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.)
The verse for those on the net...The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
I don't even want to think of the repercussions this would bring. Warren has already fooled millions, this would just bring the political situation to a crisis, if he could convince enough of the Religious Right to follow him. He would really be asking for an all out war in the church community.
Let's not forget the fact that he uses fragments of verses. We tend to forget that Chapters/Verses were put in Scripture by the Reformers as reference points. Warren wretches verses out of their context to make his point.
The Warren method of biblical interpretation is like taking a newspaper article, numbering the sentences and the looking at sentence 73 and thinking we understand what the writer had in mind.
. . .a thought thats needs an erasure! But think you may have just topped off the 'guest list'.
Cannot begin to know what is in Warren's mind here; but always more than a bit sceptical of 'spiritual success' in the marketplace.
What did it for me in the 'absolute'; was his inclusive support for Obama and his wisdom on Syria. . and ME, et al. . .(or lack thereof. . .)
Once over the top. . .he can only go down; in my book.
Old wisdom. . .'if you meet the Buddha on the road. . .kill him' ( a book as well). Goes to the heart of the matter here. . .
Rick Warren in the church is the equivalent of Rudy Giuliani in politics. Try to appear as a chameleon, fool as many people as possible, and hope they don't figure it out until it is too late.
[...Anyone who calls himself an "evangelical Christian" who receives, and basks in, so much fawning adulation by the Drive By Media is almost automatically suspect in my book...]
Leave out the basking part and ask yourself where does that
leave Billy Graham? The media seem to love him as well.
My first reaction to Warren embracing Obama was "better to have your friends close and your enemies closer".
Let's not assume Obama has the position of persuasion. He could learn something from Warren that might benefit all of us, i.e. truth is NOT relative.
Will he actually practice what he preaches in regard to inclusion of all political persuasions and attempt to reach out substantially to conservatives, or will he allow himself to be seduced by the money and the fame of being in the media spotlight, and continue to parrot the leftist party line, which will be the price of keeping those things?
He's already had one test, with Joe Farah (who I don't have much use for most of the time myself, but in this case he's right on) calling him out on one blatant lie; unfortunately, his response, calling Farah an agent of Satan, constituted a failure of the test, and doesn't bode well for the future.
Article makes it clear he is a charlatan!
Hmmmm.... that's a tough one.
Rick Warren curries favor with the world and especially, its godless media. Contrast what they say about him and what they say about Ann Coulter, and the point becomes very clear. He is a media-created fad and will be old news soon, as they create the next "prophet."
Hope those flame resistant PJs can hold up if the Rudy-bots show up. Spot on comment -- dittos and Happy New Year!
Yes, he has a lot of people (including our pastor) bamboozled. Someone asked if he's like Clinton--the answer is YES, at least so far as knowing how to appear to be whoever and whatever people want to hear. Flim flam, pure and simple.
He was anything but popular with the media when he was in his heyday, and his son Franklin, who has taken over the ministry, is almost as demonized by the left as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell are. If Billy Graham had been as popular with the press in his prime as Rick Warren is now, I'd be suspicious of him. I admit it's not entirely fair, but the media today is so thoroughly corrupt and dishonest and leftist agenda-driven that I can't help but suspect anything they approve of.
I have until now held my tongue on the Warren threads. I was willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt. But the more I see him and the more I learn about him, the less I like what I see.
The other part of the Dem strategy is fictitious organizations like this one, called "www.faithandfamilyvalues.org," which is run by a former Clinton operative, and sends out pretend-right-wing Evangelical mailings attacking Republicans for being too soft on moral issues—solely for the purpose of suppressing the Evangelical vote.
I got a card from them in the last election, and if you're a politically involved Evangelical or Catholic, you see right through it, but maybe some people are slow on the uptake.
Done, welcome.
Another splendid article by another Jr Accuser of the Bretheren.
I entered the words Rick Warren > cheap grace, and got a few hits. This article may interest you:
Spirit-Led or Purpose-Driven? Part 1 by Berit Kjos, November 2003
it can be found at :
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/2003/1-purpose.htm
Here is an excerpt:
" Thousands of small groups using Saddleback's study guide and Teaching Video for the 40 Days of Purpose are led in a slightly longer prayer. They hear Pastor Warren speak these words:
"Do you have a relationship with Jesus Christ? If you aren't sure of this, I'd like the privilege of leading you in a prayer to settle the issue. Let's bow our heads. I'm going to pray a prayer and you can follow it silently in your mind:
'Dear God, I want to know Your purpose for my life. I don't want to waste the rest of my life on the wrong things. Today I want to take the first step in preparing for eternity by getting to know You. Jesus Christ, I don't understand it all, but as much as I know how, I want to open my life to You. I ask you to come into my life and make yourself real to me. Use this series to help me know what You made me for. Thank you. Amen.'
"If you just prayed that prayer for the very first time, I congratulate you. You've just become a part of the family of God."
Is this a response to the gospel? Where is repentance, acknowledgement of need, or confession of personal sin? Where is the cross? The Bible tells us that saving "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." [Romans 10:17-18] But none of the Scriptures that show the gospel are mentioned in this first lesson. Biblically illiterate friends and neighbors who join the group would pray this prayer without any real knowledge of the cross, of the Savior, or of God's view of sin. In fact, the meaning of salvation isn't included in the first lesson. And if it had been there, the context of the lesson would suggest that we are merely saved from a purposeless life -- not from bondage to sin."
Unfortunately many evangelicals are suckers for conmen. With a Bible in their hand, and heavy reliance on out of context scripture, with the name of Jesus continually invoked you can rake in serious bucks.
And reassure your congregation that "works" don't count....all you have to do is mouth "I accept Jesus as my savior" and you're assured of your personal salvation.
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