Pastor Rick Warren says he's opposed to
the redefinition of the term “marriage” to include same-sex
couples, not gay people.
The 59-year-old Warren is the founder
and senior pastor of the Lake Forest, California-based megachurch
Saddleback Church – the eighth-largest church in the United States
– and the author of the best-selling book The Purpose Driven
Life.
During an appearance on CNN's Piers
Morgan Tonight, host Piers Morgan asked: “How can you espouse
genuine equality if you don't allow gay people the same rights to get
married as straight people?”
“I'd like to reposition it this way,”
Warren responded. “I'm more against the redefinition of the term
marriage than anything else. I don't think other groups get the
opportunity to redefine a term. For instance, if a Muslim says this
is a term we use and all of the sudden I take that term and mean it
for me. Well, that's not right. … Don't take a term and and make
it something different. Orwell talked about doublespeak, where words
mean the exact opposite of what they used to mean.”
On whether Christian churches will
someday bless gay unions, Warren answered: “I cannot see that
happening in my life. I fear the disapproval of God more than I fear
your disapproval or the disapproval of society.” (The video is
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