a bad interview

Monday night Rick Warren was interviewed by Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report. I was kind of excited to see Warren on the show because I don’t know much about him and it was a good opportunity for a prominent Christian leader to represent himself in a positive light on a popular show. Overall the interview was a disappointment. I understand that The Daily Show and the Colbert Report are meant to be funny and often times the questions in the interviews reflect the humor. At the same time I think Colbert and Stewart are intentional about asking probing questions that allow the guest to give serious answers and express their point of view. Last week Jim Wallis was interviewed by Stewart and gave a wonderful interview. He was serious when he should have been and was also humorous when the time was right. I have also seen Tony Campolo interviewed and he came across very similarly to Wallis.

Warren was just too casual and it seemed like he had nothing important to say. At one point Colbert asked him if he believed in the inerrancy of scripture and Warren indicated that he did affirm that stance. Colbert then asked him if he believed that all homosexuals should be stoned to death and Warren just laughed him off. Although it was done in a joking manner Colbert had given him an opportunity to speak about a critical issue and he tried to dodge it. Warren also kept calling Colbert a "doofus", which seemed overly contrived.
I appreciate Warren’s advocacy of a Christian response to the AIDS crisis. I didn’t appreciate him trying to sell a couple more copies of his over-hyped, over-exposed book.