(CNN) — In the face of withering criticism over a sermon he apparently delivered on homosexuality in the 1990s, the Rev. Louie Giglio has withdrawn from giving the benediction at President Barack Obama’s inauguration.
Giglio informed inauguration officials Thursday morning of his decision to withdraw from the ceremony, an inauguration official told CNN.
“I am honored to have been invited by the president to give the benediction at the upcoming inauguration on January 21,” Giglio said in a statement delivered to the White House and the Presidential Inaugural Committee. “Though the president and I do not agree on every issue, we have fashioned a friendship around common goals and ideals, most notably, ending slavery in all its forms.”
“Due to a message of mine that has surfaced from 15-20 years ago, it is likely that my participation, and the prayer I would offer, will be dwarfed by those seeking to make their agenda a focal point of the inauguration. Clearly, speaking on this issue has not been in the range of my priorities in the past fifteen years. Instead, my aim has been to call people to ultimate significance as we make much of Jesus Christ.”
Giglio, a pastor and the leader of the Passion Movement, was chosen to deliver the benediction because he’s a “powerful voice for ending human trafficking and global sex slavery” and due to his work in mobilizing young people in that effort, an inauguration official said earlier in the week when the reverend’s selection was first announced.
Criticism over the selection swirled after the liberal website Think Progress posted a sermon that it said Giglio gave in the mid-1990s, a speech the site called “vehemently anti-gay.”
A spokeswoman for the Presidential Inaugural Committee said the committee was “not aware of Pastor Giglio’s past comments at the time of his selection and they don’t reflect our desire to celebrate the strength and diversity of our country at this Inaugural.”
“As we now work to select someone to deliver the benediction, we will ensure their beliefs reflect this administration’s vision of inclusion and acceptance for all Americans,” said PIC spokeswoman Addie Whisenant.
In an audio copy of the sermon posted on the Think Progress website, a voice identified as that of Giglio’s called homosexuality a sin. “That’s God’s voice. If you want to hear God’s voice, that is his voice to this issue of homosexuality. It is not ambiguous and unclear. It is very clear.”
“If you look at the counsel of the word of God, Old Testament, New Testament, you come quickly to the conclusion that homosexuality is not an alternate lifestyle… homosexuality is not just a sexual preference, homosexuality is not gay, but homosexuality is sin. It is sin in the eyes of God, and it is sin according to the word of God.”
The recording continues: “The only way out of a homosexual lifestyle, the only way out of a relationship that has been ingrained over years of time, is through the healing power of Jesus.”
“We’ve got to say the homosexuals, the same thing that I say to you and that you would say to me… it’s not easy to change, but it is possible to change,” he can also be heard saying during the sermon.
Giglio is a rising voice in evangelical Christianity. The Passion conference, which he founded, wrapped up its annual event for college students in Atlanta last week with more than 60,000 students attending and vowing to end global slavery. They raised $3 million for charities that work to stop slavery and aid its victims.
Giglio said Thursday that he and his team don’t feel “it best serves the core message and goals we are seeking to accomplish to be in a fight on an issue not of our choosing; thus I respectfully withdraw my acceptance of the president’s invitation.”
“I will continue to pray regularly for the president, and urge the nation to do so. I will most certainly pray for him on Inauguration Day,” Giglio’s statement to the White House continued.
“Our nation is deeply divided and hurting, and more than ever need God’s grace and mercy in our time of need,” it concluded.
Giglio took to his church blog Thursday to further explain his position to his congregants at Passion City Church in Atlanta.
“The issue of homosexuality (which a particular message of mine some 20 years ago addressed) is one of the most difficult our nation will navigate. However, individuals’ rights of freedom, and the collective right to hold differing views on any subject is a critical balance we, as a people, must recover and preserve,” he wrote.
He asserted that his main goal as a pastor was to love people.
“I’m confident that anyone who knows me or has listened to the multitude of messages I have given in the last decade would most likely conclude that I am not easily characterized as being opposed to people — any people. Rather, I am constantly seeking to understand where all people are coming from and how to best serve them as I point them to Jesus.”
Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said Giglio’s decision to withdraw from the inauguration was the right one.
“Participants in the inaugural festivities should unite rather than divide. Choosing an affirming and fair-minded voice as his replacement would be in keeping with the tone the president wants to set for his inaugural,” Griffin said in a statement.
Giglio represents a new type of evangelical leader who “doesn’t like to get involved in the culture war because it blurs the larger points he wants to make,” said Michael Cromartie, the vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington.
“What I want to remind his critics is he’s not being named to a Cabinet position,” Cromartie said. “He was being asked to deliver a prayer. All sorts of people deliver prayers who we don’t agree with on a number of issues.”
“It’s unfortunate that this kind of political correctness doesn’t allow people who are doing great work to pray at inauguration,” he added.
