Rick Warren, Politics, and Preaching

This post was on my mind for awhile but I've just this evening been able to sit down and type it out! :)

This may be old news to some but for some of you it will be nice and fresh, so for those of you who fall into the latter category, here goes:

On Monday August 18th, the Idaho Press-Tribune carried a guest opinion from Star Parker, founder and president of CURE. I'd never heard of her, but after reading her article I have visited her site and am now subscribed in order to receive her articles as soon as they are published...yes I liked what she had to say that much! :)

Anyhow, the article was about the hosting by Rick Warren's Saddleback church of the presidential candidates, or more specifically, about what Warren's hosting represents for America, and in my mind, Christianity. Now then, a quick word about the Press-Tribune...they do not keep online sources for more than 14 days unless you pay to subscribe, so I found the article as published originally on Ms. Parkers own website.

You can read the full article HERE

I do not plan on going into some huge anti Rick Warren rant here (only a small one... ha ha), but I do think it bears mentioning that a few days ago I watched a news report in which he was compared to Billy Graham. And as much as Billy Graham has disappointed me due to some silly comments he has made in the last couple of years, I will generously attribute these to the decline of his mental capacities brought on by old age; and despite those comments, I still do not think Rick Warren is worth mentioning in the same sentence as Billy Graham, unless it is to say something like "Rick Warren is nothing like Billy Graham." :)

Indeed, after reading "The Purpose Driven Life" and "The Purpose Drive Church" it truly dawned on me how lacking in discernment too many Christians really are. As you know, most churches fell head over heels in love with his message, singing the praises of Warren and wanting to be just like him...and I still don't understand completely why! But, I have promised to keep this rant short, so I'll leave it at that and maybe at a later time pick it up again, who knows, right?

Back to Ms. Parker and her article!

In her article, which I hope you will all read, Parker says the following about the event held at Saddleback:

"For whatever good intentions Pastor Warren may have, by posturing as a neutral broker between different points of view, many of which have profound moral and religious implications, he contributes to the moral ambiguity we'd expect a pastor to be combating."

In other words, despite asking tough questions of both candidates, Warren does a disservice to the church by allowing candidates of both parties to speak, especially when one of the candidates holds opinions that, no matter how much he protests that he too is a Christian, are contrary to what Scripture teaches. Now, before someone accuses me of wanting only Republicans to come speak at churches, I will state plainly and without any reservation that I don't think ANY politician should be given the floor within a church and allowed to speak about his/her political stances. If a politician comes to a church and addresses the congregation, it had better be in the form of a sermon and not about politics! The pulpit belongs to those who will carry out that highest of callings, to preach the Word. Not to those who are running for office and want to give their political speech. For Warren to permit his pulpit to be used in this is, therefore, distressing to me because it is indicative of his lack of appreciation for the supremacy of preaching. And as Parker so truly says, moral ambiguity is the last thing we want from our preachers. Warren, by turning over his pulpit to representatives of the political parties, allowed his people to be exposed to this ambiguity...what a sad affair.

Later on we read this:

"When a pastor hosts a political candidate that has a 100 percent rating by NARAL Pro-Choice America and a 0 percent rating by the National Right to Life Committee, he gives legitimacy to that candidate. When legitimacy is given to a line of reasoning that says that poverty and AIDS are symptoms of anything other than moral breakdown, the relativist views of the left are justified...[a]nyone that thinks this ambiguity is helpful in addressing poverty, crime and disease is misinformed."

Wow.

If Ms. Parker can see this so clearly, why can't a man who is supposed to be shepherding the flock of the Lord? Why is he so eager to engage in world wide PEACE initiatives instead of fulfilling His calling? God forbid that it be selfish ambition and the desire to be thought of positively by the world!

But you understand, don't you, that it is indeed disturbing that a man such as the candidate descibed by Ms. Parker in the quote above could enter a church and be given the right to speak? Such a one, if he claims to be a Believer, needs to be chastised, NOT allowed to speak before the congregation. Anyone who wishes to hear him speak has countless opportunities to do so in a secular setting, why profane the place where we meet to worship our holy God?

Finally, Ms. Parker concludes her article with the following statement:

"We need political leaders that are more moral. Not church leaders that are more political."

Did you catch that? Go back and read it again if you did not!

To Rick Warren and to all of his acolytes throughout the world...I implore you, preach the Word and feed the flock. Devote yourselves to this and leave the world of political debates to the secular arena...use your churches instead to call upon the nation to repent and to turn to the Lord as the only solution to all the problems of the world.