| | I never really got into the whole "Purpose Driven Life" thing. A friend
of mine bought it for me a few years ago, and I was pretty surprised by
how simplistic it was. Simplistic sells books, though, and now a lot
more people are reading Rick Warren than, say, R.C. Sproul (I bet you
don't even know who that is.).
I know Warren's done some kind of
controversial things lately, like inviting Hillary Clinton to speak at
his church's AIDS conference. Something that kind of slipped under the
radar, though, caught my eye on the Internet yesterday. An ariticle on
the Christianity Today Web
site yesterday detailed how Warren had given an address at the Union
for Reform Judaism's biennial convention in San Diego. Apparently, the
thrust of the presentation was about recruitment and retention of
people to the group's religious communities. The complete article is
linked below.
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/rick.warren.counsels.jews.on.recruiting.congregants/15651.htm
I
was compelled to investigate this group a little further after reading
the article, which detailed Warren handing out such inspired bits of
wisdom as "Just be nice to people. Smile." I went first to the group's
official Web site (www.urj.org). As I sort of suspected, there's no
mention of Jesus on the site anywhere, which answered my question about
whether the URJ consisted of Messianic Jews. As I delved a little
deeper, I ended up at a site about reformed judaism at www.rj.org. As I
scrolled down this page, I was struck by the following statement:
"Reform
Jews are also committed to the full participation of gays and lesbians
in synagogue life as well as society at large."
Wow. Let's read that again, shall we?
"Reform
Jews are also committed to the full participation of gays and lesbians
in synagogue life as well as society at large."
So, first of
all, we've got one of Christianity's most revered authors and public
figures at a function for a group that does not preach the deity of
Jesus - not just attending, but speaking on how this group can increase
its numbers. Maybe Warren can start renting himself out to radical
Muslim groups next. "You might want to lay off talk about jihad for the
first few meetings. That could scare people away."
Secondly,
we've got a group that not only has no problem with the issue of
homosexuality, but also endorses the participation of those who are in
its services. If I'm not mistaken, homosexuality was probably one of
the big factors that was discussed at Warren's AIDS conference. I'm
curious to know his personal stance on the issue, as I've never heard
him say anything about it.
I just can't wrap my head around
this. You claim to believe one way, then you go and give tips on growth
to a group that does not represent those beliefs? Doesn't this
undermine what you're saying, since if you're encouraging growth in
another organization, you're taking away from your own? What kind of
bizarro reasoning is this?
I also wondered if Warren's church
knows who he's going out and speaking to. Actually, if the church is
like I think it might be, they probably do, but he just doesn't care if
they like it or not. Oh, wait, that wouldn't facilitate growth very
well, now would it? |
| | Posted 12/19/2007 2:30 PM - 53 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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