Anyway - I haven't found his "heresy" yet so I'll stick with liking him. But that's off topic. WorldNetDaily did a three part piece with Rick Warren that I thought was very interesting. In part one, Warren responded to critics among his fellows evangelical travelers. In part two the senior pastor – called by Newsweek one of "15 People Who Make America Great" – discussed his fame, his unconventional approach to ministry and his visit last year with Syrian leader Bashar Assad. In part three, he responds to concerns about the pitfalls of partnering with government and his massive AIDS initiative.
Todd Rhoades does a great summary of part one.
On his mistakes:
“Without a doubt, I make mistakes all the time. I always own up to mistakes that I actually do. I just won’t own up to mistakes that weren’t really a mistake.”
On him being spiritually mentored by Robert Schuller and Norman Vincent Peale:
“I’ve only met Robert Schuller twice, I believe. I’ve never had a one-on-one conversation with him. Not once. So how do I even know him?...I’ve never even read a book written by Norman Vincent Peale.”
On his preaching style:
(He recently took two and a half years to preach through the book of Romans)
“People don’t know this...They think I’m teaching on stress every week.”
On his calling:
“People don’t understand that I am fundamentally, foremost an evangelist. It’s what I care about. I don’t care about politics, I don’t care about political correctness, I don’t care about what established groups want me to do. I care about getting people into heaven.”
On why he had a founder of a homosexual rights group speak at Saddleback:
The speaker was “trying to build bridges of love to different groups of people so that Jesus Christ can walk across into their life.”
On being a pawn:
“I’m willing to put up with the misunderstanding. I’m willing to have people go, ‘Ohh, he’s such a politically naive guy.’ Or, he’s a pawn to be used.”
On his enemies:
“I’m to love my enemies. That means I’m to love people who are totally opposed to me.”
On his apology:
“I do apologize, because I apologize for anything done in the name of Christ, that Jesus would disavow. I think Jesus would have disavowed the Crusades. Because the Crusades were largely about territorial land and not even about a personal relationship with Christ.”
On the environment:
“I don’t even care about that debate so much as I care that Christians should be at the forefront of taking care of the planet. And actually, you tell me which side you want to be on, and I’ll tell you which reports to read. OK. I can show you noted scientists who tell you we are near disaster, and I can show you noted scientists you say there is no problem at all. I didn’t sign on to say, I believe all things that the radical environmentalists believe. Not at all. I just thought Christians ought to be saying, We care about the planet too.”
On blogs feeding the fire of criticism against him:
“A lot of Christians then took and read that stuff, reported it on a blog, blogs copy blogs copy blogs copy blogs. And it’s kind of like spreading a feather pillow, you can’t get all the feathers back.”
On how he responds to criticism:
“The general policy is, as much as possible, you don’t respond.”
All three articles are worth the time. I am particularly impressed with how Warren has handled his wealth - he seems to demonstrate uncommon integrity.
Again, Warren is not my hero. I'm not even sure I would recommend much of his writing to anyone. But I like the guy and I'm amazed at the level of anger, hate, etc. that is generated toward him.
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