Warren's Varnished Pulpit
and Views on Proposition 8

By Jacqueline L. Salmon

The Rick Warren did-he-or-didn't-he-support-Proposition-8 flap just won't go away. Warren abruptly canceled a scheduled interview with George Stephanopoulos Sunday morning. A representative said he was "sick from exhaustion."

U.S. News and World Report blogger Dan Gilgoff posts today on the mess, including quoting a Warren associate as saying that Warren really was sick on Sunday.

Blame it on Fox News. Apparently the network, which was broadcasting a couple of Warren's sermons at Saddleback Church, insisted that a fresh coat of varnish be applied to his pulpit lectern, and the fumes were too much for the pastor.

Whatever the reason, Warren has painted himself into quite a tight corner on the issue of his support/non support for the controversial measure in California that outlawed gay marriage.

Contrast these two statements: On Larry King last week, Warren maintained that he is not "anti-gay or anti gay-marriage...I never once went to a meeting, never once gave a statement in the two years that Proposition 8 was going."

Now here's what he said in a video to church members before the Proposition 8 vote last fall: "Let me just say this really clearly. We support Proposition 8."

Once Warren recovers from the varnish episode, it'll be interesting to hear how he squares those two statements. He's made one stab at it in this interview with Sarah Pulliam of Christianity Today.

"It was a pastor talking to his own people," he told her. "I've never said anything about it since. I don't know how you take one video newsletter to your own church and turn that into, all of a sudden I'm the poster boy for anti-gay marriage."

By Jacqueline L. Salmon  |  April 14, 2009; 12:57 PM ET  | Category:  God in Government Save & Share:                 
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