Under fire for opposing same-sex marriage, influential evangelical pastor Rick Warren said Dec. 20 that he loves Muslims, people of other religions, Republicans and Democrats, and he also loves “gays and straights.”

The 54-year-old pastor and founder of Saddleback Church in Southern California told the crowd of 500 that it’s unrealistic to expect everyone to agree on everything all the time.

“You don’t have to see eye to eye to walk hand in hand,” said Warren, who supported California’s Proposition 8, the voter-approved same-sex marriage ban.

Warren also defended President-elect Barack Obama’s invitation that he give the invocation at the Jan. 20 inauguration in the keynote speech he delivered at the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s annual convention in Long Beach.

Obama’s choice of Warren sparked outcry from gay rights and other liberal groups, who said choosing such an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage was tantamount to endorsing bigotry.

“Three years ago I took enormous heat for inviting Barack Obama to my church because some of his views don’t agree (with mine),” he said. “Now he’s invited me.”

Warren said he prays for the same things for Obama that he prays for himself: integrity, humility and generosity.

Obama defended his choice last week, saying he has also invited Joseph Lowery, a Methodist minister and civil rights leader who supports same-sex marriage and gay rights, to deliver the benediction.

“During the course of the entire inaugural festivities, there are going to be a wide range of viewpoints that are presented. And that’s how it should be, because that’s what America’s about. That’s part of the magic of this country … we are diverse and noisy and opinionated,” Obama said.

Last week, local faith leaders – including Rev. Madison Shockley of the Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Carlsbad and Rev. Scott Landis of the Mission Hills United Church of Christ – issued a joint statement, saying, “We find the invitation to the Rev. Warren to be far beyond any reasonable gesture of conciliation and an unnecessary affront to a vulnerable group of people struggling to live free.”

The faith leaders also gathered at the Mission Hills United Church of Christ to urge citizens to write letters to the president-elect voicing their concerns.

“We want to dispel the public of the notion that the Rev. Rick Warren is a benign, moderate evangelical leader,” Shockley said.

Fred Karger, founder of a nonprofit organization that tracked donations to Proposition 8, drafted a letter to Obama last week, asking him to select someone other than Warren to deliver the invocation at the inauguration.

“How can [Warren] talk about loving same-sex couples who wish to marry like everyone else in [a] cruel way?” Karger wrote, referencing Warren saying in an interview, “I’m opposed to redefinition of a 5,000 year definition of marriage. I’m opposed to having a brother and sister being together and calling that marriage. I’m opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that marriage. I’m opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage.”

“This guy is a bigot plain and simple,” Karger wrote. “He has a long history of saying mean and hateful things to so many Americans with whom he does not agree, that he seems an odd fit [for the inauguration ceremony].”

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said Obama’s invitation to Warren was a “genuine blow” to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans; and Geoffrey Kors, executive director of Equality California, said he declined Obama’s invitation to attend the inauguration because he “cannot be part of a celebration that highlights and gives voice to someone who advocated repealing rights from me and millions of other Californians.”

Toward the end of his speech on Saturday, Warren also talked about singer Melissa Etheridge, who performed earlier in the evening. Warren said the two had a “wonderful conversation” and that he is a huge fan who has all her albums.

The openly lesbian gay rights activist even agreed to sign her Christmas album for him, he said.

Warren gained a prominent role in the presidential election in August when he hosted the Civil Forum on the Presidency, a two-hour televised show in which he interviewed Obama and his Republican opponent John McCain for an hour each on faith and moral issues.

Warren has won kudos from some liberal quarters by focusing less on traditional conservative issues such as abortion and gay rights, and instead calling on evangelical leaders to devote more attention to eradicating poverty, fighting AIDS in Africa, expanding educational opportunity for the marginalized, and global warming.

But the preacher ignited the ire of many liberals when he publicly supported California’s Proposition 8.

Although Warren has said that he has nothing personally against gays, he has condemned same-sex marriage.

“I have many gay friends. I’ve eaten dinner in gay homes. No church has probably done more for people with AIDS than Saddleback Church,” he said in a recent interview with BeliefNet. In the same interview, he compared the “redefinition of marriage” to include gay marriage to legitimizing incest, child abuse, and polygamy.

Warren founded Saddleback Church in 1980 in Lake Forest, about 65 miles southeast of Los Angeles. He is the author of numerous Christian books, including The Purpose-Driven Life, which has sold more than 20 million copies.