Rick Warren Cancels ABC Interview

The folks at ABC, and the folks invested in gay politics, are upset that Rick Warren canceled a scheduled appearance on ABC at the last minute. Here's how Politico reported it:

Warren bails on "This Week" interview

Instead of explaining contradictory statements over his actions regarding California's Prop 8 on same-sex marriage, Rick Warren went with Plan B today: he didn't show up for a planned interview on ABC's "This Week."

"For those of you tuning in this morning expecting to hear from Pastor Rick Warren, we were, too," said host George Stephanopoulos at the start of the show. "But the pastor's representatives canceled moments before the scheduled interview, saying that Mr. Warren is sick from exhaustion."

Added a cool but surely unhappy Stephanopoulos: "We hope he recovers quickly."

As Mike Allen detailed in Playbook yesterday, Warren oddly argued on Larry King last week that he “never once … gave an endorsement” to the controversial ballot measure when there's video evidence of him arguing for its passage.

Clearly Politico decided to take the snarky approach to this cancellation, but I think they're drawing conclusions without being informed.

I tend to believe the explanation about exhaustion, not because I don't think Rick would lie to ABC, but because I've been backstage at Saddleback many years during the Christmas/Easter marathons and I know how difficult it is for Rick. I remember one Christmas standing backstage talking to him before we went out for the 4th service of a 6 service day and he was one pretty tired guy. In each service he speaks for probably 30-40 minutes. You try that sometime.

He's already preached six Easter services over the last couple of days and has six more to go today. Exhaustion is a very real possibility. He's not the type of guy to hide from his critics, so I'm sure ABC will get another chance to placate the gay activists and grill him on all those terribly important questions about gay marriage (I can play the snark game too).