Rick Warren: lying lieface

[hat-tip to the Friendly Atheist]

Let me just preface this by saying that I absolutely hate pious hypocrisy and pious deception. I hate it when religious leaders think that because they are working for the Glory of God or whatever, they feel they have the right to lie.

Rick Warren, who you may remember from such films as I'm a Bigot, but Don't Tell Anyone! and Saddlebackin' is in the news again.

Warren was notoriously criticized by many for his anti-gay bigotry after being selected to give the invocation.

Last week, Warren claimed on the Larry King show that he had never endorsed Proposition 8. Specifically, he said:

I am not an anti-gay or anti-gay marriage activist. I never have been, never will be.

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. [emphasis added]

Of course, everyone knew this was a blatant lie, so people rushed to the intertubes and tracked down a video of Warren, speaking to his congregation saying:

Now let me just say this really clearly. We support Proposition 8. And if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8.

That sounds like about as unequivocal an endorsement as I can possibly imagine.

Warren responded that this statement cannot be construed as an endorsement, as it was just a pastor takling to his flock. Umm.. What?

But wait! There's more!

Warren felt all picked on for being caught in an obvious lie, so he canceled an upcoming appearance on ABC's This Week.

And it gets even BETTER:

Warren attacked Beliefnet founder Steven Waldman, hardly a hostile interogator for Warren, for tricking him into equating gay marriage with pedophilia. Specifically, Warren said:

I was asked a question that made it sound like I equated gay marriage with pedophilia or incest, which I absolutely do not believe.

So, just how did he do that? Here's the passage Warren's talking about:

“WARREN: The issue to me, I’m not opposed to that [some partnership rights] 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?

[WARREN:] 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.

(Um... Has Rick Warren even read the Bible?)

Now, in fairness, I will say that some of Warren's statement's in the full transcript of that interview are a hell of a lot less virulently anti-gay than what you hear from many religious leaders, but it really seems like he wants to have his cake and eat it to on the whole bigotry issue.