A Christian pastor chosen by President Obama (pictured) to deliver the benediction at his inauguration later 
this month, has backed out after a pressure campaign by gay rights activists.
Reverend Louie Giglio had been chosen for the occasion to highlight his work opposing human trafficking and slavery.
However, attention had been drawn to a sermon delivered by Rev Giglio in the 1990s in which he expressed the Christian belief that homosexual behaviour was sinful. Gay rights activists began to put pressure on the White House over the choice.
Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, said that Rev Giglio’s decision was “another example of intolerance from the Obama administration toward those who hold to biblical views on sexuality”.
In a statement, Rev. Giglio, who heads Atlanta’s Passion City Church, said he did not want the inauguration to “be dwarfed by those seeking to make their agenda the focal point,” Lifesitenews reports.
In his statement, Rev. Giglio explains that speaking on homosexuality “has not been in the range of my priorities in the past fifteen years”.
Rev. Giglio is known for his involvement in the Passion Conferences, which annually attract tens of thousands of university students. The conferences have been heavily focused around opposition to human trafficking and slavery, with the most recent event drawing over 60,000 to Atlanta’s Georgia Dome and raising millions of dollars towards combating trafficking.
“Neither I, nor our team, 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,” he said. “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.”
“Our nation is deeply divided and hurting, and more than ever need God’s grace and mercy in our time of need,” he added.
The move has prompted concerns that Christian leaders who preach traditional sexual morality are being expelled from public life.
Mr Perkins of the FRC asked: “Why is the president surprised that an evangelical pastor would teach from Scripture on homosexuality? One would be hard pressed to find an Evangelical pastor who hasn’t preached on what the Bible teaches about human sexuality.
“Catholic, Evangelical Protestant, and Orthodox churches all actively proclaim that sexual intimacy within the marriage of one man and one woman is the only biblically-sanctioned human sexual behavior. Are the scores of millions of Americans who affirm these teachings no longer welcome at the inauguration of our president?
Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy said: “Are all orthodox clergy now to be banished from civic life if they openly affirm their faith’s teachings about marriage and sexual ethics?
“Are only clergy from declining liberal denominations now acceptable according to hyper political correctness? Will the same standard also apply to Muslims and members of other faiths who don’t subscribe to the views of western secular elites?”