Posted on 12/31/2006 8:41:18 AM PST by Gamecock
The facade is beginning to peel back from the so-called ministry of Southern California Pastor Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose Driven Church" and "The Purpose Driven Life." Unfortunately, many among his ample flock have far too much invested in him, both emotionally and otherwise, to admit their mistakes and cut their losses.
Moreover, he certainly faces no possibility of in-depth scrutiny from the "mainstream media," as his brand of "Christianity" poses little or no threat to their liberal social agenda. Yet to the degree that anyone at all questions Warren as anything less than authentic, his response is thoroughly telling as to his true character, as well as the nature of his "ministry."
Joseph Farah, editor-in-chief of the Internet news site, "World Net Daily," opened a can of worms by calling Warren to account over his fawning praise of the terrorist stronghold of Syria. While there, Warren lauded the brutish dictatorship as "peaceful," claiming that the Islamist government does not officially sanction "extremism of any kind."
When confronted by Farah, an American of Middle Eastern decent who knows too well the history of horror and tragedy faced by persecuted Christians in that region of the world, Warren immediately denied ever making such statements.
Subsequently, Farah offered as evidence a "YouTube" video from Saddleback Church, where Warren is pastor, inarguably proving Farah's statement. So Warren's church simply pulled the video from circulation and continued the denial, being unaware that a copy of the video file had been downloaded and is still in circulation. Warren's follow-up to this inconvenient circumstance is perhaps most telling of all.
In a concurrent set of moves, Warren sent a seemingly conciliatory e-mail to Farah while distributing another to his "flock," in which he characterized Farah's pursuit of the incident as nothing less than "doing Satan's job for him." Throughout this sorry episode, Farah's only error has been to suggest that Warren's disturbing behavior represents some new departure from consistency.
In fact, Warren is actually being entirely consistent. Whether his audience might be Farah himself, Syrian despot Bashar Assad or the Saddleback congregation, Warren tells each exactly what he believes they want to hear.
This pattern is the essence of what Warren is and what has made him so "successful" from a worldly perspective.
For those among his congregation who sincerely want to know the truth, the evidence is ample. Unfortunately, it always has been available, and any present "confusion" merely results from past decisions to ignore that evidence.
For example, his letter to the congregation decrying the "attack" and making his defense by invoking Scripture is barely four paragraphs long. Yet in those four paragraphs, he employs three different "translations" of the Bible. Why, it must be asked, does he not trust any single translation to convey God's message to humanity?
Could it be that he has his own message and agenda to advance, and that he has found it very convenient to utilize different wordings of different passages, not because they better convey God's purpose, but rather his own?
It would be better to ask, could his motivation possibly be anything else?
As Farah has refused to let this indefensible situation simply drop, Warren has responded by taking it to another realm, making personal attacks against Farah in an interview with the magazine, "Christianity Today." But once again, by so doing, Warren succeeds in revealing much more about himself than about his adversary.
Warren, who has not to date been known as any sort of standard bearer for Christian principle in the political arena, decries Farah (whose societal and moral views fall unambiguously on the right) and his ideological allies as part of a wrongful "political" encroachment on the faith.
In contrast, Warren's forays into the political realm prove, not surprisingly, to be decidedly leftist. At a recent conference on the African AIDS epidemic, Warren invited the very liberal Senator Barak Obama (D-Ill.) as a keynote speaker. He justified the inclusion of Obama, who avidly supports abortion and same-sex "marriage," on the grounds that Obama offered a worldly solution to ostensibly curb the spread of the disease through condom usage.
The morally ambiguous message conveyed by the advocacy of condoms, along with their inherent unreliability, make them nothing less than iconic to the abortion industry, which fully understands how much new business they generate. In the face of such pragmatism, one has to wonder what will be next. Perhaps Warren's church will sponsor a "designated driver's ministry" at every bar in its locale.
Appalling though Obama's inclusion in the conference may be, it is nonetheless entirely consistent with Warren's behavior from the beginning.
Leading a megachurch in the culturally disintegrating landscape of Southern California, Warren certainly knows that his prospects of maximizing the "flock" will be greatly enhanced as long as he shows proper deference to the real religion of the area, "political correctness."
In this, his Christian populism movement has proven to be far more palatable to the God-hating secularists of the surrounding communities than such stodgy, old-fashioned and "intolerant" notions as "Thou Shalt Not." And the Warren influence has been predictable wherever it can be found.
If other churches that abide in the Warren philosophy, such as Chicago's gargantuan "Willow Creek," were to truly uphold Christian values among their enormous congregations, they would certainly be a constant "thorn in the side" of their surrounding populace, acculturated into the modernism as those communities certainly are. Yet an amazing degree of compatibility and congeniality exists between the Warren Church model and the social structures of Chicago and Southern California.
The tradeoff between true Christian principle and acceptability to the locals is apparently worth the spiritual sacrifice it entails, with expanding parking lots, increasingly lavish facilities and, of course, fuller collection plates bearing witness. Meanwhile, such churches offer ever less of a worthwhile and much-needed alternative to the ailing world around them.
Ultimately, Warren gives conformist Christians, wearied from their ongoing battle with a world that is increasingly hostile to true Christian faith, an apparent "out" by offering a version that the modern world can find more acceptable while remaining in its present spiritual darkness.
Many among Warren's vast following have made the mistake, in light of his "purpose driven" ministering, of presuming, at the heart of the movement, a Christ-driven purpose. Yet as Warren's real character continues to be revealed, it is becoming apparent that members of that following are presuming too much.
(Christopher G. Adamo is a freelance writer and staff writer for the New Media Alliance. He lives in southeastern Wyoming and has been active in local and state politics for many years.)
Absolutely.
James 2
14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without *your works, and I will show you my faith by *my works. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe--and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is *dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was *accounted to him for righteousness." And he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
25 Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
mark
Thanx.
he's not helping a lot of others, who may end up following *him* instead of following Christ.
____
Bingo!
Baptist ping...
Haven't ping all the Rick Warren info recently, if anyone thinks the criticism of him is unwarranted please do a keyword search of Rick Warren.
I don't think it would be too strange if a flaming liberal was invited to my church. It would be ____________ (I'm thinking sacriligious for lack of a better adjective) if that liberal were allowed to step into the pulpit.
Has anyone read his book? What's it like?? I haven't read it yet - wonder if I'm going to.
My pastor would encourage "abstinence" to curb the spread of AIDS. Ever hear of that one Warren?
The thing is, this journalist has the evidence on his side. May the Lord drive Mr. Purpose-Driven to humility in a gentle way, rather than in a harsh and humiliating way.
Certainly the most effective method. But that "sin" thing makes everybody feel bad.
That's the thing -- in order to speak of repentance, and call sinners to repentance, you have to utter the word "sin."
"(I'm thinking sacriligious for lack of a better adjective) if that liberal were allowed to step into the pulpit."
I agree. The more I read of Warren and his "religion" the less I can see scriptural authority in it.
Pat Robertson has shady business dealings in diamond mines. Google and learn. I don't know whose work he is doing, but it isn't His.
Thanks for the post & add me to the ping list. I am sooo glad to know that at least a few other people see thru this guy. I was an outcast from my church for not swallowing the PDL nonsense. There are a lot of good practical suggestions in the book, but it is treated as holy scripture by most churches. I was a teacher, forced to teach from his literature for 6 weeks and I was in big trouble for pointing out things that were not scriptural. For thoses interested, read page one of chapter two. It's the type of thing that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy. Unless you a a child of rape or incest. If you reason what he says; God caused the rape or incest to happen because he was involved in every step of your creation. My God is not the author of sin so Rick Warren is wrong on this point and since the whole book is based off of chapter two it's not worth the paper it's written on.
By the same logic, you could google President Bush and Idiot and come up with a lot of webpages that content Bush is an idiot.
I was in Virginia Beach when the news of the diamond mines came out, and it's a lot less sinister than anti-Christians would like to make it seem. He is a Christian businessman, primarily, and he was looking to earn some money. He rented a plane used by Operation Blessing to transport them, and some people make the connection that he's using one of his ministries to make a buck for himself. They're wrong.
If you want to slander Pat Robertson, please provide specific evidence, rather than just a vague slime-throw. Or maybe just think about it and don't post anything you're unable to support with facts.
FWIW, Pat Robertson is a sinner, and has made a lot of mistakes. Just like me.
I'm not defending Robertson - in fact, I think he's a kook who would do all conservatives a huge favor if he'd just keep his mouth shut. And Robertson and his dealings are not an issue here. I mentioned him merely to make a comparison.
All of the above! LOL!
Then it appears no one in your church was able to discern the unscriptural teachings? Did no one question the use of the quote by Anais Nin? Did everyone accept the book at truth?
That's my position as well. The statement of faith at Warren's church is solid plus the Holy Spirit is convicting people to a saving knowledge of God through Warren's ministry.
the bulk of the accusations are nothing more than phariseeism of the modern era.
Bingo. Also, I've seen an outright misrepresentation of Warren's Purpose Driven Life book. The misrepresentation was so bad it seemed to be a purposeful misrepresentation of what Warren wrote. While I don't always agree with Warren, the bulk of the criticism is over the top and causes more division in the Body.
If you visited conservative christian sites, Rick Warren was "outed" a long time ago. Olive Tree Ministries or Crossroads does an excellent job of "outing" wolfes in the pulpit!!
I thumbed rapidly through it. This was enough to convince me that I had been right, when I decided, based on the title alone, that it was another New Age self improvement type book with a Christian over gloss.
Frankly, I've found most books preaching "self-improvement" to be New Agey, and worthless, unless, of course, they are teaching a specific skill that you require. In this case, they would be self-educational, IMO, and maybe worth a shot.
Just my opinion, but I am always suspicious about people and books that tell you how God wants you to be happy and wealthy in this world. That may well be, but it is not the primary purpose of being a Christian.
And, in fact, rather than making things easy for you, I suspect that the main advantage of Christianity, in this world, is that it gives you the strength to endure, especially after you have been hurt or harmed for doing the right thing.
1 Corinthians 13:6-8
6Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
2 Timothy 2:9-11
9Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.
10Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
11It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:
2 Timothy 4:4-6
4And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 5But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. 6For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
Futile? Well, then, Jesus must not have ever called upon us to love on another, to help each other, to care for the sick and elderly, to pray for the lost, to protect the children and raise them correctly... all of those things being futile.
Let's all just sit on our hands, and do so in the name of Christ.
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