The web this week has been full of remarks, most of them less than complimentary, about Pastor Rick Warren's invitation to the upcoming inaugurals. Most of the noise is coming from people who have axes to grind with his runaway Purpose Driven Life. What impresses me is that Warren is up front saying, "Barack, you're wrong about this," while the Evangelical pastors sought out by Obama's Liberal predecessor came away from the encounter, from all I heard or read, like a school girl in the first flush of teen infatuation.
Some folks say there's not enough of the Gospel that gets across Warren's pulpit, or even into his books. That may well be. I have not been to Saddleback, and have only read one of his books, but what we all need to recognise is that there is a lot more Gospel than gets across much of any of our pulpits, largely because there's so much to that Message; and the doing of the Gospel is what makes it worthwhile that the preaching happened in the first place. We're hard pressed to find a preacher who put 100% on both sides of that scale, at least this side of John Wesley, but, Rick, as long as you're stuck on doing all the good you can for all the folks you can any way you can for a long as you can, brother, you got my vote. God bless ya!
Hi Robert,
ReplyDeleteI just tagged you.
Personally, I was surprised that Barack Obama chose Rick for this. I figured that he'd go out for a leftie, like KJS or Vickie Gene...
ReplyDeleteUsually, people like Warren--especially after Proposition 8--are anathema to left-wing people. I think there's a message that Obama's sending out here and most people miss it.
Back in October I did a piece on William Ayers where I said that there were two choices as to the ideological bent of an Obama presidency. One of them was as follows:
"The first is that he hasn’t been influenced by them (radicals) at all, that his character is such that he just uses people without them making an impact on him. That goes to the “sociopath/anthropologist” charge that I mentioned in my piece There’s a Reason Obama Didn’t Plege the Flag, and if that’s the case then there’s no telling how many people he’ll throw under the bus if he’s President. That would make an Obama presidency a game of Russian roulette: no one will know who gets shot next."
Evidently this is it, coupled with his selection of largely "mainstream" cabinet and other posts. I also think that he's sending a message to the LBGT community that he's not going to be beholden to them or anyone else. And that's a powerful statement.
As far as Warren's theological weight is concerned, that reminds me of discussions of another pulpit lightweight, Joel Osteen. Lakewood Church, however, has an elaborate system of small groups (to say nothing of a well organised altar ministry) to disciple its members in the background. What you see on TV is just the storefront. Perhaps this is the case with Warren as well.
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ReplyDeleteI hope Warren can positively affect Obama in his thoughts on religious and moral issues, even though Warren is not someone I would primarily read or cite. I hope the effect on Obama will be a reconsideration of policy.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas,
Russ (The Michelin Man, see photos)
Thanks for stopping by, Don! Trying to keep my head around a paper on Karl Jaspers, Modern Evangelicalism, and the post-modern connection between them. Due tomorrow, and I'm starting to white-eye!
ReplyDeleteRuss, one thing that endears Warren to me is his enemies. I have heard hyperbaptists say that for a foreign national to continue in paganism-related drunkeness and idolatry after "getting saved" is entirely a cultural issue, and then blast RW for being "unbiblical." If he's crossing their Bible, that might even be a good thing!