The tale of the pastor and the beauty queen
Tim Wildmon
Tim Wildmon
AFA president

June 2009 – It was rocking along as a normal beauty pageant in late April. The Miss USA Pageant was broadcast live to the nation via NBC. Then Perez Hilton, one of the judges, asked Miss California how she felt about gay marriage. Hilton is an entertainment gossip blogger and is proudly homosexual. Miss California, Carrie Prejean, 21, is from San Diego where she attends a Christian college. Prejean responded this way: “We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite. And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised.”

Obviously nervous, Miss California’s answer was not exactly stated as she intended, but nonetheless, she was clear that she believed that marriage should be between one man and one woman. And that, of course, is where a vast majority of Americans are. Thirty states have let their citizens vote on constitutional amendments defining marriage as between one man and one woman. And 30 states have passed those constitutional amendments.

Prejean was first runner-up to Miss North Carolina. At least two of the 12 judges have gone on record as saying they held her view on the issue against her when they voted. Hilton went on his Web site with a video immediately after the event yelling into the camera calling Miss Prejean “a stupid bit**.”

This is a person who says he champions tolerance. Unless, of course, you disagree with him. Then he becomes most belligerent and intolerant. The Hollywood crowd will absolutely shout you down if you disagree with them on this issue.

What I was most impressed with was Miss California’s courage as she knew her answer could very well cost her the opportunity to fulfill her dream to be Miss USA. But she went ahead and expressed her convictions. (I do wonder if she was secretly hoping to get the “Do you care about starving children in Africa?” question.)

Contrast this with Pastor Rick Warren’s appearance on CNN’s Larry King Live a couple of weeks back. When King asked him about Proposition 8, the California constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage (which passed in California 52-48%), Warren cowered. Here was Warren’s response to King when asked about Proposition 8: “During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never – never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop 8 was going.”

And that is something a Christian pastor should be proud of? Warren should be embarrassed to admit he showed no leadership on this moral issue that the Bible is clear about. So if he didn’t endorse it, should we take that as a sign he was really against Proposition 8 and therefore in favor of homosexual marriage? Which is it?

However, after this interview on Larry King Live it was made public that Warren had in fact told his congregation that, “We support Proposition 8 – and if you believe in what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8.”

What we have here is a fence straddler. This is a pathetic attempt to have it both ways. In his own Southern Baptist church he says members should vote for traditional marriage. No doubt had he not said anything his congregation would have wondered why he was silent on the most high profile moral issue in his home state. But when it comes to the general public watching Larry King Live, Warren tried to distance himself from traditional marriage by saying it was a “low” priority.

This is not the first time Warren has done this. When he was being attacked by homosexual groups about his selection by then President-elect Barak Obama to give the prayer at the inauguration ceremony, he felt the need to issue a statement applauding Obama’s choice of an openly gay bishop from the Episcopal church to lead in prayer at the inaugural festivities.

It is time for gay and lesbian groups to tone down their shrill rhetoric. With the exception of same-sex marriage, they have the same rights as all Americans. They enjoy a higher average income than most people. They may soon have a federal “hate crime” law that punishes criminals more severely if they assault gays than if they assault straight people. However, Western culture has always recognized that marriage is between a man and a woman. It is obvious that God made it this way. Americans are saying, when given the chance to vote, that they, like even liberal President Obama, want to keep it that way.  undefined