Is Rick Warren a Liar? - Part 2

In a previous post I commented that I think that a real opportunity has been missed by Warren with regard to giving a clear and comprehensive apologetic for what we believe and why. I was rereading the interview by Christianity Today in which Rick Warren says,

...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.

Obama called me the first week in December and asked me to do the invocation [prayer]. I made a commitment to say nothing to the press about it until after the inauguration. For nearly 40 days or 50 days — I called it 40 days of persecution (laughs) — I took all kinds of flak and never responded back.

The only response that I made was, I wrote an e-mail to all of the gay leaders that I know. I have many friends who are gay leaders whom we've worked with on AIDS campaign on health, poverty, and disease. The guys that I knew, I apologized to them.

In a Beliefnet interview, which was an hour long, Steve Waldman asked me about gay marriage. I said I believe marriage, that term, should be reserved for a man and a woman. I'm not saying same-sex couples don't love each other. I gave some examples of what I think shouldn't be considered to be marriage, like an older guy with a younger woman. Then [Waldman] said, "Are you saying that those are the same thing?" I said, "Oh sure." It made it sound like I was equating homosexuality with pedophilia and incest. I don't believe it, never have, and never would.

I don't believe that, but because I made a commitment to not say anything about it, people just ran with it.

Rick decided that during the time in which he had the most opportunity to be heard to deliberately not say anything? Jim has spoken in the past about being Responsive Christians based on 1 Peter3:15.

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 1 Peter 3:15

As Responsive Christians we need to live lives of integrity, commitment and confidence in God. We need to be in the world, but not of it; not secluding ourselves to the safety of only the Christian community. We need to not shy away from conversations about the tough subjects. These are great opportunities to share those areas of our life that may prompt people to ask, "Why?" We need to be patient and wait for their questions, but strategic in how we share our lives and CREATE opportunities (or use opportunities created for us) for people to question who and what we are as Christians. We need to be prepared with an answer and then actually GIVE the answers!

God has used Rick in amazing ways and I just want to encourage him to not miss an opportunity to give good answers to a world that is asking about what we believe and why we believe it.

Is Rick Warren a Liar? - Part 2