Rick Warren Talks to Larry King about How His Book Talked A Killer Down

Couple of talking points. In his latest column, Leonard Pitts compares two "Smiths," each in the news for their particular expression of Christianity. One "Smith" was a US officer at Gauntanamo Bay, who beat a man imprisioned for suspected terrorist activity. When the detainee asked his guard why he was beating him, Smith replied, "Because I'm Christian."

Juxtapose that to another Smith, Ashley, who made headlines after she was taken hostage by Brian Nichols, the man who shot up an Atlanta courtroom, killing four people. This Smith talked her way out of the situation by quoting Nichols Scripture and passages from Rick Warren's A Purpose Driven Life book.

BTW, Warren was interviewed by Larry King last week about the improbable story. I thought his responses were pretty interesting. The full transcript is available here.