Rick Warren, the pastor that wrote The Purpose Driven Life, says “They can’t accuse me of homophobia. I just don’t believe in gay marriage.” And yet, in the video above he can be seen comparing gay marriage to incest and pedophilia. Yes, in the context of his statements he meant that they are all aberrations of traditional marriages, but likening incest, pedophilia, and gay marriage is a serious verbal misstep. And whether he wants to admit it or not, he is homophobic. Have we as Americans learned nothing at all from Brown v. Board of Education? Have we not accepted the Supreme Court as the supreme law of the land and thus the social Truth that “separate is inherently unequal?”

I realize that Rick Warren moved the Church in a wonderful direction of public service through his work to defeat poverty and HIV. These are admirable causes indeed, but fighting HIV does not  imply tolerance. HIV is not a gay disease. It’s a disease that endangers heterosexuals, homosexuals, junkies, businessmen, housewives, etc.

Warren says he supports “full equal rights for everyone in America,” but I’m not sure that denying the legal right of homosexuals to marry is equal to their heterosexual counterparts. Of course the argument is then that marriage is not a right, yet is it not questionable that Americans have the right to bear arms and not to marry? Perhaps this is indicative of the culture Rick Warren fosters.