Rick Warren has his critics from both the left and the right. Watch him address them above and read the transcription below. It is part of my one on one interview with the mega-church pastor in advance of his Compassion Civil Forum at Saddleback Church Saturday night.
There are two groups right out there are worried about me right now. There’s one group that are the seculars that are worried that I am going instill a religious test for the Presidency, which I’m totally opposed to. And there’s another group of believers that thinks I’m going to wimp out on stem cells and abortion which I’m not, or gay marriage which I’m not. I intend to ask the tough questions, but I am going to ask them in a civil way. The problem is we don’t have the right to demonize people just because we disagree with them. We don’t have a right to destroy their character or reputation just because we disagree.
We have to figure out a way to go back to the true meaning of tolerance. Tolerance used to mean I treat you with respect even though I violently disagree with you. You are created in the image of God – you may not be a believer, but God loves you and you are a person of dignity, so I’ll treat you with respect. Tolerance now means that all ideas are equally valid. Well that’s nonsense. All ideas are not equally valid. The person who says the earth revolves around the sun and other one who says the sun revolves around the earth are not equally valid ideas. The person who says Jesus is God and the other one who say Elvis is God are not equally valid ideas. So we have to get away from the new idea of tolerance and go back to the other one which means treat people with respect because you never win anybody to Christ through anger. You never convert anybody by protesting against them.
Jesus loved the very people that everyone else hated.