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.)
Billy Graham had a salary of $75K a year and drove a Ford Crown Victoria. What do you suppose Rick pays himself?
Then, why didn't you give a simple yes or no when asked? Instead you tried to play cute word games.
I was asking you for clarification and information, since you seemed to have it.
I'm sorry you think I'm "game playing".
I won't bother you again.
I think you made the point just fine. I fail to see how it matters "why" people deny Christ but THAT they do. There's no such thing as denying Christ "out of necessity".
Wrong.
The church where i hold membership belongs to Jesus Christ.
God preserved us, and lead us to reject the heretical* teaching of Rick Warren and other church growth movement advocates.
*Heresy/Heretic/Heretical. Yes, there are plenty of heretics who either are or will be in heaven. IMO, Rick Warren will be one of them. It is GOD who saves us by grace, not our theological orthodoxy.
What a novel idea."
You have just come up with a marvelous idea. At least in this case! LOL!
Yeah they always misuse Matt 18 to try and keep things quiet.
Public teaching needs to be exposed publicly, because it's already gone PAST the 'offense between two believers' part.
http://www.behindthebadge.net/articles/a74.html
http://biblestudy.churches.net/base/ERROR.TXT
http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/matthew18.htm (scroll down)
http://www.pfo.org/revisitg.htm
http://www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/media/CTCR/PublicRebukeCTCR%200708.pdf
http://cnview.com/on_line_resources/why_i_expose_error.htm
Just a few to get you started.
Who said anything about "stealing"?
Osteen would beg to differ. He wouldn't sell books if while on Larry King he professed Christ is the only way.
I believe it was you who pointed out earlier that the fruits of the spirit were sadly lacking in this thread.
I agree completely.
Oh c'mon, don't pout.
Others caught my point with no problem -- and, your reply was similar in tenor to those of people who ARE playing games (by their own admission) -- and, arrived in the exact same timeframe as those "game posts", so what do you expect out of people?
As I said, I made my point, you disagreed, so let's leave it at that. If this puts you in a frame of mind to slink off and lick your wounds, then all I can say is that you must have a VERY thin skin, and should probably avoid these threads at all costs.
Good points.
Smilin' Joel. How many times was it he said "I don't know..." on LKL?
Wasn't his late father a fairly orthodox minister?
I've heard it said that "God has no grandchildren", and I am frequently reminded of that axiom.
At the very outset I said I had a dry sense of humor... Plus Don Joe did such an excellent job of picking up on my previous (and purposeful) ambiguity I wanted to see how much he continued to pick up. He did a great job.
Would it be possible to keep these two people out of the news on a daily basis? They really are getting sickening.
It seems to me that being maligned is a hallmark of Judeo/Christian faith. Certainly I see this over the history of Israel where the contempt is so powerful (and irrational) - it has bloody consequences. And the same was true with the early church - and will be true again in the end times.
So what would concern me in this day and age would not be a Judeo/Christian confession or sect that is under theological seige (even by the brethren) - but rather one that is not under seige.
For a long time, Billy's salary was $25K/year.
RW has not bought a bigger house nor any other major purchases for at least a long time after his wealth and still no new house. I don't know about car at this point.
He and his wife purposed to live simply and devote all they could to The Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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