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.)
Don't fall for the dialectic. Ultimately, it's a singular universe.
Wake me up, please. NOTHING this sureal can go on this long, can it?
Give me [quote] just one valid heresy or unAmerican thing Warren says in this interview.
Friend, we are at something close to a THOUSAND posts in this thread alone. Many, many, many of them are replete with detailed explanations of your Master's heresies -- complete with links to source material.
If you think you're gonna toss that lame hipshot at me and then play "gotcha!", you are one sad case. The same applies if you think you're going to tease me into starting over from Page 1, patiently explaining that which has been covered in excruciating detail already.
"The main thing is that Brother Rick cares. "
LOL Now I know why the drive-by media loves Rick Warren.
I've read 2/3rds of the posts on this thread but can't read them all.
I was not aware of the Syria comments when I watched (most of) Tim Russert's interview with Rick Warren two Sundays ago. Had Warren made these comments prior to the interview? There was no mention on Meet the Depressed.
By the way: I read Saddleback's Statement of Faith on their website. It's basically a re-worded and reorganized Catholic Nicene Creed (which we recite at every mass). (Well......okay, it's the Nicene Creed minus the word "Catholic".....). At least on paper the church checks out. LOLOL
Converted Catholic (Christian) Megadittoes!!!
Wow. Good for them. And they're even married. THAT is a new concept for some of these athletes and movie stars. I know they'll be good parents. HIS father was a gem.
Is this the Amateur Comedian Hour?
Who was talking about "chips"?
Not ME.
PS: Your failure to observe certain facts, based on your restricted perspective, is not a call for me to bow down at your feet and deny that which I know.
So, now we each know that we are at opposite ends of THIS topic -- we are NOT going to persuade the other -- and it is OFF-topic for this thread -- so let's drop it, OK?
I can go on for pages and pages and pages -- and so can you.
Let's not.
YOU? Disagree with ME?
Tell me it ain't so!
LOL!
Thank you, thank you very much. I'll be here all week, and don't forget to check out the Hunan Buffet between shows.
My old boss's brother was actually there. He came with the senators or whoever they were (I can't remember now.). He claims they were shot. It would be interesting to talk to him about that. I think he came to the university once years ago and had a lecture or spoke in a class. He's a well-known lawyer.
Indeed. Y2K was a bust. And I laughed all the way to the bank!
How can you define and defend the Purpose Driven method (and Warren), if you do not have any idea how/why Rwanda is called a Purpose Driven country?
C'mon Don. Just bow down and get it over with. Just a little smooch on that toe there. You know you want to.
Pathetic was your post relative to Warren's reverse tithing, which was full of non-truth.
How about answering the questions from my post# 891?
I see a day coming when the true church, the church that God is pruning, will ARISE and show all of us who God really is and who WE really are in Christ. It will be a church of power, healing, righteousness, purity, and it won't be a catholic, presbyterian, episcopalian, non-denominational, whatever denominational church. It will be the TRUE Church, led by God himself, not man and his foolish doctrines. I can't wait. I am so tired of churchianity and judgemental christians who seem to live to bash other christians. God WILL cleanse the church. We don't have to do it. He is shaking the church even now--re Ted Haggard and others. All we have to do is watch it happen and pray for those men and women in power. They, as we, can be very easily deceived so we need to pray for them, not tear them down at every opportunity.
OK, you talked me into it -- but only because I've got a razor-edged snaggle-tooth, a raging strep throat, and some weird kind of undiagnosed "something" in my gums that the surgeons all argue over who's going to be the one to put on the pressure suit and walk into the cleanroom to check out the progress.
Well, enough of that. Take off your sock, here ah comes!
It's not critical thinking, Don Joe. It's criticism and judging. Vomit if you wish. I'll stand out of your way.
I suspect my humor was lost on you.
Your reply was far too series.
And can I spell that bleu-duncan?
Good point. I'm sure you know that Jesus Christ had something of a different reaction to the "world" coming into the Temple.
Yes, if he came over with Congressman Leo Ryan's party, then they were shot.
The real question was how many People's Temple members died from the cyanide laced coolaid, and how many died from other means.
It does appear that quite a number were shot. The bodies were handled by the US Army, and not civillian authorities. It is unlikely that much information will ever get out.
You know, as bad as Jim Jones and the People's temple incident was for those 900+ people, it was probably a great service to the body of Christ at large.
After this incident, the cults were seen as something far more sinister than a couple of nice little old ladies knocking at your door to tell you that God's real name was Jehovah, or those nice young boys in good suits doing their missionary work for the Mormons.
Lots of groups, even some that were considered within the sphere of Christianity were looked at under a microscope...some were found lacking. It may have saved far more lives and souls than those 900+ who died in the jungle of Guianna.
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