As you no doubt remember - since it was only a ferw days ago - Pastor Rick Warren, in an appearance on CNN's Larry King program, announced that he didn't really give a hoot or a holler about same-sex marriage; that he wasn't really as fired up about supporting California's Proposition 8 last November as it may have seemed at the time; that he had apologized to his gay friends for some of the things that had been reported about his position on the issue; that he was oblivious to the recent Iowa Supreme Court decision allowing gay marriages in the state; and that he wasn't really paying attention to those matters because he was concentrating on his work around poverty and AIDS in Africa.

As expected, Warren was roundly criticized by several Religious Right spokespersons, including one who had been prominently involved in the Prop 8 campaign.

Now several days later, instead of the dust settling on the matter, a well-known African American conservative Christian evangelical leader is accusing Warren of doing "tremendous damage" to the church.

Bishop Harry Jackson, the founder of the High Impact Leadership Coalition (http://www.thetruthinblackandwhite.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=secti on&pSectionID=5), told OneNewsNow, a news service sponsored by the American Family Association:

This man who's been called the next Billy Graham, who I really respect with all my heart and love what he's doing in Africa, is falling into a trap that is emblematic of the problem that the entire church is facing in this generation. And that is that we love the applause of men more than we love the work of God and the gospel. Jesus...told us that we are to honor God first, and that we are not to fear men but we're to fear God.
   

Jackson added that Warren, by being the author of enormously popular book, The Purpose Driven Life, will have people thinking "'Well, this is not on my mission -- it's not on my purpose. I don't have to stand for truth.'"

Therefore, his defection -- in terms of his stance on this issue -- [and] his backsliding on this issue, becomes of tremendous damage to the strength of the church in this position."

Meanwhile, the Boston, Mass.-based publication EDGE reported that The National Organization for Marriage, had recently "kicked off a $1.5 million ad campaign ... targeting states where marriage equality has been, or may soon be, approved." In an op-ed piece for the April 9 edition of the New York Post (http://www.nypost.com/seven/04092009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/w hat_vermont_gave_gay_marriage_foes_163633.htm), NOM president Maggie Gallagher wrote:

"Many religious people and groups will bow to, if not exactly endorse, the power of gay activists. Witness Rev. Rick Warren, who on 'Larry King Live' this week came very close to recanting his support for Proposition 8."

Added Gallagher: "Rick did not quite do so. What he did, instead, is what many good people will do in the face of the massive campaign of intimidation and harassment designed to silence Christians and others of good will who support marriage: He dodged, saying, more or less, I am not now and never have been an anti-gay marriage "activist."

Gallagher became a national figure of sorts in 2005, when it was revealed that she along with syndicated columnists Mike McManus and Armstrong Williams, had received Bush Administration bucks for writing columns in support of Team Bush's policies. Both Gallagher and McManus received their checks from the Department of Health and Human Services to help promote the President's healthy marriages initiative.

(Check out the secret audition tapes for this phony ad @  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwqNFBt33o4&feature=player_emb edded)

And what of Rick Warren, now being abused and accused?

In the spirit of Birkat Hachamah, Passover, and Easter, let's let him have the last word about fellowship:

Christianity Today: You haven't spoken to the media in several months. Why did you decide to start doing interviews again?

Rick Warren: It's Easter week. Easter week I typically make myself available. I didn't ask to pray at the inauguration -- it wasn't my idea in the first place -- and as soon as it was over, I felt like I needed to put my head down and focus on the enormous harvest. People see me out there -- I speak to Muslim groups and Jewish groups, I'm actually having a Passover Seder ... People never need to doubt why I do what I do, even when associating with people gets me in all kinds of hot water. Jesus got into hot water for the people he associated with. Fundamentalist groups say Warren hangs out with Jews and Muslims and gays and on and on. The point is, I'm not allowed to not love anybody.