Warren on faith and gay marriage
Rick Warren needs few introductions. The author of The Purpose Driven Life (Zondervan) – which according to publishers has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide – is akin to evangelical aristocracy.
English Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon led Warren’s great-great-grandfather to Christ and Warren grasped the evangelistic baton with gusto in the 1970s as a teenager in the Jesus Movement that swept America. He spent years “preaching up a storm” at youth revivals on the West Coast, only to be noticed by Billy Graham, who took the “long-haired skinny youthful man with wire-rimmed glasses” under his wing, becoming his mentor for the next 50 years.
Saddleback, the Californian megachurch Warren went on to establish with his wife, Kay, in 1980, has since grown to be one of America’s largest – with a weekly congregation of roughly 30,000.
What we’re going through right now is a shifting of the Church
Once named by Time magazine as among the world’s most influential people, the 69-year-old has rubbed shoulders with celebrities, dined with presidents and had the privilege of visiting 165 countries. But it is failure – rather than success – that he wants to converse about tod
Rick Warren on Gay Marriage: 'Tolerance Does Not Signify Approval'
By Stoyan Zaimov, Christian Post Reporter
Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren has said that entity tolerant of homosexuals does not mean one approves of their choices, while appearing on "CBS This Morning" Tuesday to promote the re-release of his book, The Purpose Driven Life, on the 10th anniversary of its publication.
Warren, whose book has sold over 60 million copies worldwide, a record for a non-fictional devotional manual, was asked by "CBS This Morning" hosts Charlie Rose and Norah O'Donnell a number of questions regarding morality, politics, and same-sex marriage.
The California megachurch pastor said that according to the Bible, people need to be tolerant of all views, just like Jesus was – but that does not mean approving of all choices.
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"Gay marriage is a very personal question," Warren responded when asked why he does not support it. "I possess biblical views regarding what marriage is about. I am not in favor of redefining marriage, I'm not. I
Warren jokes men who think marriage is between one guy and one girl should 'just unite one woman'
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren was met with loud applause at CNN's LGBTQ Town Hall in Los Angeles on Thursday when she humorously joked about a potential faith-based argument against same-sex marraiges.
Morgan Cox, chair of the Human Rights Campaign Board of Directors, asked the Massachusetts senator how she would respond if an "old-fashioned" supporter told her that they think marriage is between one man and one woman.
"I'm going to assume it is a guy who said that," Warren started. "And I'm going to say, 'Well, then just marry one woman. I'm cold with that.'"
She then took a pause and shrugged before finishing her joke: "Assuming you can find one."
Warren again used humor to discuss how faith influences many people's beliefs towards the LGBTQ community, including her own, and recited the first song she remembers learning as a child in Oklahoma.
"They are yellow, dark and white. They are precious in his sight. Jesus loves all the children of the world," she sang.
"That was the basis of the faith I grew up in," she said, growing more stern.
Rick Warren defends traditional marriage
American evangelist and pastor Rick Warren has said he is against the redefinition of marriage.
Speaking to CNN’s Piers Morgan, Warren was asked if he believed in equality for all to which he responded, “I’m more against the redefinition of the term marriage”.
“Don’t take a legal title and make it something different,” he added.
Tolerance
Standing by his faith-inspired beliefs on marriage he said: “today tolerance has been changed to mean all ideas are equally valid. Well that’s nonsense, all ideas are not equally valid.”
Morgan continued to insist Warren, asking him: “How can you espouse genuine equality if you don’t allow gay people the same rights to get married as straight people?”
Warren replied: “Historically around the world the vast majority of people would tell that marriage means one man and one woman in a commitment.”
Disapproval
CNN’s accompanying blog described Warren’s stance as one that “isn’t packaged in terms of an issue of equality, but rather as an translation of God’s scripture.”
Finally Mor
Rick Warren’s Recent Confession, the LGBTQ+ and the Church of the Nazarene
… And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on do not sin any longer.” – John 8:11
In the alley, Jesus does not condemn, but neither does he condone her actions. This “affirming” and “acceptance” by modern Christianity only serves to ignore the latter call to follow His instruction.
Homosexuality should not be affirmed, celebrated, and “accepted” by the Church, for it is opposed to the teachings of Jesus. The only viable rehearse of “acceptance” is the invitation to hear the Gospel. And then further, the acknowledgment, instruction, and support of the Church with the goal of repentance. And if one ever becomes a practicing Christian in the Church, it is because they are no longer practicing their sin. (Slave to sin or slave to righteousness – Romans 6, John 8:34)
Sure, one’s reasoning and “feelings” may describe individual vices, but that is not a justification for continually sinning. No matter how inherent a sin might seem, it does not grant impunity, nor (more importantly) does it preclude