Apparently it is big news that Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback mega-church, sent out a fundraising letter asking members to donate additional funds so as to make up for a $900,000 deficit in the church budget. 

Suffice it to say that Warren is not very popular here on OS.  Warren is mentioned briefly in Jay Leffew's post about Our Worst Moments of 2009.    Apparently no one told Robert Crook that liberals are supposed to be kinder and gentler, because Robert hopes to celebrate his death in 2010. 

In one reasonably popular post Bonnie Russell has some advice for Warren:  "I'm thinking Pastor Rick could funnel some of the book royalties from his purpose driven life, to his purpose driven church. "

And not to be outdone in the outrage category, Christopher di Spirito expresses his righteous wrath over pastor Warren's fundraising letter:  "In addition to being a pastor, Warren is a multi-millionaire, bestselling author of “The Purpose Driven Life.” I find it a telling comment on Warren’s character that instead of tapping his own bank account to help keep the massive Saddleback Church afloat during recession, he has the audacity to ask his followers to write checks to pay the rent and utility bill."

I'd like to focus in particular on Christopher's post.  Christopher di Spirito is one of the Open Salon Chosen People, or Frequent Flyers, however one might call them.  Christopher's posts are frequently featured on the cover.  In one 30 day period Christopher had no fewer than 13 posts on the cover, something unheard of for the average OS member.  The Open Salon editors love Christopher as much as Dick Cheney loves Halliburton, and give him the same advantage. 

But even though Christopher has this advantage, he can't stand it when people disagree with him.  To their credit, most of the Chosen People on the cover will at least take on all comers, and mix it up with people who disagree with them.  But not Christopher.  Christopher is, to put it politely, a wimp.

For example, Christopher  published an erroneous post about a photo of President Kennedy. To be fair to him, I don't think that was intentional; he just didn't do sufficient research.  Others pointed out on his blog that the photo was a fake.  But he deleted their comments.  Otherwise known as censorship.  For example, Robert Brenner wrote "My beef was not with Christopher posting the piece or OS featuring it on the front page. My issue was Christopher obstinately refusing to update his post and deleting comments that the photo was a hoax. He should have manned up, admitted he got punked, and moved on."

Manned up indeed.  Don't be a wimp.

Kathy Riordan was also disturbed by Christopher deleting comments:  "I found the behavior, and the deletions, most surprising," especially since the comments were not intended as personal attacks.  She conluded "it has affected [Christopher's] credibility."

Christopher could offer nothing but a personal attack against Kathy:  "She's certainly earned her badge as OS's neighborhood busy body. She's convinced that there is something strange going on everywhere on OS and it's her job to use her brilliant skills to unearth the truth."

Yes, Christopher is such a wimp that when corrected, he goes on the attack. He doesn't care about the truth.  And this from one of Open Salon's Chosen People.

But this is not the first time that Christopher has engaged in censorship.  In fact, Christiopher has a standard practice of censoring comments on his posts.  

On December 3rd OS member T.S. commented on one of Christopher's posts, with a rather mild disagreement.  

Christopher responded "TS -- Your homophobic diatribes have to [sic] place on my posts. You will be deleted if you appear here again."

The "diatribe" in question consisted of two sentences.

And I also have been cast into outer darkness by Christopher.  After posting a  comment that Christopher didn't like he said "mishima666 is now on delete. His off-topic, homophobic, childish rants will no longer be tolerated on my posts. I've been more than tolerant with him but enough is enough."

 As of this date Christopher has deleted four of my comments from his posts.

And that brings me back to his post on Rick Warren.  Christopher basically says that Rick Warren should cover the church's budget deficit out of his own pocket.  But what he doesn't talk about is what Rick Warren already gives to the church.  

 I decided to supply that information.  The following is my comment:

"From what I've read, because of the success of his book, in 2005 he donated back to the church 25 years of his salary, and discontinued taking a salary.  In addition, he practices "reverse tithing," in which he donates 90 percent of his income and keeps 10 percent.  

So on the one hand, the 10 percent is no doubt a lot of money.  On the other hand, 90 percent is a lot to donate.  There are a lot of wealthy people who support various causes, and we don't expect them to fund the entire endeavor."

But Christopher deleted this comment.  Had he let the comment stand it would have damaged his "rant," because Warren is already doing what Christopher says he should do.

 After deleting my comment Christopher went on to say "The good news is, by the time these charlatans begin begging for money, it's usually the beginning of their end. The sooner Rick Warren joins the ranks of Ted Haggard, Jim Baker and Oral Roberts, the better."

But by this time Christopher had already known from my brief comment that Warren donates most of his money.  Yet he chooses to ignore that and continue on with his rant as if he didn't know.

Rick Warren isn't the charlatan.  Christopher is.  And I find it a telling comment on his character than when he is corrected he refuses to acknowledge the truth and continues to propagate falsehoods. 

This is what we get from one of the Chosen People:  a pattern and practice of censorship and intentional disinformation.  So the next time one of his posts appears on the cover -- as it no doubt will -- you might want to contact the editors and ask if a censoring deceiver should be part of the public face of Open Salon.