After making a heart-felt plea for donations to make up for his megachurch’s $900,000 shortfall at year’s end, pastor Rick Warren’s sheep—ahem, I mean flock—filled his coffers with over 2.4 million in contributions within 48 hours.

Warren had sent out the appeal via an online communication to Saddleback Church members Dec. 30. The money was needed, he said, to offset a deficit resulting from hard economic times. Giving among church members had declined at a time of greater need for church’s aid.

Now, the church will enter the year with an unanticipated surplus, officials said.

“I wasn’t surprised by this offering, as Saddleback is famous for radical generosity,” Warren said during tonight’s service.

…

Warren launched the appeal online with these words: “This is an urgent letter,” he wrote in all capital letters, “unlike any I’ve written in 30 years. Please read all of it and get back to me in the next 48 hours.”

Not just a peddler of hate but a great fundraiser too! Just snap your fingers Pastor Warren and the sheep come willingly to the trough to empty their pockets. Just remember while you’re bleeding them dry to gently remind them to “Bow! Yield! Kneel!” before they “Bend over.”

Washington D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty appeared in church today to sign the District’s new marriage equality bill into law. From the Washington Post:

Fenty signed in front of 150 activists and same-sex couples — many of whom say they plan to marry — in the sanctuary of All Souls Unitarian in Mount Pleasant.

“We knew this day would come,” Fenty said. “I say to the world: An era of struggle ends for thousands in Washington, D.C. . . . Our city is taking a leap forward.”

Before he signed the bill, Fenty spoke of his interracial upbringing, noting it was illegal for his parents to get married 40 years ago.

“This is one of the churches my parents would have brought me to when I was a boy,” he said as his parents sat among advocates in a second pew. “Things have a way of coming full circle. When you’re mayor.”

It is widely expected that the law will pass a congressional review, despite the best efforts of  Utah Representative Jason Chaffetz, who pledges to block the bill.

Video from the signing below:

By a vote of 11-2, the Washington DC Council has passed the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009, which would make gay marriage legal in our nation’s capital. From the NBC Washington affiliate:

The bill sponsored by openly gay Councilman David Catania had been expected to pass easily. Ten of the 13 council members supported its introduction. Only Councilman Marion Barry, Ward 8, and Councilwoman Yvette Alexander, Ward 7, voted against it Tuesday. Both have said their vote reflects the wishes of their constituents. Catania expressed regret that these colleagues would not be voting with him but noted their support of GLBT issues in the past.

Even with the dissent of Alexander and Barry, Tuesday’s vote was a very cheerful, cordial event, with council members thanking and congratulating each other and patting each other on the back, many expressing pride for being part of this historic vote. Councilwoman Mary Cheh, the first on the roll call, playfully voted “I do,” as did Councilman Jim Graham. Later, Barry voted “I don’t.”

In anticipation of the bill’s passage, marriage equality opponents  vowed to fight the measure.

“The city council’s action today is not the final word. The issue is far from over,” Bishop Harry Jackson, pastor of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, said in a statement Monday.

Jackson has aligned with Robert King, a longtime Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in Northeast, the Rev. Walter Fauntroy, a former civil rights leader who was a longtime pastor at New Bethel Baptist Church, and several other religious leaders to try to force a referendum to outlaw same-sex marriage.

Mayor Fenty is expected to sign the bill before Christmas, which will go into effect Spring of 2010, provided Congress does not intervene during a congressional review period.

A long-time proponent of criminalizing homosexuality, Dr. Scott Lively, president of Abiding Truth Ministries (classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group), released a statement today praising the intent of  Uganda’s anti-gay bill, and commending the courage of the Ugandan people.

Let me be absolutely clear. I do not support the proposed anti-homosexuality law as written. It does not emphasize rehabilitation over punishment and the punishment that it calls for is unacceptably harsh. However, if the offending sections were sufficiently modified, the proposed law would represent an encouraging step in the right direction. As one of the first laws of this century to recognize that the destructiveness of the “gay” agenda warrants opposition by government, it would deserve support from Christian believers and other advocates of marriage-based culture around the world.

As has been reported on Rachel Maddow and throughout the gay/progressive blogosphere, Lively wielded considerable influence in the creation of the anti-gay bill, having testified before Ugandan leaders earlier this year. Earlier this week Rachel Maddow aired some pretty damning audio of Lively speaking in Uganda:

In a recent interview with LifeSiteNews, Lively describes the impetus for the bill as “… external interference from European and American gay activists attempting to do in Uganda what they’ve done around the world – homosexualize that society,” and cites a fear that homosexuals are entering their country and abusing boys on the streets.

So in Lively’s reality we are to blame for the anti-gay law in Uganda. Just as we were to blame during the holocaust.

If you would like give Dr. Lively a piece of your reality, you can contact him  at 1-951-834-5933, or via e-mail at [email protected].

Below, some more Lively video prior to his testifying against a transgender hate crimes bill in Massachusetts, where he proceeds to blame us (in part) for the inevitable infrastructure collapse of the United States… roads, bridges that sort of thing. Just incredible.