It’s really interesting to see how out of context media (online or off) can take someone’s statements.  The transparency of things like Twitter, blogs, and other social media really scare me because you put yourself out there in the hopes of being honest/authentic/etc, yet someone takes a small blurb of a comment and creates hysteria from it.

It’s really too bad.

This is not a negative comment, but to be honest, I fully expected him to say at the end of this that his agenda was “making Christ known” or “spreading the Gospel”...hmmmm.  Not that those other agendas aren’t good things - I was just surprised is all.  Anyone else?

When the most prominent pastor in America can’t flatly state on national t.v. in front of millions of people that he is against gay marriage, that’s a problem. One week before a vote as morally significant as Prop. 8 and a church member has to ask him where he stands on the issue? That’s another problem. Even then, Warren didn’t go to his pulpit and deliver his answer through a sermon. Instead, he sent out a note that said marriage should be defined as a man and a woman. How tepid is that? He says that he never went to a meeting, issued a statement, or made an endorsement. Doesn’t he understand that this isn’t something to be proud of? Then he follows that up by saying, “I’m totally oblivious to the Iowa court decision.” Enough already! For the record, I have defended Rick Warren in the past. I thought The Purpose Driven Church was the greatest book I had ever read on church growth. I also read The Purpose Driven Life and took the forty-day “journey.” But now he seems to be more concerned with protecting his image and relationships with gay leaders than with playing the part of the Bible-believing preacher. Jesus warned that salt can lose its flavor. When this happens it can no longer do the job it’s supposed to do. I think that Warren’s political correctness is threatening to rob him of the Holy Spirit fueled power that comes with speaking the word of God. Rick Warren knows the Bible and knows how to communicate it wonderfully. He lowers himself when he lets politics and personal relationships get in the way of him doing that. We don’t need any more celebrities playing politics. We’ve got Hollywood and the recording industry for that. What we need is for prominent pastors such as Rick Warren to use their platforms to keep God’s word front and center to a nation that has lost its way.

Yeah Justin is right.

RW said that he is not an anti-gay, or an anti-gay marriage ACTIVIST. He is not jumping on the political activist bandwagon. It sounds as if he does not accept gay marriage as compatible with the Christian faith and still he is trying to extend the love of Christ to homosexual people. Right on Pastor Rick!

And it looks like he dyed his goatee and eyebrows a bit too dark. Must be a California thing!

Derek

I can certainly understand why a minister of the Gospel would focus on apologizing to his gay friends for a note he wrote to his church friends re. Prop. 8, and the Rhowanda problem, rather than directly answering a question regarding a Biblcal and moral issue that is raging within the U.S.  For heavens sake, why would a minister want to minimize his influence by being direct, or confronting an issue of sin?  He might be taken out of context and be made to look like he disagrees with homosexual marriage, or he could be uninvited to the White House where he might have an influence on the pro-homosexual, pro-abortion, pro-embrionic stem-cell research agenda, pro-using American taxes to pay for abortions, pro-socialist approving President, who is looking for more Muslims to fill his Cabinet.  Wow.  A direct answer on Biblical morality might be disturbing to the audience.  If every minister took Rick’s “lets not offend anyone” approach, the Apostle Paul would have never been stoned, thrown out of cities, or crucified.  He could have been a Roman advisor, or at the very least have given the invocation at the Roman Emperor’s swearing in ceremony.  I’m growing more and more fond of John McArthur; at least he’s not afraid of being Biblical, or being direct.

He is not a fence sitter; he is a fence straddler.
fishon

Russell McKinney said:

“Enough already! For the record, I have defended Rick Warren in the past. I thought The Purpose Driven Church was the greatest book I had ever read on church growth. I also read The Purpose Driven Life and took the forty-day ‘journey.’ But now he seems to be more concerned with protecting his image and relationships with gay leaders than with playing the part of the Bible-believing preacher.”

Thank God!!!  Finally, people are beginning to see that this guy is nothing more than an opportunist who long ago traded any shred of character that is developed on the straight and narrow path for the glitz and glamor of celebrity that is found all too often on the broad and wide path that leads to destruction.

Now, if a “pastor” of his so-called “magnitude” is wishy-washy, what does that say to his admiring fans?

Warren is a fraud.

To J - GREAT post

fishon - not an effective argument.  Sorry, not biting.

Russell - I agree with most everything you’ve written, and I also agree that there are certainly more reasons why homosexuals, or any sinners for that matter, are afraid to enter a church.  Where we disagree is with Warren himself, meaning that I’m not ready to say that he’s not speaking the truth boldly.  He appears to have a sharp awareness that there is a time and a place for everything, just as Jesus did.  I’ve met the man, attended a conference at Saddleback, heard him preach, I can tell you he speaks the Truth with no apologies whatsoever.  I’m just not ready to throw him to the wolves.  God knows what’s going on in his heart, we don’t...and He (God) certainly doesn’t need us to throw rocks at the guy.  Warren is not the Messiah, but he has a tremendous amount of influence.  He may not go about things the way we think he should - but I honestly don’t believe that’s for us to decide.  He’s a small cog in God’s Kingdom works, and I don’t see that there’s anything he’s said or done thusfar that would cause an unbeliever to say “Rick Warren doesn’t believe Jesus is the only way to salvation.”

Again, this is all just my own personal opinion.  Just a small glimpse into my heart - it saddens and sickens me when Christians attack one another, because I can almost see the delight the enemy takes in it.

With all this talk of pointing out sin, I find myself thinking about who convicts of sin?  Preachers or the Holy Spirit? 

Scriptural support please.

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
--Rom 10:14

It goes without saying to refer to passages such as those of John 16.  We do know that the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin--and not to minimize His work through that of preachers, but God does work through vessels.  And to think the world “knows” Christ or Christianity is a statement thrown in the wind.  America knows religion; it’s people know religion.  It can be similarly related to India and its Muslim religion.  To a great whole, it is merely part of the culture.  Except the drastic notion is, in America, it’s not the one true Christ being taught, but a counterfeit christ.  And not just a counterfeit christ, but hundreds, if not thousands of christs.  The unregenerate world creates for themselves a god in their own image to fit their own desires--thinking they know Christ, but are left to their own deceit.

It is the Holy Spirit’s work in convicting and bringing people to Christ, yes.  But when you have a person who is considered a man of God, speaks on behalf of God, is held accountable to God and His Word, that takes on a whole new precedence.  A man of God is not a person whole pleases people as Paul said in 1 Corinthians.  A man of God is one whose first priority and only priority is honoring Christ.  I don’t know enough about this Rick Warren fellow to think he is one way or the other, though I do know a collection of questionable movements he is in.  I will say this though:  one who waters down the message and is more concerned about being sensitive to the “needs” of others does not honor Christ. 

And people who “straddle the fence,” as some prior posts have mentioned, do not do justice to Christ by showing the world that they are not much different from even the spiritual leaders of churches.  They just add another side to Jesus that is easier to swallow and faster to chew--Add another Jesus to the other side of the board.  You talk about delivering a message?  Methods may change, as so does our culture, the Message stays the same.

We are not called to “make the world a better place”.  We’re called to honor and be faithful to Christ and His Word.

Good questions Kim.  I hear what you’re asking…