What Are They Thinking?!!!!

Among conservative, Biblically conscious, historic/orthodox Christians, there has always been concern about certain leaders and movements within broader evangelicalism. Those concerns for me have moved out of the category of “scary”, “divisive”, “potentially dangerous”, “simply a different vantage point”, etc. to an all out “deal-breaker” if you will. For years there has been growing chatter about the unbiblical nature of The Seeker Movement, and most recently, the Emerging Church Movement. For me however, it is time for the chatter to end over the experiential and pragmatically minded evangelical leaders of our day, and for all out calls of repentance (meaning confession and change) to begin, if these people are to be considered fellow Christians at all. You may be asking “why?” and “who?” are you talking about. My purpose in utilizing this blog is not to be nasty, but necessary, and I believe it is time to be very necessary.

Two recent “scandals” have captured my imagination, and fueled my “O.T. Prophet” zeal. The first is an article from the San Francisco Chronicle from Thursday, May 10th, 2007. The headline reads, “DNC Chair Dean says party needs to invite young evangelical Christians”. This may sound to you like typical political rhetoric, but it extends far beyond that. The Democratic Party was outraged by (and jealous of) the “Christian Right-Wing” movement that elected Republicans in the 2004 campaign. They realized that in order to become the party of power again they would have to swing evangelicals to their side once again. No doubt that there has been much talk in the DNC war-rooms and think tanks over how to tap into this vast resource of motivated voters.

ENTER RICK WARREN and JOEL OSTEEN

For years the Seeker Movement/Churches have prided themselves on a philosophy of postmodernism that wants to avoid offending people at all costs, kind of an “evangelical tolerance movement” you could say. At the same time, the DNC (Democratic National Committee) has been inundated by those with the secular version of the same philosophy. Words like, “inclusivism”, “tolerance”, and “acceptance” have meant big business and even bigger contributions. Since 2004 the proverbial light went off for the DNC or should I say the Seeker/Emergent Church leaders, or…???? And just like that, the lines are blurred. Who is emulating whom? Has the DNC become like the modern church, or has the modern church become like the DNC? No one really knows for sure, but DNC president and 2004 Democratic candidate Howard Dean has seized the opportunity to marry the two together. In the Chronicle Article dated May 10th, Dean is quoted as saying,

“We ought to reach out to those folks (evangelical Christians)”

And so they did! So much so that in the 2006 mid-terms, 30% of professing evangelical Christians voted democrat. Dean then went on to say about the rise in re-claiming almost one- third of evangelical voters,

“We went out and advertised on Christian broadcast networks…because in the evangelical movement, young people are changing America—and they’re changing the evangelical movement. People don’t want to go to church anymore…and come out feeling bad because they happen to know somebody who’s gay. People want to go to church because they know what they can do about poverty, about Darfur, about the environment.”

The article then cites Dean’s specific credits of “Christian leaders” Rick Warren and Joel Osteen for bringing about this change for the DNC.

One who is Biblically-minded must ask themselves the question, “What are they thinking!!!!!!?” In a party where the new morality is no morality, the new life is to end life, and the rule of law is to have no law (or at best a personal law), where does a Christian fit into that agenda? The answer is no where!!!! And yet arguably, the two most influential evangelical leaders of our day (Warren and Osteen) are credited with aiding this agenda because they have traded the older, and out of fashion, Biblical ministry in for the newer, sleeker, and more acceptable model of social activism, which is the mantra of the DNC. Don’t misunderstand, what is going on in Darfur is a tragedy, people dying of AIDS is pathetic, starving children are heart-breaking, but the greatest sorrow is the abandonment of the God and Truth that can change many, if not all, of these things. That my friend, is exactly what people like Warren and Osteen are doing, they are selling out the Bible for a message that sells and promotes themselves, and in so doing aiding an immoral agenda of an immoral political party. (Just a note: Many Republicans are not much better. My purpose here is not political, but Biblical). A Mega-Church must have people to pay for and operate its enormous facilities and programs, and if the people be offended and migrate elsewhere, who will foot the bill? Biblical preaching and godly living are not the goals, business practices that produce results are. Tragically this philosophy has at last “married” the Seeker/Emerging Church movements and their man-centered view of God, with a secular political agenda determined to destroy God.

Aside from dalliance in the political quagmire, Rick Warren has also implicated himself in the moral quagmire of pornography. While Rick Warren certainly would not recommend indulging one’s self in the filth of pornography, he has nonetheless become the defacto beneficiary of one of the world’s largest pornographic industries.

ENTER RUPERT MURDOCH

Rupert Murdoch is arguably the largest media mogul in the world, running a media kingdom that covers everything from print to film to television to internet. Woven into his carefully diversified scheme of media ownership is a web of pornographic endeavors. His DirecTV holdings brought in $200 million alone through pornographic pay per-view options under the satellite television company according to the New York Times in 2000. While his business endeavors are reprehensible, his membership at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Community Church is unthinkable. How can a pastor knowingly accept a man into his fellowship who is producing such vile things as the sexual exploitation of women and men. The Biblical mandate to any pastor who finds an unrepentant man such as Murdoch in his church is to discipline him. However, Warren has done the opposite, accepting a $2 Million gift from Murdoch for his P.E.A.C.E. plan in Africa, and reaping record profits for his books through Zondervan Publishing, also owned by Murdoch.

When interviewed by the Orange County Register on November 12, 2006, about the ties between he and Murdoch, Warren responded,

“I don’t have to agree with 100 percent of what another person does in order to work with them on the 20 percent that we do agree on.”

What? We’re not talking about agreeing on which baseball team to root for here, or whether Ford is superior to Chevy, we’re talking about something that the Scripture explicitly calls wicked and demands that Christians remove from their midst! This is no matter of minutia that can be glibly overlooked!

Again, for any mind that has the faintest glimmer of discernment, we must say, “what are they thinking?” The answer is a resounding , “not Biblically”. In a post-Christian world it is increasingly imperative that we think and act Biblically. This will produce a life that may not be popular, but it will testify to the reality of the change that has been made in us through the Gospel.

In closing, let me leave you with the words of the New Testament writer James,

James 4:4
“You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”