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.)
All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. (1 Corinthians 10:23)
Lotta legalism goin' on here as well.
Hey! We crossed 300 posts. We could be kicked to the "Smoky Backroom".
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
YUP.
OF the most prissy, pretentious, smelly variety, imho.
bttt
Just love 'em and lead by humble example.
And in response to an earlier post assuring us that (from memory) "his gospel is sound", I can tell ya, that the "gospel" of a deranged street preacher I've encountered sounds "sound" as well. It ain't too hard. Our everlasting heroes King of Rock and Roll and x42, both expressed the sentiment that if they hadn't been doing what they were doing, they would have wanted to be preachers. They would have done well, too. Anybody can do it. Preacher hustle has a long shameless tradition in this country. The Bakkers, the Crouches, Swaggarts and others, what's the f__king diff?
FW my 2 cents is W.
I have been skeptical about RW since the first time
I heard about him. I heard some good and some bad.
I really was undecided about him but
after he invited Obama into his pulpit that was
all I needed to know and it wasn't good.
Feel free to disagree but my mind is pretty well made up.
A Blessed and Happy New Year to all.
Perhaps one might question who has the speck and who has the beam.
I am growing increasingly convinced that our gospel outreach should start with the churched because so many of them are placing their faith in a false gospel.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places]. (Ephesians 6:12)
The blood of Jesus, The Lamb of God, covers them.
I don't know much about Warren, but I did hear him on TV the other day talking about abortion and he made one comment which I think is worth repeating. "There may be accidental parents, but there are no accidental babies. Every baby conceived is conceived by God with a purpose for their life." His view seems to be solidly pro-life which is a plus.
Our church went through the 40 Days of Purpose and adopted some of the methods, including small group emphasis and coordinated graded studies. Warren presented a method, and our error, was confusing a method with a theology. We have elevated a salesman, a motivational speaker, a good administrator, to the position of spiritual leader. It would be like elevating Steve Covey to church spokesman, because we use some of his successful methods.
Of course not. Many refuse to accept the entire Gospel and merely want to pick and choose which parts they want to follow. This is also what Rick Warren teaches. All fluff, no sin or blood. No repentance, just a light apology occasionally. No lifestyle changes, just proclamations.
If it "agrees" with God's Word,
then I can agree with it as well.
Yes. The church is a mission objective.
We're a compromised mess. Laodiceans.
We're heading to a friends house. Happy New Year!
God bless you Scripter.
May the Lord have His way in your life as you seek Him more intimately.
HAPPY NEW YEAR (in Christ)!
That's too bad. I've seen a lot of wonderful things happen while volunteering as an AWANA leader. Happy New Year, Quix.
Happy New Year to you too! I hear somebody calling my name... I think we're late. ;-)
I wouldn't say that the media *fawned* all over Billy Graham; it seems to me more like he was just so wildly popular that they weren't in much of a position to criticize him much without making themselves look bad. Plus, he must have been a man of great integrity, or they would have gone after him for that, as well. They just didn't have anything to pin on him.
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