Rick Warren says he did not campaign for Proposition 8

LAKE FOREST, Calif. (ABP) — Rick Warren is drawing heat for telling CNN's Larry King in an April 7 broadcast that he did not endorse Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage that California voters approved last year.

The appearance was Warren's first television interview since he offered the invocation at President Obama's Jan. 20 swearing-in ceremony.

Warren, pastor of the massive Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., and best-selling author of The Purpose Driven Life, stopped giving interviews last year after his prayer invitation drew criticism from both the left and right. Liberals called Warren a homophobe and criticized Obama for choosing him, while religious conservatives said the prominent Southern Baptist's appearance gave legitimacy to a president who supports both gay unions and abortion rights.

Asked about the controversy April 7 on "Larry King Live," Warren said he encouraged members of his church to vote for the amendment, but that he "never campaigned for it."

Warren's latest project is Purpose Driven Connection, a quarterly magazine published in partnership with Reader's Digest. (PurposeDriven.com)

"During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never — never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop 8 was going."

Warren said somebody in his church asked him what he thought about Proposition 8, so he sent a note to church members saying he believes marriage should be defined as a between a man and a woman.

After that garnered publicity, Warren said he wrote to gay leaders that he knew and apologized.

Warren said he is "totally oblivious" to gay-marriage debates going on in other states and rated the issue "very low" in his hierarchy of important public-policy debates.

Warren's comments reopened the battle lines drawn before the inauguration. One gay blogger called him a liar, while a Religious Right leader accused him of abdicating his biblical role as a pastor.

Pam's House Blend, an influential left-leaning blog that often reports on gay-rights issues, dug up a YouTube video message Warren recorded as an Oct. 23 posting on the Saddleback Church website. In it, Warren urges passage of Proposition 8.

"Let me say this very clearly," Warren said on the video. "We support Proposition 8, and if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8."

"There are about 2 percent of Americans are homosexual, gay/lesbian people," he said. "We should not let 2 percent of the population to change a definition of marriage that has been supported by every single culture and every single religion for 5,000 years.

"I urge you to support Proposition 8 and pass that word on. I'm going to be sending out notes to pastors on what I believe about this, but everybody knows what I believe about it."

The Yes on Proposition 8 campaign put out a press release announcing Warren's support of the gay marriage ban. Conservative news sites, including the Southern Baptist Convention's Baptist Press, reported the story at a time when the main organization supporting Proposition 8 was trying to raise money to purchase additional television ads to fight off a final push by opponents.

Bryan Fischer, executive director of the Idaho Values Alliance, accused Warren of apologizing for his earlier support of one-man, one-woman marriage.

"The minimum the Christian church should expect from its spiritual leaders is clear and unapologetic adherence to this biblical standard, especially from pastors who tell us that the Bible is the 'rule of faith and practice,'" Fischer said.

"Warren did everything in his power last night to distance himself from Prop 8," Fischer said. "He thus takes pride in being completely AWOL while this huge battle over the spiritual and moral fabric of our nation was taking place in his own state."

Warren did not respond to an e-mail from an Associated Baptist Press reporter requesting comment by press time for this story.

Warren also told King April 7 that "everybody should have 10 percent grace" when they say things in public, referencing another of his public statements that "made it sound like I equated gay marriage with pedophilia or incest, which I absolutely do not believe."

That comment came in a Beliefnet interview that also made its way around the Internet.

"I'm opposed to having a brother and sister be together and call that marriage," Warren said. "I'm opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that a marriage. I'm opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that a marriage."

Asked if he thought those were equivalent to gays getting married, Warren replied, "Oh, I do."

Warren said in December he did not equate gay partnerships with incest and pedophilia, but he understood why someone would think that based on his comments in the interview.

In the Beliefnet interview Warren also said the reason he supported Proposition 8 was on free-speech grounds, claiming pastors' sermons opposing same-sex relationships could be construed as hate speech. After Proposition 8 narrowly passed in November, protesters gathered outside of Saddleback Church, accusing Warren of misleading the public on that point.

Also in the Larry King interview, Warren said he was surprised when Obama invited him to pray the invocation at the presidential inauguration and said he has not spoken with the president since he took office. He said he has no ambition to be a consultant to Obama as Billy Graham was to other presidents.

"No. In fact, I told the president that," he said. "I'm a friend and I'm a prayer partner, but I'm not a consultant. I'm not a pundit. And it's not my role to do that. My role is to help people in their personal lives. I have helped a lot of leaders, both locally and globally, with issues about family and issues about personal stress. That's a pastoral role. I'm a pastor, as you know, Larry. I'm not a politician and I'm not a pundit."

Warren chuckled about a question from a caller who has heard that evangelicals believe that President Obama is the anti-Christ.

"Well, of course, I don't agree with that," he said. "Saying 'evangelicals believe' is like saying 'Americans believe.' I can show you all levels of spectrum in terms of political views and in doctrinal views. They just have in common the connection to Jesus Christ. So I don't believe that and I don't even think most evangelicals believe that. In fact, I'm certain they don't."

Warren also said his annual state-of-the-church message for Saddleback Church for the first time this year will be webcast live on April 19 at PurposeDriven.com.

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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.