Rick Warren spoke to a packed house for the annual King Day service at Ebenezer Baptist Church today, telling the crowd that the invitation meant more to him than praying at Barack Obama’s inauguration tomorrow.
Manya Brachear posted some of the quotes from Warren’s sermon.
“I am a white, overweight, southern California mega-church pastor. I love you. And I reach out my hand to you and I say to you and to anyone of good will–to quote that great theologian Rodney King–‘Can we not all just get along?'” he said. “You don’t have to agree on everything. You don’t have to agree to be agreeable. You can disagree without being disagreeable. You can walk hand-in-hand with out seeing eye-to-eye.
“You know what I love about America? It’s diversity. I don’t know if you’ve figured this out, but God likes variety.”
“I consider this opportunity as one of the greatest privileges in my ministry,” Warren said. “It is even more important to me personally, than praying the invocation for my friend President Obama’s Inauguration the next day.”
“For so many of us, Dr. King was a role model, not just for justice, but also a role model for local church pastoring and preaching,” Warren said. “I have a personally typed and signed letter by Dr. King framed on my office wall.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also has a news story on the sermon and the protests outside.
