American evangelist and pastor Rick Warren has said he is against the redefinition of marriage.
Speaking to CNN’s Piers Morgan, Warren was asked if he believed in equality for all to which he responded, “I’m more against the redefinition of the term marriage”.
“Don’t take a term and make it something different,” he added.
Tolerance
Standing by his faith-inspired beliefs on marriage he said: “today tolerance has been changed to mean all ideas are equally valid. Well that’s nonsense, all ideas are not equally valid.”
Morgan continued to press Warren, asking him: “How can you espouse genuine equality if you don’t allow gay people the same rights to get married as straight people?”
Warren replied: “Historically around the world the vast majority of people would say that marriage means one man and one woman in a commitment.”
Disapproval
CNN’s accompanying blog described Warren’s stance as one that “isn’t packaged in terms of an issue of equality, but rather as an interpretation of God’s scripture.”
Finally Morgan, citing how other Christian scholars have backtracked on their stance, asked “can you see a time where you will change?”
Warren’s response was unequivocal: “I fear the disapproval of God more than I fear your disapproval or the disapproval of society.”
Tragedy
Tragedy hit the Warren household in April this year when their son killed himself after a lifelong struggle with mental illness.
The hour-long interview on ‘Piers Morgan Live’ also revealed how the family coped with the heartbreak and its effect on their faith.
Warren pastors the Saddleback Church in the US, which has some 20,000 people come through its doors every weekend.