Rick Warren was on Larry King and says he is not against gay marriage:
Warren: You know Larry, there was a story within a story that never got told in the first place. I am not an anti-gay or anti-marriage activist. Never have been, never will be. 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--the week before the vote, somebody in my church said, "Pastor Rick, what do you think about this?" And I sent a note to my own members that said. I actually believe that marriage is really, should be defined. If that definition should be saved between a man and a woman and then all of a suddenly out of it they made me, you know something that I really wasn't. And there were actually a number of things put out.
I wrote to all my gay friends, the leaders that I knew and actually apologized to them. That never got out. There were some things said, everybody should have 10% grace when they say public statements and when I was asked a question that made it sound like I equated gay marriage with pedophilia or incest which I absolutely do not believe. And I actually announced that. All of the criticism came from people that didn't know me. Not a single criticism came from any gay leader that knows me and knows that for years we've been working together on Aids issues....
He says he's not interested in Iowa's court ruling that made gay marriage legal.
I guess he's trying to get in a mea culpa for the BeliefNet interview, which is probably the interview he's talking about here when he says he was misunderstood. It's a video interview with Warren on BeliefNet on Divorce and Gay Marriage.
He nodded his head when the host said that he supported Prop. 8, and in fact did support it over a free-speech issue, but he then said that he supported full equal rights for different lifestyles.
I'm not opposed to that as I am opposed to a redefinition of a 5000-year definition of marriage. I'm opposed to having a brother and sister be together and call that marriage. 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 marriage.
Q: Do you think those are equivalent to gays getting married?
Warren: Oh, I do. For 5000 years marriage has been defined by every single culture and every single religion....
And the reason I supported Prop. 8 was because of a free speech issue. Because, if it had, first the court overrode the will of the people, but second is there were all kinds of threats if you, if that did not pass then any pastor could be considered doing hate speech if he shared his views that he didn't think homosexuality was the most natural way for a relationship and that would be hate speech. ...I just don't believe in the redefinition of marriage.
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Please leave in the comments all the statements that have been collected by him on this topic.
