Reflections on how Christians help each other to grow and mature in loving God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love their neighbor as themselves.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Rick Warren is NOT a homophobe

I’ll begin by saying that I’m not one of Rev. Rick Warren’s fans. However, over the past couple of years I will admit to becoming a grudging admirer of his. In particular, I greatly respect his work fighting HIV/AIDS and poverty. I learned a few months ago that he and his wife are “reverse tithers.” This means that they give 90% of their income to fight poverty and HIV/AIDS. They are able to do this because of the incredible wealth they receive from the sale of his book, The Purpose Driven Life. I am convinced that Warren is a man of deep faith, compassion, and integrity. He is genuinely living the gospel of Jesus Christ, to the best of his ability.

The recent controversy surrounding his accepting President-elect Obama’s invitation to deliver the invocation at his inauguration has not changed my opinion of Rick Warren. It has, however, caused me to rethink my opinion about some of the columnists and media personalities who have distorted his statements in order to create controversy. They have stated over and over again that Warren equated gay relationships with pederasty and incest. He did no such thing. What he did was to give a poorly worded response to an interview question that left the door open to anyone who wanted to believe that he was a homophobe. Warren has since released to the members of Saddleback Church an excellent clarification of his position.

The truth is that Warren objects to the redefinition of marriage. He does not object to gay couples living together as consenting, loving adults in committed partnership with one another. He just does not want the law or the church to call such relatonships marriage. Warren's is a valid, well-reasoned position that does not deserve the vitriol or distortion that have been thrown his way.

3 Comments:

Blogger Beo said...

you need to go look up all the statements he has made about homosexuality...that are all starting to come out now... audio tape and video are really bad things when you try ...

but even if those were not coming out...why go to the image of an adult man and a child ...on four times recorded on video now.

why pick incest?

why make references to a man marrying a horse?

they used these same subtle comparisons when in the 70's social conservatives tried to say that interracial relationships were "unnatural" "would be the end of civilized society" and referenced "8000 years of institutionalized and societal precedent can't be wrong (using the reference that masters weren't allowed to marry slaves) ...etc etc

I feel bad if you can't realize a man who used his pulpit (in what our founding fathers most feared) to leverage legislating beliefs of his church... this offer is wrong on many levels.

6:00 PM

 
Blogger Rev. Jeremy Smith said...

I would recommend that people not be fooled by media savvy. Test the spirits, don't believe the camera angles and media-massaging the truth. A "clarification statement" is meant to remove controversy at all costs, even perhaps at the cost of the truth.

And for the record, what kind of church supports ex-gay ministries and can say with a straight face that they support committed partnerships? Are those partnerships just a halfway house to the "ideal" of them just being...friends?

(btw: the "word verification" for this post was "ratedr"...what DO you blog about?! haha, just kidding)

7:23 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It takes a remarkably inventive stretch of the imagination to seriously consider that Rick Warren is anything other than an outstanding and effective Pastor and Christian leader of demonstrated character and integrity. Of course those whose agenda drives their distortion of him and his ministry are not hindered by issues such as character or integrity.

8:31 PM

 

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