Reverend Rick Warren To Headline King Holiday Observance

ATLANTA (AP) - The Rev. Rick Warren, whose selection to deliver the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration next month has drawn controversy, will be in the pulpit at Ebenezer Baptist Church to deliver the keynote address at the Martin Luther King Jr. commemorative service.

The Jan. 19 service on the federal holiday will mark what would have been King’s 80th birthday. It will cap a week of activities to salute the civil rights icon, according to a schedule of events listed on the Web site for the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.

Warren is pastor of the 20,000-member Saddleback Church in southern California and author of the best-selling “The Purpose Driven Life.“

Obama’s decision to include Warren in the inauguration has prompted an outcry from liberal groups and gay rights activists over the Southern Baptist’s views on same-sex marriage and abortion rights.