Lying about Rick Warren

I am pretty amazed at the outright lies that have been spread about Rick Warren since his invitation to the Obama inauguration. I'm not particularly fond of evangelical pastors or anything, but seriously: why can't we make our case without resorting to lies and distortion?

I won't sit here and rant though. Here's the raw evidence, see for yourself. From a column by Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff:

And, in a 2005 interview with CNN’s Larry King, Warren went one step further, blaming gay AIDS patients for contracting the disease. “The question isn’t how did you get it,” he said. “It’s what do you do now? I mean if I’m driving down the street one day on the freeway and I see somebody laying on the side of the road bleeding to death and I go over to them, my first question is, was this your fault? No, I just help the guy.”

Here's what Warren said about AIDS, according to the transcript posted online by CNN.

KING: In the past, Rick, you will admit the evangelicals and a lot in the church didn't look at AIDS.

WARREN: Oh, yes.

KING: Didn't deal with it and in fact called it God's revenge against gays.

WARREN: Yes, yes. Well, you know, they were wrong and we were wrong to be quiet. I never called it that but we were wrong to not speak up. The fact is AIDS is not a gay plague. AIDS is a human plague and it involves -- actually more women have AIDS than men do. You know the face of AIDS in America is usually a white, gay guy but the face of AIDS around the world is a black or brown woman and, to me...

The man said AIDS is not a gay plague! How is he James Dobson in disguise?! I might expect this from a rabid blog commenter somewhere, but you would think the editor of a successful gay publication would be able to make his case honestly.

We should note that Warren cares far more about AIDS in Africa than AIDS in the U.S., and you can read into that whatever you want. But the fact is Warren did NOT blame gays for contracting the disease.