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.)
You said -- "We (you and me) need to catch those babies, teach them,
get them on meat as soon as possible and get them standing
on their Gospel feet."
You know, the church has really failed to reach the world, as it should have. But, even so, God has always miraculously intervened and always reaches those who are seeking Him out -- even if He has to send an angel to them, to give them the message. He will do that. Or, He will send someone thousands of miles to do the same thing, if that is the only way. One way or another God will do it.
But, there is coming a time when there will be the 144,000 Jews from the 12 tribes of Israel (12,000 from each of the named tribes, given in the book of Revelation). They will spread out all over the world and do give the message of the Gospel, too.
In addition to that, there will come the time of the three angels who are sent to give the message to the entire earth -- and then no one will miss it. They will all know for sure.
So, where the church has failed, God will intervene and He will do what is needed, before the coming of our Messiah to set up His Kingdom on this earth, ruling over all the nations of the world from Jerusalem.
Regards,
Star Traveler
HAPPY NEW YEAR, QUIX and thanks... ;o)
[...So, where the church has failed, God will intervene and He will do what is needed, before the coming of our Messiah to set up His Kingdom on this earth, ruling over all the nations of the world from Jerusalem...]
Hallelujah!!!
Has anyone ever told you that your posts are annointed
with the Spirit of the One True Living God??? You are
an agent of the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep preaching ane
teaching Star Traveler!
God doesn't have a gimmick.
Rick Warren has oodles of gimmicks to better himself and spread how HE would like the Word of God to be. His words don't match Christs teachings.
God doesn't have a gimmick.
Rick Warren has oodles of gimmicks to better himself and spread how HE would like the Word of God to be. His words don't match Christs teachings.
God doesn't have a gimmick.
Rick Warren has oodles of gimmicks to better himself and spread how HE would like the Word of God to be. His words don't match Christs teachings.
Thank you for your kind comments, even though such things make me nervous. It's a fearful thing to be in the hands of the One true and living God, not something to be taken lightly. I can understand why Peter would have said to the Lord to depart from him.
I think of Hebrews 10:30-31
30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
And then, also with Peter, in Luke 5:8
When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
In the end, it's the living word that does the job --
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
It is truly the living word...
Regards,
Star Traveler
I firmly believe healthy disagreement is a good thing ... As iron sharpens iron...
I think this a complicated situation and wrote some comments about it here. In addition to the comments written in that post, I think Warren needs to be careful as he continues to create and expand his other interests, and at the same time we need to continually remember it's not the healthy that need a doctor.
Just as I don't agree with anybody 100% of the time, I don't agree with Warren 100% of the time either.
THIS is what Rick Warren is doing - making up his own religion.
It really grieves my spirit when I read comments similar to the above. I think such comments are over the top and I encourage you to be careful making such statements.
Every knee shall, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Every creature is commanded to worship the One, True Living God...there are no exceptions
At the end, all will do so. But we are to worship in truth.
Pagans are to be converted, then worship.
Loving one's neighbor is all important.
However, let's be clear how we define the verb "to love". It's not synonymous with "to accept," for example. Nor is it synonymous with "to tolerate without objecting".
To love someone is to desire their authentic good. If you believe in objective moral or religious truth, persuading someone (charitably!) to order their life in conformity with that truth is an act of love, because a life lived in conformity with truth is always going to bring one closer to authentic good than a life lived in conformity with error.
bump for later reading.
That lardass Warren certainly knows about doing Satan's work.
God alone through His gift of grace is the instrument of our salvation. The most wretched sinner who has a purposeless life, yet sees his transgressions and cries mercy and repents is heard and forgiven by God is saved.
Even the sinner's desire to seek God and plead mercy comes about because of grace. It does not come from our own self awareness. We are too full of pride to ever condemn ourselves outside of God's merciful exposure of our sins.
Our purpose in life is simple. To love and serve God with all our being. To declare His Lordship over our entire lives. To never forget that while we are sinners, He still loved us enough to embrace flesh and die for us. Any other purpose must either complement these or it is just vanity.
Actually, God gave us all a brain (well, most of us) so that we could distinguish between what's true and what's false. We were warned not to fall for false prophets, and I think Warren is one.
As scripture does not say this it is imprudent to make such unfounded claims, especially when they're given as a way of a bye for us taking up what WE have been tasked with.
The Biblical standard for a prophet is 100% accuracy. If they were proved wrong, they were to be stoned. Are you prepared to adhere to that standard?
The article talked about a video that had been downloaded... from the church website. Anyone have that or know a link to it?
In post #402 I said the the church uses gimmicks.
If it will make you feel better, substitute "gimmick"
for the word "technique" in post #415.
Just as Jesus used creative techniques when he healed
people, the church also uses creative techniques. If
my semantics offended, it was not intended. My apologies.
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