Sunday, September 14, 2008

Sacred Cow Saturday - Episode 8 - Rick Warren Wrap Up

There is much more that could be discussed about Rick Warren and may well be at a later date. There is the issue of Purpose Driven mission trips where copies of Purpose Driven Life are handed out instead of Bibles. There is the issue of Rick Warren training Jewish leaders how to grow their Synagogues. There is the issue of Rick Warren prasing the Syrian Islamic regime for their treatment of Christians, then denying that it ever happened, then having to delete a youtube video that confirmed it did happen. There is also Pastor Warren's proud claim of being Rupert Murdoch's pastor - Murdoch being the worlds largest peddler of pornography (paging church discipline . . paging church discipline).

And there is also the issue of Rick Warren inviting homosexuals and strong abortion advocates to speak at his global AIDS summit. This included Barack Obama who supports the hideous murderous practice of "late term abortion". Rick Warren was roundly criticised for inviting these people and rightly so. His mantra to these criticisms is generally "I don't have to agree with 100 percent of what another person does in order to work with them on the 20 percent that we do agree on." Well here's my question following this philosophy - what if the leader of the Ku Klux Klan has some really positive contibutions to the AIDS summit? Would you invite him? Could you find 20% of common ground and put aside that "side" issue of racism? I would love to hear Rick Warren's response to those questions. And I would strongly contend that murder of the unborn is even more hideous than the blight of racism.

This issue of Barack Obama has left a stench on the landscape of "modern Christanity". I've followed the smell and it leads to some very ugly goings on within the "emergent" and "red letter" camps. These people who include Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo, Brian McLaren, and Donald Miller are hypocrites of the highest order. I have "held back" on this blog for a long time but I can no longer remain silent. I have patiently listened to (and taken on board) their continual criticism of the "religious right" for many years now but now they are starting to show their true colours and I will be speaking openly about their seductive deceptions over the coming days - so stay tuned.

The bottom line, though, with Rick Warren is the "gospel" he preaches and it is not the biblical Gospel as has been clearly exposed in the previous posts. The main purpose behind these posts has been in response to the continual attempts by Purpose Driven Cybercensors to delete any criticism or renounce it as people having personal issues with Rick Warren. There may be people out there who do have personal issues with Rick Warren and I have no interest in their grievances. It is also true that much of what Rick Warren teaches in his Purpose Driven books is helpful and beneficial within the daily life - even a broken clock gets it right twice a day. But these truths can serve as a smokescreen for the greater eternal picture and many of Rick Warren's critics are people who hold these issues dear to their hearts and labor tirelessly in them. They should not be silenced, they should be heard - especially by Rick Warren. Because if you get the Gospel wrong then the rest, ultimately, is a waste of time.

Go On To Episode 9
Go Back To Episode 7
Go Back To Episode 1

2 comments:

Cameron Buettel said...

Rick Warren is a modern day chameleon. His theology is like goalposts with wheels on them.

TommyWou said...

To any closeted LGBT folks out there:

There is nothing wrong with your sexuality, any shame you feel is just a cultural thing, you can let it go and be loved for who you are.