Saddleback Pastor Rick Warren, who opposes Obama's abortion views, issued a statement: "Our goal has been to put people together who normally won't even speak to each other," the Saddleback statement said. "We do not expect all participants in the summit discussion to agree with all of our evangelical beliefs. However, the HIV/AIDS pandemic cannot be fought by evangelicals alone. It will take the cooperation of all - government, business, NGOs and the church."I like it. Obama is not preaching at Saddleback. He is not even speaking on the abortion issue. This strikes me as an excellent opportunity to make use of huge facilities such as Saddleback. The fact that they have that building is yet another debate but given that they do, I think we [the Church] ought to engage our culture and bring Christ into that.
Had the issue cited been about how this will be a worldly "love-in" without the message of hope that Christ brings to the problem of this fallen world, I would share the concern. But this is simply a "we can't have this guy because he doesn't represent all that we represent" - sorry, I can't get behind that.
Technorati Tags: abortion, current events, AIDS
5 comments:
here here. i thought the same thing when i heard that story on npr. it is a good picture of the church being in the world.
Rick & Vince,
I have to disagree with both of you. Obama is saying that millions of people dying from AIDS is a tragedy. Yet, he is perfectly OK with millions of innocent babies being massacred. I think the two issues are closely related. You don't ask Hitler to speak at a forum against genocide. We are not talking about someone who disagrees with our eschatology or some other unclear doctrine. He has been asked to speak concerning people dying needlessly, and how we all need to rally together to prevent it. How can he be a spokesman for that topic?
Randy (no blog)
It's kind of like allowing a guy that has no blog himself speak up on your blog. It doesn't feel good but you let him anyway.
I see your point and agree with it but not to the degree of your conclusion. I'd let him speak.
i was misunderstood. i wasn't talking about obama speaking. i was just talking about the fact that saddleback is hosting such an event.
i should have clarified what my "here here" was about in the first comment.
I'm not sure about Obama - maybe they could do better, maybe not. I'm just amazed how people have time to jump on the criticism bandwagon. For me, the general idea of what Saddleback is trying to do seems to be a good one.
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