By John-Henry Westen
IRVINE, CA, April 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – US Evangelical leader Pastor Rick Warren, who famously delivered the invocation prayer for President Barack Obama’s inauguration, appeared on CNN’s Larry King Live program Monday, where he disavowed any ties to California’s Proposition 8 effort to protect the true definition of marriage.
After denying that he had engaged in any activism in support of Prop 8, Larry King asked Warren, “Do you therefore criticize or not comment on the Iowa court decision to permit gay marriage.” Warren replied, “Yeah, I’m totally uh oblivious to, to what’s, that’s not even my agenda.” He went on to say, “My agenda is two things” and spoke of the 15th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide and what the recession is doing to the spiritual climate of the nation.
“I am not an anti-gay or an anti-gay marriage activist. Never have been, never will be,” Warren told King at the outset of the interview. “During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop 8 was going.”
Pressed by King on whether he told his congregation to support Prop 8, Warren conceded to having “just simply made a note in a newsletter” about it. He also stated that he continues to believe that the definition of marriage should not be changed.
Nonetheless, he stated that his note to his congregation telling them to support Prop 8 was blown out of proportion. “I sent a note to my own members, and then all of a sudden out of it they made me something that I really wasn’t.” He added: “I wrote to all my gay friends, the leaders that I knew and apologized to them.”
“I was asked a question that made it sound like I equated gay marriage with pedophilia or incest which I absolutely do not believe,” added Warren.
King asked Warren in conclusion, regarding homosexual “marriage,” “So it’s not high on your road of issues?” Warren replied, “No, no it’s very low. In fact I am working with a number of different gay organizations on issues that we care about in saving lives.”
To express concern to Pastor Warren:
Pastor Rick Warren
1 Saddleback Parkway
Lake Forest, CA 92630
U.S.A.
[email protected]
See the Larry King Live interview on video here:
https://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/04/07/lkl.rick.warren.cnn?iref=videosearch