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.)
I pray that you have found a church home that nurtures and strengthen you through their commitment to Jesus and His Word.
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As does Saddleback. Very powerfully with their small groups. There's a lot of loving acocuntability in them--which is Biblically, as it should be.
Rick Warren is NOT teaching the ways or wisdom of Christ.
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Hogwash. There's plenty to support the construction that the above sentence is a brazen lie.
Basically, he's not doing so ACCORDING TO OTHER'S SPECIFICATIONS.
Well tough taco. He has only to be concerned about God's specifications for him.
I thought this Scripture meant God was going be the judge.
But now that I've read some of the comments on this thread ...
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Well put.
I think the essence of your comment is a great point.
However, folks will shred you over the word "gimmick."
Maybe you need to find a church who's only gimmick is the preaching of God's word.
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What a straw dog.
EVERY church I've ever been in of all varieties has had a method, feature, emphasis--whatever one wants to call it along those lines--that made them distinctive or attempted to make them distinctive from the unwashed worse congregations outside THEIR walls.
Often times the dictinctions were brazen and loudly proclaimed. Sometimes they were subtle but ruthlessly rigid and exclusionary, cliquish.
And probably 70-90% of those churches would claim to
ONLY BE TEACHING GOD'S WORD pure and unadulterated.
Hogwash.
All preachers are human. All put their spin on it. ALL THEIR SPIN IS NOT PURE. In 60 years, I've NEVER seen a 100% pure preacher put 100% Holy Spirit spin on plain teaching of Scripture.
Some are worse than others. But all are human.
I find the assertion a huge straw dog to the point of absurdity and a phoney declaration.
Quix: [... ACCORDING TO OTHER'S SPECIFICATIONS...]
Glad to see you have come out fighting today.
I agree with this defense. It's always a bad
idea to outline for God.
Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth;
shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the
wilderness, and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:19)
I don't believe that even the ruthlessly hostile naysayers hereon
WERE THEY ACTUALLY TO PARTICIPATE IN SADDLEBACK'S GROUPS FOR 12 MONTHS--I DON'T THINK ANY OF THEM
WOULD FIND IT ALL THAT EASY OR COMFORTABLE TO MEASURE UP TO THE STANDARD OF OBEDIENCE TO SCRIPTURE AND RELATIONSHIPS THAT THE GROUPS ROUTINELY ENCOURAGE, SUPPORT AND EXHORT THEIR MEMBERS TO DO IN A VERY, VERY BIBLICAL FASHION.
Sheesh. I am increasingly incredulous at the mostly false stuff spread about regarding RW and his operations.
Biased opinions, largely. Distorting wholesale if not fabricating whole cloth out of thin air. I can't imagine God being pleased.
See post #460.
Yes. Some tossed me into the chipper feet first for
the "gimmick" comment. But I stand by it. You and
I understand the "spirit" of my comment (which wasn't
difficult to figure out).
Lot of "choking on a gnat" goin' on here.
The only church's with "gimmicks" are ones that quit preaching the word
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Hogwash. NOt from this psychologist/sociologist's perspective.
EVERY PREACHER . . . 100% OF ALL PREACHERS I've heard in person, on the radio, on TV, read . . . 100% of them had his own personal schstick--distinctives.
Some were more closely and conservatively tied directly to Scripture and didn't elaborate much beyond Scripture. But even they DID SOME--sufficiently for folks to know how to align with the preacher's disctinctives sufficiently to be on his good side regardless of what Scripture said.
But the overwhelming majority of all preachers have disctinctives EVEN IN THE SUPPOSED SIMPLE PREACHING OF THE WORD--plenty of vivid and overt distinctives sufficient to inculcate into their flocks what makes THEIR FLOCK MORE HOLY AND RIGHTEOUS than all those others out there--even if they periodically claim it's not true.
It's basically old IN-GROUP/OUT-GROUP STUFF. And all humans are prone to it.
And a lot of that is what RW is so guilty of--not being part of the IN-GROUP of the Jr Accusers assaulting him and his ways.
Sure, Jesus Christ and Him Crucified is a great emphasis.
Paul emphasized that plenty.
BUT NOT ONLY.
And choosing from Scripture what to emphasize does not automatically make someone a heretic on a par with those who rape babies. Reading RW bashing threads, one could easily conclude otherwise.
Ping of interest.
Hogwash.
EVERY TRANSLATION involves paraphrase. What a straw dog.
Sheesh!
Great point.
I"m not surprised that Rick Warrens unScriptural teachings don't phase you at all.
Amen! Amen! Amen!
There's a time and place for fire and brimstone.
It is awesomely horrible to fall into the hands of an angry God Almighty when one has been actively in rebellion to Him.
But Christ was only in that mode against the prissy religious rulers of His earthly era.
I haven't seen a prissy bone in RW's body nor in any of his methods. I have seen layers and tons of prissiness on the part of his Jr Accusers.
"The drug stuff was not as some portrayed it, as I recall."
Your recall is flawed.
I don'rt remember if it was meth or crack that she shared with him. It's moot. Reading PDL was the "high" while also on these drugs. Yeah, she's a new creature in Christ all right ... LOL!
One thing I can't argue with is the Holy Spirit is convicting people to a saving knowledge of God through Warren's ministry.
Just watching out for the false ones. And there's nothing wrong with pointing that out.
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Basically, I'd agree in principle.
In practice on RW bashing threads, that's not the reality I observe.
The falseness seems virtually wholesale and near 100% on the side of the Jr Accusers of the Bretheren.
The UnBiblical perspectives seem virtually wholesale on the side of the Jr Accusers.
The UnBiblically majoring in minors and minoring in majors seems overwhelmingly on the side of the Jr Accusers.
that is what we have been doing here.
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Not in my book by a wide margin.
As for how we go about telling about false teachers, that is what we have been doing here.
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If so, then that's all the religious rulers of Jesus earthly era were doing too.
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