Pastor Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church appeared recently on Fox News with Sean Hannity, the conservative firebrand commentator, and this is what happened.
Last night, on Fox News, Sean Hannity insisted that United States needs to "take out" Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Warren said he agreed. Hannity asked, "Am I advocating something dark, evil or something righteous?" Warren responded, "Well, actually, the Bible says that evil cannot be negotiated with. It has to just be stopped.... In fact, that is the legitimate role of government. The Bible says that God puts government on earth to punish evildoers. Not good-doers. Evildoers."
This is very troubling. No, this is crazy. Romans 13, to which Pastor Warren is clearly referring, is where apostle Paul refers to the role of civil government in punishing criminals and to the legitimate role of government in society in maintaining law and order. To stretch this narrow passage to condone war-like acts of political assassination across national borders is not only bad exegesis, but hardly within the bounds of a pastor's role, even one as famous as Warren. It reminds me of Billy Graham's past mistakes in getting too close to Presidents and ending up saying things he regretted and apologized for.
I was also troubled by Warren's role in the election in getting Obama and McCain to come to his church and answer his questions, as if he represented the majority of American Christians (he doesn't). His questions (and the audience present) represented the minority of Christians in the evangelical wing of the American Protestant church. Perhaps Obama and McCain should have appeared before the Catholic Bishops or the General Conference of the United Methodist Church. It makes as much sense, which is not much.
I think Rick Warren should stick to his good work on the 'purpose-driven church' and easing the suffering of AIDS victims around the world. All this fame and media publicity is going to his head. And if he insists on commenting on foreign and economic policy (such as I do in this blog), then he should make sure he lets everyone know he's not doing it in his official capacity as a pastor and church leader, but that its just his personal opinion and political view, and not God's will as revealed in Scripture.
I have to agree completely with your post. Warren should be more responsible with his comments given his popularity and high visibility in the Christian community. There are just so many things wrong with his comment that I don't even know where to begin. I felt the same way over his role in the political debates that you mentioned. It was just so inappropriate on a multiplicity of levels.
ReplyDeleteSeveral questions that comes to mind here, however, is when did righteousness become enslaved to Western Evangelical ideology? When did it become appropriate for Christianity to support state sanctioned assassinations? I think I will just stop here before I get stuck on my sanctimonious soap box indefinitely.
On a personal note, I enjoy reading your blog. Keep it up!