Contact: Ron Keener, Church Executive, 800-541-2670 ext 204

MEDIA ADVISORY, Oct. 14 /Christian Newswire/ -- Carrie Prejean made headlines last April in the Miss USA pageant when she famously responded in the question period that she believed marriage is between a man and a woman. The question came from celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton, and two days later Prejean was in New York appearing on the Today Show.

Escorting her to those media interviews was her pastor Miles McPherson of The Rock Church in San Diego, CA, where Prejean has attended for the past four years. McPherson spoke about the occasion in the October issue of Church Executive, a business magazine for larger and megachurches.

"When I met Carrie in New York it was the first question I asked her," he says. "Are you willing to give up your crown? Because if you don't want to give up your crown, if you want to be politically-correct, then you can answer the questions one way.

"But if you want to stand up for the Lord at all costs, then you'll answer the questions another way." She stayed with her beliefs, despite the furor in the media and from the gay and celebrity community. Regnery Publishing says she is writing a book, tentatively titled "Still Standing," coming out in January.

McPherson has worked quietly in the middle of some culturally unpopular issues. He was involved in the California Proposition 8 issue last year on the definition of marriage. "We were simply saying God designed a man to marry a woman; it is the metaphor of our relationship with Christ and that is what we should honor and not condone anything else," he says.

McPherson believes Christianity is under attack by the culture in which we live, as demonstrated by both the Miss California and the Prop 8 controversies.

"I think what we are to learn is the culture is very strongly opposed to the Bible and people who walk with Christ are going to have to accept the fact that there is going to be confrontation and eventually persecution," he says.

Possibly within days the Defense Authorization Act will be passed by the Congress with a provision in it that some believe could include the Bible as "hate speech" if spoken from the pulpit by a pastor.

McPherson interviewed Prejean about the Miss USA issue before his congregation and that hour-long interview can be found at www.therocksandiego.org/stories/misscalifornia.

The full interview with Miles McPherson in Church Executive: http://churchexecutive.com/article.asp?IndexID=1288