born-again Christian

I'm an agnostic and will confess to feeling some anti-religious bigotry. My defense is that it's provoked by the way so many born-again Christians in the United States seem eager for a theocracy, or at least to impose their views on everyone.

If more of the evangelicals here were like Rudd, I'd have a much better attitude toward them.

More about Rudd and his views on religion in politics: "Christianity and Politics - Kevin Rudd". He condemns the politicians who say "vote for me because I'm a Christian" and who emphasize "a defined set of views on questions of private sexual morality...."

Contrary to the right-wing stereotype of us, sensible nonreligious people don't try to exclude religion from public life. We can completely agree with what Rudd says here:

Whereas a Christian perspective on contemporary policy debates may not, therefore, prevail, it must nonetheless be argued. And if argued it must therefore be heard by those in authority. It should not be rejected contemptuously by secular politicians as if these views are an unwelcome intrusion into the political sphere.

Now, before I go too far in praising Rudd, I should quote another excerpt from the linked article. Rudd wrote in 2006:

Second is the question of asylum seekers. The biblical injunction to care for the stranger in our midst is clear. The parable of the Good Samaritan is but one of many which deal with how we should respond to the stranger who is vulnerable. That is why the Government ’ s current proposal to excise the entire Australian mainland from the entire Australian migration zone and to rely almost exclusively on the so-called Pacific Solution should be the cause of great ethical concern across the Christian churches.

I don't follow Australian politics in detail, but my impression is that he has now backed down from that position. Harsh anti-refugee measures are very popular with the Australian electorate, and Rudd wants to win the next election and remain Prime Minister.