RICK WARREN: The Gospel according to Purpose!

In a USA Today editorial profile ("A model of faith") Tom Krattenmaker asks ...

Is "inclusive" Christianity just watered-down religion - a weakened faith that compromises the Truth for the sake of political correctness?

Krattenmaker then takes great pains to subtely marginalize anyone who might answer yes! For example ...

Listening to the more strident voices in today's debates over religion in public life, one could easily reach that conclusion. "We need to be divisive," writes fundamentalist magazine editor David Cloud, citing the book of Timothy from the New Testament, "because God has commanded us to preach all of His Word and to 'reprove, rebuke, exhort.' The emphasis ... is as much 'negative' as 'positive.' "

Cloud's stance is typical of many from the so-called Christian right, whose unrelenting attacks on gays and liberals have contributed to the poisonous shouting match that passes for democratic debate in our country today.

To alleviate any concerns the reader might have that this is just a hatchet job on conservative evangelicals, Krattenmaker inserts this reassuring word ...

Happily, another model is emerging, one that makes a compelling case that evangelical belief in the public square need not always divide us.

I think Jesus said something about that latter point ...

Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD.

Matthew 10:34-36

Then the writer turns his attention to his real subject, Rick Warren ...

The exemplar of this other approach: Rick Warren, the pastor of an evangelical megachurch in California, the author of the mega-selling Purpose-Driven Life (which has sold more than 25 million copies) and now the leader of a global campaign against poverty and AIDS.

As if size is significant to a sovereign God.

To assuage any possible right leaning reader Krattenmaker presents Rick's conservative credentials ...

[Warren is] a uniter, not a divider. Warren is no liberal. He backed President Bush in the 2004 election and opposes abortion and stem cell research.

But in a refreshing change from today's unhealthy norm, Warren is spending his time and clout not on the divisive issues that have come to define the Christian right - abortion, stem cell research, a supposedly anti-God judiciary and so on - but on a campaign that can bring people together and save many lives in the process.

Perhaps the patently prejudicial slant of the author is why his piece ended up on the "editorial/opinion" page.

Anyone who's been on the inside of authentic evagelicalism will see right through his next comment ...

In the tradition of evangelical Christianity ...

If there has ever been a moving target in Christianity it has been evangelicalism and fundamentalism ... no one has ever been able to define either.

"I'm coming from the fact that Jesus said, 'Love your neighbor as yourself,'" Warren said at a news conference in November at a global health summit. "So what motivates me is not politics."

"Jesus said the above was the second greatest commandment; the "greatest commandment" has priority over this one ...

And He said to him, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND."

Matthew 22:37

Fact is, Christianity has never gotten this one right, so what makes anyone think getting the second greatest command right will make a bit of a difference to God?

Now I know Rick Warren (though he would not know me), and I know Rick would never be as careless with the doctrines of sin and salvation as this writer makes him appear to be in the following account ...

While he holds the belief that Jesus is the one true path to salvation, he does not make a point of predicting hell for non-believers ...

Fortunately it is neither his nor my role to decide outcomes, but I do know this: my bible makes clear the terminus ad quem of all who don't take the way of the Son to the Father.

There are many of Rick's peers who are turning blue at the gills over what he is doing and saying (Jolly Blogger, Tim Challies, Lighthouse Trails); but then Isaiah and Jeremiah weren't the most popular guys on earth in their day, not to mention John the Baptiser ... and I'm not suggesting Warren is a latter day prophet.

What makes Warren and his message attractive to some also makes him anathema to others. One posting at the Slice of Laodicea website, commenting on Warren's message at a United Nations prayer event, is representative of the sort of criticism he often generates: "A Benedict Arnold to the Gospel. We can now see the TRUE COLORS of Rick Warren - UN blue and Christian 'yellow.'"

Krattenmaker says "Warren is giving faith a good name — and probably winning more than a few converts in the process." But most of Warren's peers would remind the author and Rick that Jesus is the only name that gives the faith a good name [Romans 3:11, 12; Acts 4:12] and that it is God who wins converts in spite of the process [1 Corinthians 3:7].

Long ago a man wiser than any of us offered his legacy in these words ...

But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body.

Ecclesiastes 12:12

HT: Kairos Journal

TAGS: Christianity, Church, Packaged Christianity,
Purpose Driven Life, Religion, Rick Warren, Theological error