DEL.ICIO.USKing Day speaker’s gay marriage stance attacked
Local critics say Rick Warren antithetical to King’s embrace of human, civil rights
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
The Rev. Rick Warren, caught in a political controversy over his participation in President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration, will deliver the key speech for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday observance in Atlanta.
Same-sex marriage proponents are dismayed that Obama asked Warren, who opposes gay marriage, to give the invocation at the inauguration.
AFP
Rick Warren, a Southern Baptist, pastors the 20,000-member Saddleback Church in Southern California and wrote the best-selling ‘The Purpose Driven Life.’
The King Center invited Warren to speak last May, long before the Obama controversy erupted, said Isaac Farris, its president.
The center chose him in part because of his getting evangelicals working to solve social problems such as poverty, he said.
“Rick Warren represents for most people the more conservative side of Christianity, but is also part of the beloved community that my uncle [the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.] talked about,” Farris said. “We are very supportive, and have been, of the gay community,” he said. “But we cannot exclude people. We cannot do to others what the gay community is accusing others of doing to them, meaning … they should not foster others being excluded.”
Georgia Equality, a gay rights advocacy group, has no plans for protests in Atlanta, but thinks Warren is a poor choice.
Warren’s opposition to gay marriage and homosexuality flies in the face of the King celebration of civil and human rights for all, said Jeff Graham, executive director of the advocacy group.
“I’m very, very concerned that they would give such a prime speaking position to Rev. Warren,” he said.
Cindy Abel of Atlanta, a former officer with the national Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a political group that supports gay candidates, said she would embrace Warren’s participation in political dialogues, but she finds it difficult to accept him in such prominent roles for the two events.
“He does not support civil rights for everyone,” she said.
The King family members are divided over gay rights.
Coretta Scott King, King’s wife, advocated for equal rights for gay men and lesbians before her death in 2006.
The Kings’ youngest child, Bernice King, in 2004 led an Atlanta march calling for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
Martin Luther King III, in a 2005 interview with The Associated Press, said he did not want marriage redefined, but wanted to honor same-sex partnerships.
Warren, a Southern Baptist, is pastor to the 20,000-member Saddleback Church in Southern California and wrote “The Purpose Driven Life,” about faith and finding meaning in service to others.
It has sold more than 20 million copies.
He also is known for his work with HIV patients in Africa and California.
It is his stance on gay marriage that has attracted negative attention.
He publicly supported Proposition 8 in California, which amended the state constitution to ban gay marriage. However, he has also said he has no problem with giving full civil rights, such as partnership benefits, to gay couples.
Warren could not be reached Tuesday.
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