EXCLUSIVE: Rick Warren Won't Endorse Marco Rubio Despite Joining His Advisory Board
Despite the recent announcement that Rick Warren has joined an advisory board for Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio, the Southern California megachurch pastor and best-selling author of The Purpose Driven Life says he'll never endorse a political candidate — and he's not endorsing Rubio.
The Christian Examiner, a sister publication of The Christian Post, reported on Thursday that Warren had joined a number of prominent evangelicals on a religious liberty advisory board for Rubio, but his action should not be taken as an endorsement, he says.
"It is public knowledge that I never have endorsed a political candidate and never intend to," said Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, in an exclusive comment to the Christian Examiner. "It is not my job as a pastor to endorse candidates. But I do offer private counsel and perspective to any candidate who asks for it. I have done this with many candidates in the past. In this election cycle, I know most of the candidates on both sides who are running for president, and many have been friends for years, but they all know that I never endorse."
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Though Warren has counseled, advised and developed relationships with political figures across the political spectrum—and spoken out on a number of specific political issues, he has avoided taking sides in elections. He famously talks about being neither "left-wing or right-wing" but instead being for the "whole bird."
In 2008 both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates participated in a nationally televised public forum at Saddleback Church where Warren asked both of them questions about their spiritual backgrounds, abortion, the definition of marriage, education and a myriad of other issues. The following January ...
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