![whitey[1]](http://inlinethumb50.webshots.com/11953/2278221520103381328S600x600Q85.jpg)
Posted on 08/16/2008 11:59:35 AM PDT by XR7
LAKE FOREST, Calif. — When John McCain and Barack Obama appear on the same stage today, they will vividly demonstrate the reach that has made the Rev. Rick Warren among the most significant evangelists of his generation.
He's a megastar who leads the nation's fourth-largest church and reaches thousands of ministers through the Internet and crusades against poverty and AIDS. That globe-trotting work and his successful book — "The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?" — puts him at the vanguard of a movement that inspires young, socially conscious Christians.
But his willingness to soft-pedal political issues once central to U.S. evangelicals, such as opposition to abortion, has opened him to criticism that he has strayed from his calling to spread the Gospel.
Today's forum also is a sign of religion's importance in the 2008 presidential campaign, and the emergence of a new style of evangelical leadership on the national stage that is not tied to a single party and has broadened its social agenda beyond that of the religious right.
"This is absolutely a changing of the guard, and it suggests that the new guard of the evangelical movement is able to generate the attention and focus of both parties," said D. Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University and author of "Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite."
Warren personally invited the two candidates — "friends of mine" — via their cellphones. His event at the Saddleback Church will be broadcast live on CNN and Fox News Channel and streamed on the Web. It has among its aims "helping the church regain credibility and encouraging our society to return to civility," he said.
It's likely that fans and critics will be watching closely...
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
“The megachurch pastor Rick Warren is a signer of the “Evangelical Climate Initiative.” ~ TornadoAlley3
Liars for Jesus and Liars for science:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2047988/posts?page=9#9
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2047988/posts?page=8#8
ping for later
In that first photo, he looks like one of the guys who got caught in the sting operation in DC when they thought they were getting redskins tickets.
And the MSM tries to pass him off as the leader of evangelicals. What a load.
*I’ve considered Warren a snake-oil salesman type*
You hit it Fuddy.
(BTW last night Michael Steele in for Hannity had on Bill Sammon and Andrew Wilcow together. Such a deal)
Unfortunately, that particular “response” to Dr. Keyes is without substance. Very sad.
Here is a communication I received from Alan directly addressing exactly what you posted:
Hi,
I think this response is sad evidence of the low state of discourse we’ve allowed people to get away with. Mr. Cass responds to my reasoned arguments from scripture with a series of assertions without even an effort to back them up.
The Scripture he cites serves rather to support my case than his, since it points to the need to exercise the senses to discriminate good from evil, (I.e., in a way that does not let go of the good standard through the weakness of the flesh but instead strengthens the flesh through constant effort to keep hold of the standard) not choose evil.
The notion that while we’re here we must choose evil is simply contradicted by the words of Christ and the Old Testament, yet he makes no effort at all to address the careful reasoning I present in the essay based on the scriptural guidance. As people who claim to look to the Word of God for guidance, aren’t we obliged to think seriously about what He tells us? Instead, he just asserts his own opinions about the evil we must do in this vale of tears.
He culminates his argument by encouraging people to turn against those who support good for it’s own (that is, God’s) sake in order to imitate those who support evil for the sake of evil (I.e., in order to stop it.) This is the pretense that we are reponsible for defeating evil. Yet isn’t the heart of practical Christian faith the simple truth that Christ has defeated death and sin? How can someone who professes to believe that we are not saved by good works (because Christ is all our salvation) then suggest that we should support evil works in order to achieve a victory that Christ has already won?
I don’t fear Obama because he cannot rob me of my salvation. But those who encourage me to do and support evil in order to oppose him move me toward real harm. That’s why I think this whole lesser of evils argument is actually a diabolical ploy. Fearing the illusory harm another can do to us we run into the real harm that only we can bring upon ourselves.
Doesn’t Mr. Cass realize that this willingness to make the fallen state of the world his standard, instead of the words and example of the Risen Christ, is precisely what moral relativism is all about? Christ enjoined us to make the perfection of God our standard of conduct in this world, and I think he did so precisely in order to keep us out of this devilish snare.
Feel free to pass this on.
Alan
I've heard him speak of poverty, AIDS, malnutrition, illiteracy and most importantly of needing to hear about Jesus Christ and God's path to heaven.
You watch out for yourself tonight...
There’ll be wild and woolly Obama worshippers outside too...
If they have a glazed look in their eyes and are chanting “Om Om Om Obama is the Bomb...”
Keep out of their way...
"The Most High does not dwell in houses made by men."-- Acts 7:48
ping
Good thing most people will probably tune into watching Michael Phelps win his 8th gold medal instead of this NON-evangelical buttclown.
I was looking forward to watching the funniest host on the funniest show on TV, but apparently Chris Matthews has been sick with pneumonia.
So, they put on that hack, Mitchell, in his place.
She's not funny, she's just ugly.
..so did mine--I told him this morning how little I thought of Warren...
Today I am stepping across the line. I’m tired of waffling and I’m finished with wavering,
I’ve made my choice, the verdict is in, and my decision is irrevocable. I’m going God’s way. There’s no turning back now!
Sounds like he could be one of his buddies..
Warren grew up in Northern California. He is a fourth-generation Southern Baptist pastor, intimately familiar not just with churches but also with the spreading of them: his father was a "church planter," or serial church founder. The son, who has said that from sixth grade on he was always president of something (and told TIME he led a courthouse march for the 1960s radical group Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS), received his own call to ministry at age 19. He got a conventional theology doctorate and an unconventional education from a friend, management guru Peter Drucker, who refined Warren's organizational gift and offered a secular vocabulary with which to express it.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1830147-2,00.html
...boy oh boy, that just about sums it up...
Both make some important points. And moral absolutes are indeed vital. Thanks for that reply.
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