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.)
Post 714 might be of miniscule enlightenment.
Thx.
Popsicles have a hard time in fiery furnaces, it seems.
The house of God (a church) is not for those that have already found God. They carry God with them where ever they go.
The house of God is for those who haven't found God yet.
Who's pouting? I tried to engage in discussion and your replies have been sarcastic and condescending.
so what do you expect out of people?
A little discernment, I guess. Posting at the same time as other people you're involved in a volley with does not make me part of their game, if indeed there is a game.
Is that too much to ask?
Funny because I thought it was this one
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1760627/posts?page=716#716
Awesomely insightful and Biblical, as usual.
And, the point is a soberingly excellent one.
Not all that comfortable, however. Though comfort has seemed to rarely, if ever, be a goal of The Gospel.
. . . except to present us blameless before The Father conformed to the image of His Son.
THX BIG.
LUB BLPH
How so?
i could be mistaken, but i believe that Joel Osteen's father was John Osteen who was one of the 'lesser lights' of the Word of Faith Movement. The "greater lights" were Kenneth E. Hagin, Kenneth Copeland (both of whom i refer to as "CopelandHagin"), Charles Capps, and others who i don't recall at the moment.
i don't know if Joel Osteen promotes or beleives the same theology.
VERY WELL AND ACCURATELY PUT, imho.
We have a winner!
Please pick up your "Abomination of Desolation" award on your way out.
Yes, and Fruit Loops dissolve in milk, and are rarely ever served with meat.
You probably experienced the Delphi Technique which is at the core of Warren's ministry.
An oldie, but a goodie from Free Republic's past...
IIRC, there were a lot of great threads about this topic and how it is used to squelch dissent.
And wet birds fly at night . . . as my dissertation chairman said.
Well, THAT should make all of feel much better, especially those of us who have been pushed out of our churches for insisting on using the Bible instead of some guy's book! So where should we send out tithing checks?
This quote bothers me on several levels, not the least is Warren's kind of shrugging it off (and in the back of my mind is his visit to Syria)... but also what is going on in our prisons that isn't being publically discussed?
Cal Thomas reminded the audience of Newswatch Saturday about the rampant building of mosques around the country that is being ignored...
As he said "they are building mosques as fast as Starbucks is building coffee houses and no one is talking about it (political correctness and all that"...
Seems in many areas we lazy American's have once again become a sleeping giant and have learned nothing from history.
Well, in that case, I stand corrected. I hold that heresy in equal contempt to the one currently under examination -- and this I state as someone who was at one time (a LONG time ago) deceived by the likes of "The Kenneths".
Apparently "Baby Doc" has a different heresy than "Papa Doc", but when you get down to it, vomit is vomit.
Where else is a nonbeliever to hear scripture other than from a believer or, better yet, a pastor in the house of God?
Sounds like you are starting another new religion here with this idea! LOL!
That reminds me of something a terrorist was quoted as saying last year. He said something similar to this: The names of those who attack America the next time will have names like John and George and Philip. Of course that's not the actual quote but the idea is similar. From his quote I inferred they were recruiting from within, and within our prisons as well.
Seems in many areas we lazy American's have once again become a sleeping giant and have learned nothing from history.
I hope you are wrong... but knowing the ignorance of the general population, I fear you may be right.
Your lack of any grasp of "gospel milk" basics is frightening.
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