Rick Warren and Satanism

I am outraged, incensed and deeply saddened by President Elect Obama's choice of having pastor rick warren perform the invocation for his inauguration. When the news broke yesterday, I couldn't believe it. It felt like a bad dream. I held out hope that perhaps it was an error, or that someone else had made the decision and Obama would correct the situation. However, today, I was dismayed to find that not only did Obama take responsibility for the decision, but had the audacity to defend the choice in the name of "inclusion." How ironic that inclusion includes people who use religion to divide, demean, and destroy. If you don't understand why I am saying that, it's because rick warren preaches at a large church here in southern California, where he spews hate behind the pulpit, stating that same sex marriage is equal to incest, pedophilia, and polygamy. This is not some quote I am making up in order to be dramatic, you can watch the words coming out of his mouth right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdeub37MGBc.
Warren was a vocal advocate of proposition 8, which removed my right to marry my partner of over 6 years, stripping us of our equal rights and protections under that law. Those "christians" out there who argue that they "love and support gays" but don't believe we should be able to marry are hypocritical and either delusional about the hate they harbor, or simply lying. I've heard ugly arguments from the religious right saying that all gays really want is to have our perverted lives validated by the government and that if we really just want equal rights, we should be happy with civil unions and leave the word "marriage" alone, since it has a religious connotation. What these wing nuts either fail to understand or refuse to acknowledge, is that the government is not a religious institution, and civil unions are not the same as marriage, neither in name or in the rights and protections they provide. And no, I do not need the government to validate my relationship; if I did then I wouldn't have remained in it for over six years. Even if gay marriage was legal, I know that wouldn't stop the discrimination, hate, and murder committed against gays from those who mistakenly believe they have the right to judge others.
Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and failed presidential candidate (and apparently the bassist for a band rightfully named Capitol Offense), recently went on The View and stated that gay rights are not civil rights because gays have not had violence inflicted upon them like Blacks have. While nobody was making that claim, the fact is that gays and lesbians are murdered, beaten and bullied everyday. Since Huckabee made that claim, I have read about recent attacks including a murder in Brooklyn of a straight man from Ecuador who was walking home with his brother (the assailants assumed they were gay), a transgender woman in Syracuse NY who was shot and killed, two elderly gay men where murdered in their home in Indianapolis, and a man who was shot and killed in Boston. Add this to the national news about Lawrence King, and past high-profile murders such as Brandon Teena and Matthew Shepherd, and it's not too difficult to see that violence against gays and lesbians is actually a problem in this country, despite what some people want to present.
All this anti-gay sentiment seems to spew forth from christians who claim that the bible gives them the right to judge and demonize homosexuals. Anyone with an open mind can research the actual facts on what the bible says, or doesn't say, about homosexuality as well as other 'moral' issues (such as divorce, slavery and shellfish). Anyone with half a brain would understand that treating people as abominations is wrong and against the teachings of Jesus Christ.
The negativity emanating from religion has once again got me riled up against christianity. In college, I became an atheist. Over the years, as I have been lulled into complacency and been filled with a desire to honor and uphold the traditions of my ancestors, I had been granting some leniency to religion and even trying to reconcile how it might be able to hold some place in my life. However, this has just again made it clear that I want no part of religion and will only bite my tongue when speaking out against it would be hurtful or inappropriate.
I have been reading a lot lately about atheism, and yesterday I came across some interesting information about the Church of Satan. Despite the automatic image of the dark angel, with horns and fire all around him, the Church of Satan has more to do with accepting man's carnal self rather than worshiping Lucifer or animal sacrifices. In fact, The Satanic Bible actually condemns animal sacrifices, along with things like bestiality, rape, and pedophilia. However it does condone homosexuality, which is a plus for me.
One of the main reasons that Anton LeVay wrote the Satanic Bible was that "man has always had religion because he has a need for dogma and ceremony; Satanism acknowledges this." This is the one point where Atheism and Satanism really differ, and for me is probably the reason I would never become a Satanist. I don't need dogma or ceremony. I don't need to belong to a group that believes the same things that I do or that worships together.
I admit that part of my interest in the Satanic Bible comes from a desire to repudiate christianity, but I do also want to explore religions of all kinds from a literary and objective viewpoint. I don't think I would ever use the Satanic Bible as rules for living, but at least it would be handy to take on a plane or bus in the event that someone annoying should sit by me and attempt to make conversation. It might also be a useful tool if Mormons ever come knocking on my door, not that they will probably be showing their faces around West Hollywood for awhile (at least I hope not, for their own sake).