But they told me they loved Christians!"
Posted on 11/21/2006 5:49:44 AM PST by TommyDale
Millions and millions of people have purchased his books.
His California church attracts thousands every Sunday.
He seems to be the go-to guy whenever the establishment, ultra-secular press wants to quote an evangelical leader they like.
I'm talking about Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose Driven Life" and the pastor of the Saddleback Church.
Ever since I first pointed out the way he betrayed the persecuted church and our Jewish brothers and sisters living in captivity in the totalitarian police state of Syria, I have been expecting to get blasted.
Millions and millions of people have purchased his books.
His California church attracts thousands every Sunday.
He seems to be the go-to guy whenever the establishment, ultra-secular press wants to quote an evangelical leader they like.
I'm talking about Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose Driven Life" and the pastor of the Saddleback Church.
Ever since I first pointed out the way he betrayed the persecuted church and our Jewish brothers and sisters living in captivity in the totalitarian police state of Syria, I have been expecting to get blasted.
I thought for sure I would hear from these millions of well-educated, well-informed, biblically astute purpose-driven disciples.
It has been six days. God created the whole universe in that amount of time. And, so far, I haven't heard one cogent argument, apologia or rationalization for Warren's actions by any of his flock.
I'm told he's got one of the best PR machines money can buy. He sure is not getting his money's worth.
On the other hand, I can tell you hundreds of thousands of people are reading my critiques of his misadventures in misguided foreign policy. We can actually count those readers on WND. And they are being spread far and wide in a viral way by e-mailers and bloggers.
Is the strategy now to ignore Farah?
Is the strategy to pretend WND doesn't exist?
Is the strategy to ignore the hard facts presented here about what Rick Warren said and did in Syria and hope the controversy blows over?
I've got news for you. It's not going to blow over. I won't let it.
I demand an apology from Rick Warren – not to me, for heaven's sake, but to Christians in Syria who choose to worship outside the state-approved churches he toured. I demand an apology to the Jews who suffer the humiliating life of dhimmitude in Syria today while Rick Warren tells the world they don't exist.
This is a world I know something about.
It was just about a year ago that my Jerusalem bureau chief, Aaron Klein, was prevented from entering Syria for one reason – he's Jewish!
Funny, I don't remember Rick Warren protesting that action – minor, really, compared to the indignities Jews in Syria live with daily, but well-publicized nonetheless.
Perhaps Rick Warren hasn't seen the Syrian TV show – a big hit in Damascus – that renews the blood libel direct from "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," entertaining millions with a graphic story of a rabbi who slits the throat of a young Christian boy so he can use it to prepare the Passover motzah.
Perhaps Rick Warren hasn't noticed that the Syrian government has published an updated version of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," an anti-Semitic story that claims Jews run the world by proxy.
Perhaps Rick Warren is not aware of hundreds of years of genocidal pogroms that have taken place in Syria at the expense of the Jews.
But of course he must know about all these things, because he says he's an avid reader of my column and an expert on the Middle East because of his membership in the Council on Foreign Relations.
Rick Warren thinks it is commendable that Syria has opened its arms to Christians fleeing Iraq. What he doesn't know or doesn't say is that many of those Christians fleeing Iraq are fleeing bullets and bombs and terrorists that have entered Iraq through Syria. He also doesn't explain President Bashar Assad's penchant for keeping his friends close and his enemies closer.
I'm not going to let this matter slide. Not me. Not this Syrian-Lebanese-American Christian journalist. If Rick Warren thinks dialogue with everyone is so great – let the dialogue begin right here. The persecuted church in Syria can't speak for itself. But I will stand with them in answering Rick Warren's lies about their tormentors.
Exactly. The Warren-following "seeker sensitive" churches only want those infant Christians. Any mature Christian who knows anything or who has the gift of discernment will reject the "Purpose Drivel", and will in turn be rejected by the leaders of the church. They will eventually be pushed out one way or another. I know resistant leaders who found out they had been replaced by reading it in the Sunday Bulletin.
Purpose Driven Purple Haze
Don't be silly, one statement does not lead to the other.
Purpose Driven Obama
"Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
2 Timothy 4:2
Wrong answer, try again please.
I might suggest that since "the purpose driven life" is little more than 70's self help dressed up with a few out of context passages from some extermely questionable transalations of God's Word, that the neighborhood you want to look in is close to the:
"Since it is all about me and my purpose and my life, why should I lift a finger to defend my guru, er, pastor? Or anyone else?"
land of ear tickling that passes for the modern american "Christianity".
I figured my remark must have hit close to home.
"Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you."
Proverbs 9:8
So let's tar and feather him and "demand an apology".
Or just grow up.
You got it. Unfortunately, we are in the days of 2 Timothy 4:2-3.
"Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction."
"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."
Really? LOL!
Burn all concordances, study guides, allegories, or anything other than the original scrolls and anyone who may read them?
I don't think this is a matter of whether or not Rick Warren is "perfect". I'm concerned about his lack of judgment and a seeming desire to get good press from the MSM AKA "the world". Franklin Graham travels to dangerous parts of the world in order to see that churches are built, or re-built. Warren goes to countries that are, basically, at war with the U.S. and for what purpose? Not to visit with Syrian Christians and learn their plight first-hand but to hobnob with the very government leaders who oppress these Christians while providing cover for terrorists. I'm trying to be fair in my assessment of Rick, but he's making it pretty hard. I'm very interested in what he has to say after going to North Korea.
Your foolishness is amazing.
Congratulations.
I think his North Korean trip was cancelled, likely by our State Department.
"Is that a non sequitur or just a silly notion?
If that were true in the sense it seems to be meant in . . .
then . . .
BURN ALL THE CHRISTIAN VIDEOS AND SERMON TAPES. BURN ALL THE CHRISTIAN BOOKS. BURN ALL THE FLANNEL GRAPH ILLUSTRATIONS. BURN ALL THE CHRISTIAN MOVIES. TAR AND FEATHER ANY PREACHER WHO DOES ANYTHING BEYOND READING SCRIPTURE VERBATIM AND ONLY. CANCEL ALL RELIGIOUS RADIO AND TV PROGRAMMING. BURN ALL THE CHRISTIAN CD'S. . . .
sigh."
So you think all these things are necessary for a more intimate relationship with the Lord? Sigh.
Those things could help or could hurt because there is the original source that everything should reflect or you are off track. The Word and the centrality of the Gospel. People keep trying to re-interpret the message.
I read PDL but didn't buy the book. I disagree with much of what Rick Warren and the mega-church, mega-pastor culture espouses.
I did read his earlier book called the purpose drive church. I belong to a small, newly formed church and though I might get some pointers. He had some decent ideas but nothing earth shattering.
What I cannot stand is when I hear of educated, trained American preachers who get his weekly sermon by e-mail so they can stand on a pulpit and read someone else's sermon.
I can understand it when it is some guy in the jungle of Papua New Ginuea who has no education but has a love for the Lord and a yearning to preach, but not for anyone else.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.