Controversy Emerges Over Obama's Choice of Inauguration Pastor
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/religion/july-dec08/rickwarren_12-18.html President-elect Barack Obama has fielded criticism for choosing Christian leader Rev. Rick Warren, whose conservative views are in contrast with some of Obama's base supporters, to give an inaugural invocation. Analysts discuss the controversy.
RAY SUAREZ: Through his best-selling books and softer-edged Evangelism, Pastor Rick Warren of California's Saddleback Church has become one of America's most influential Christian leaders.
But his selection by the president-elect to give the invocation at January's inauguration has been met with heavy criticism from many Obama supporters because of Warren's conservative views on homosexuality and abortion. Warren has equated gay marriage with incest and abortion with the Holocaust.
Mr. Obama was asked today about why he made the choice.
