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national
Barney Frank blasts Obama choice of Warren
Pastor says he is not anti-gay
Published Thursday, 01-Jan-2009 in issue 1097
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) – The first openly gay member of Congress says it was a mistake for President-elect Barack Obama to invite the Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration.
“Mr. Warren compared same-sex couples to incest. I found that deeply offensive and unfair,” Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said in a broadcast interview.
“If he was inviting the Rev. Warren to participate in a forum and to make a speech, that would be a good thing,” Frank said. “But being singled out to give the prayer at the inauguration is a high honor. It has traditionally given as a mark of great respect. And, yes, I think it was wrong to single him out for this mark of respect.”
Warren, a best-selling author and leader of a Southern California megachurch, is a popular evangelical who stresses the need for action on social issues such as reducing poverty and protecting the environment, alongside traditional theological themes.
But gay rights advocates, who strongly supported Obama during the election, are angry over Warren’s backing of a California ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage. That measure was approved by voters last month.
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. But later in the interview, he compared the “redefinition of marriage” to include gay marriage to legitimizing incest, child abuse, and polygamy.
Warren said that disagreeing with gay-rights activists on same-sex marriage does not qualify as hate speech and doesn’t mean he is anti-gay. He said Obama chose him to give the invocation at the swearing-in to show that people with different views don’t have to demonize each other.
“We’re both willing to be criticized in order to try to bring America into a new day of civil discourse and to create a new model that says you don’t have to agree only with your side on everything,” Warren said in the video posted Dec. 22 by Saddleback Community Church.
Gay-rights advocates were enraged that Obama had given the evangelical clergyman a prominent role at the Jan. 20 inauguration. Obama said he wanted the event to reflect diverse views and insisted he remains a “fierce advocate” of equal rights for gays.
Warren had backed Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in his home state of California, where he founded Saddleback. He had recently said that he opposed any redefinition of marriage, including a brother marrying a sister, or an adult marrying a child.
In his video, he insisted he wasn’t equating same-sex marriage with incest or child molestation.
“I have in no way ever taught that homosexuality is the same thing as a forced relationship between an adult and a child, or between siblings,” Warren said. “I was trying to point out I’m not opposed to gays having their partnership. I’m opposed to gays using the term marriage for their relationship.”
On Dec. 23, the church replaced a brief article on the Bible and homosexuality with an audio message on Saddlebackfamily.com to better explain the church’s view that Scripture prohibits sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman, according to Larry Ross, a Warren spokesman.
Anyone can attend Saddleback worship services. But the church article had said that gays “unwilling to repent of their homosexual lifestyle would not be accepted” as members.
Saddleback members must sign a broadly worded covenant in which they agree to follow Bible teachings. While same-sex relationships aren’t mentioned in the pledge, it is meant to cover the spectrum of conservative Christian belief.
Warren, in a speech on Dec. 20, said he took “enormous heat” three years ago for inviting Obama to speak at his church, even though the two men disagree on some issues. “Now he’s invited me,” Warren said.
Obama defended the selection of Warren last week, telling reporters that America needs to “come together,” even when there’s disagreement on social issues.
“That dialogue is part of what my campaign is all about,” he said.
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