Politically, Rick Warren is a puzzle. He is determined to get evangelicals to expand their political horizons beyond hot-button issues, but he often finds himself mired in controversy surrounding those very issues.
Gay rights activists decried Barack Obama's invitation to him to deliver his inauguration invocation because Warren had supported Proposition 8, California's recently adopted gay marriage ban. Christian-right leaders bashed him after he appeared to dial back support for Prop. 8 in a recent interview with Larry King.
My column from the latest U.S. News Weekly, just posted on usnews.com, outlines how Warren's controversies threaten to stymie his mission of becoming a political bridge builder. Here's the top:
Unlike many evangelical leaders of recent decades, the Rev. Rick Warren doesn't want to be a lightning rod. When I asked him before the last election whether the Christian right had tarnished the image of American evangelicals, Warren didn't blink: "without a doubt."
"I never was a part of it," Warren said of the Christian right. "I'm trying to stake out what I call a common ground for the common good."
More here-
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/god-and-country/2009/04/22/can-rick-warren-be-a-political-peacemaker-if-hes-a-lightning-rod.html
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