WASHINGTON – The minister selected by President Obama to deliver the benediction at his inaugural later this month has withdrawn from the program amid a storm of controversy over remarks he made about homosexuality in a sermon in the mid-1990s, according to a source close to the inaugural committee.
The minister, the Rev. Louie Giglio, founder of the Passion Conferences, an Atlanta organization that brings college students together in prayer and worship, withdrew Thursday morning, a day after the sermon came to light.
In it, Mr. Giglio called on fellow Christians to fight the "aggressive agenda'' of the gay-rights movement, and advocated "the healing power of Jesus'' as "the only way out of a homosexual lifestyle'' – a comment some gay-rights advocates interpreted as an endorsement of reparative, or so-called gay-to-straight conversion, therapy, as a supposed cure for homosexuality.
0 comments:
Post a Comment