The following is the controversial portion of the interview with Rick Warren focused on gay marriage, civil unions and divorce. In brackets are clarifications that Warren asked to include after reading a transcript of the original interview:
BELIEFNET: Which do you think is a greater threat to the American family - divorce or gay marriage?
WARREN: [laughs] That's a no brainer. Divorce. There's no doubt about it.
Here's an interesting thing. The divorce statistics are quite bandied around. People say half the marriages end in divorce. That's just not true. 40% of first time marriages end in divorce. About 61% of second time marriages end in divorce and 75% of third time marriages end in divorce. So the odds get worse and what's balancing this out...when you hear 50% end in divorce, that's just not true. The majority of marriages do last....
BELIEFNET: So why do we hear so much more - especially from religious conservatives - about gay marriage than about divorce?
Oh we always love to talk about other sins more than ours. Why do we hear more about drug use than about being overweight? Why do we hear more about anything else than about wasting time or gossip? We want to point that my sins are perfectly acceptable. Your sins are hideous and evil.
BELIEFNET: One controversial moment for you in the last election was your support for proposition 8 in California. ... Just to clarify, do you support civil unions or domestic partnerships?
WARREN: I don't know if I'd use the term there but I support full equal rights for everybody in America. I don't believe we should have unequal rights depending on particular lifestyles so I fully support equal rights.
[Clarification from Pastor Warren 12/15: I now see you asked about civil UNIONS -and I responded by talking about civil RIGHTS. Sorry. They are two different issues. No American should ever be discriminated against because of their beliefs. Period. But a civil union is not a civil right. Nowhere in the constitution can you find the "right" to claim that any loving relationship identical to marriage. It's just not there. ]
BELIEFNET: What about partnership benefits in terms of insurance or hospital visitation?
WARREN: You know, not a problem with me.
[Clarification from Pastor Warren 12/15: I favor anyone being able to make anyone else the beneficiary of their health or life insurance coverage. If I am willing to pay for it, I should be able to put a friend, partner, relative, or stranger on my coverage. No one should be turned away from seeing a friend in the hospital. But visiting rights are a non-issue in California! Since 1999, California has had a domestic partnership law that grants gay couples visiting rights and all the other rights. Prop 8 had no -zero -effect on those rights.]
The issue to me, I'm not opposed to that as much as I'm opposed to redefinition of a 5,000 year definition of marriage. I'm opposed to having a brother and sister being together and calling that marriage. I'm opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that marriage. I'm opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage.
BELIEFNET: Do you think those are equivalent to gays getting married?
Oh , I do. For 5,000 years, marriage has been defined by every single culture and every single religion - this is not a Christian issue. Buddhist, Muslims, Jews - historically, marriage is a man and a woman. And the reason I supported Proposition 8, is really a free speech issue. Because first the court overrode the will of the people, but second there were all kinds of threats that if that did not pass then any pastor could be considered doing hate speech if he shared his views that he didn't think homosexuality was the most natural way for relationships, and that would be hate speech. We should have freedom of speech, ok? And you should be able to have freedom of speech to make your position and I should be able to have freedom of speech to make my position, and can't we do this in a civil way.
Most people know I have many gay friends. I've eaten dinner in gay homes. No church has probably done more for people with AIDS than Saddleback Church. Kay and I have given millions of dollars out of Purpose Driven Life helping people who got AIDS through gay relationships. So they can't accuse me of homophobia. I just don't believe in the redefinition of marriage.
[Clarification/addition from Pastor Warren 12:15:
BOTTOM LINE:
1. God, who always acts out of love and does what is best for us, thought up sex. Sex was God's idea, not ours. Like fire, and many other things God gave us, sex can be used for good, or abused in ways that harm. The Designer of sex has clearly and repeatedly said that he created sex exclusively for husbands and wives in marriage. Whenever God's parameters are violated, it causes broken hearts, broken families, emotional hurt and shame, painful memories, and many other destructive consequences. There would be so STDs in our world if we all played by the rules.
2. God gives me the free choice to follow his commands or willfully disobey them so I must allow others to have that same free choice. Loving, trusting, and obeying God cannot be forced. In America, people already have the civil right to live as they wish.
3. If anyone, whether unfaithful spouses, or unmarried couples, or homosexuals or anyone else think they are smarter than God and chooses to disobey God's sexual instructions, it is not the US government's role to take away their choice. But neither is it the government's role to classify just any "loving" relationship as a marriage. A committed boyfriend-girlfriend relationship is not a marriage. Two lovers living together is a not a marriage. Incest is not marriage. A domestic partnership or even a civil union is still not marriage.
4. Much of this debate is not really about civil rights, but a desire for approval. The fact that 70% of blacks supported Prop 8 shows they don't believe it is a civil rights issue. Gays in California already have their rights. What they desire is approval and validation from those who disagree with them, and they are willing to force it by law if necessary. Any disapproval is quickly labeled "hate speech. Imagine if we held that standard in every other disagreement Americans have? There would be no free speech. That's why, on the traditional marriage side, many saw Prop 8 as a free speech issue: Don't force me to validate a lifestyle I disagree with. It is not the same as marriage." And many saw the Teacher's Union contribution of $3 million against Prop 8, as a effort to insure that children would be taught to approve what most parents disapprove of.]
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First and foremost church and state are supposed to be completely separated when it comes to the rule of law in the United States. So the religious argument that God meant for only man and woman to be together has no bearing here! chat sohbet
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Sex is nothing more than an itch and is separate from love, sex can also become an addiction. there are all kinds of Love. love for friends, love for children, love for animals,(pets) love for husband or wife.what love are gay talking about??
Sex between a man and a woman is a very secrete thing.
Between a husband and wife which have made a commitment to one another, to build a life together, the fulfillment is procreation of having children in their own image and likeness to build a better part of themselves. Sex can be used for a positive or a vary destructive purpose, we all know that.
IF sex is all about what one can get out of it, then it really don’t matter how one sexually satisfies oneself, whether that is having sex with a sheep(or other animal) or having some other man suck your duck,, if sex doesn't’ matter how one satisfies oneself, why should we care if one keeps a sheep in the backyard for sexual relief?
Homosexuality is a Hoax, and is an excuses for ones sexual behavior, when i say its a hoax I mean that our government and other organization are lying to us(the people of this great nation)
its a fact that homosexuality is not do to genetics, and if its not a mental disorder then it is a perversion of the ACT of sex.
in 1973. On December 15, 1973, the American Psychiatric Association, removed homosexuality from its official list of mental disorders. The American Psychological Association Council of Representatives adopted the same measure on January 24-26, 1975.
Just as today, the Democrats had reclaimed control of both chambers of the Legislature in 1973
Another lie that the government and organization which promotes homosexuality is that some people are born attracted to the same sex . this is a lie, fact is that a dominate Butch dike lesbian will dress and fix themselves up like a man to attract a more submissive lesbian female to simulate a male and female relationship.? and the male submissive will dress and look like a women to attract a more dominate male type.??
Two man are not equal to a man and woman, their is no equality in the relationship, they are separate in relationship, marriage is govern by the protection of the children involved. also the function between a man and woman are different. Now you can argue that their are similarity’s But not the same. therefore under a different title and category is appropriate. Nobody is denying gay from sharing property and living a life together.. But gays thinks they are entitled to the title of marriage, man and woman equal biological children.
Man has a problem with keeping their sexual organ in the proper place.
— The survey, released last year (2005), showed that 38.2 percent of men between 20 and 39 and 32.6 percent of women ages 18 to 44 engage in heterosexual anal sex. Compare that with the CDC’s 1992 National Health and Social Life survey, which found that only 25.6 percent of men 18 to 59 and 20.4 percent of women 18 to 59 indulged in it. Source
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