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Showing posts with label Rick Warren. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rick Warren. Show all posts

Saturday, January 24, 2009

More 'Change' Than They Ever Dreamed

Apparently, Americans are beginning to wake up from their drunken stupor--a stupor induced by Obama's seductive magic--to realize they have just made one big colossal mistake.

Many within the Christian community in particular are being brought to the stark realization that they are getting much more 'change' than they ever dreamed was possible, and that change is the type that is increasingly disgusting.

Lured into a state of idol worship, false euphoria, and unfounded 'hope,' many of these thought that Obama might represent a good change for the country, in spite of dire warnings by patriots, conservatives, bloggers, ministers, and others.

They saw Christian leaders such as Rick Warren of the Saddleback Community Church in California appear to embrace the Obama mystique and jump on the bandwagon.

Whether or not this is actually true is not an issue. Warren gave the appearance of endorsing Obama.

And thus, many Christians felt they could in good conscience support such a man for President.

But now that we have seen with our own eyes what many of us warned about prior to the election, Americans are beginning to wake up to reality. Obama is not what they thought. Far from it.

In one week alone he has proved to be the most rabid proponent and exporter of abortion on demand overseas...by executive order. He has snubbed Israel by calling the Palestinian leader Abbas as his first official foreign contact as President, in order to tell him that the U.S. would now 'support Palestinian goals.' With the stroke of a pen he has ordered the closing of Gitmo prison where hundreds of the most dangerous persons in the entire world are held. These persons will be brought to the U.S. mainland, to be housed in our prison system, placed within our court system, and provided legal representation all at taxpayer expense.

And this is just within 4 days.

CNS News provides a stunning look at how perhaps the American people are beginning to realize what a terrible mistake they have made in placing Obama in office.

This is excellent. Self-examination and reflection in the aftermath of bad decisions are a good thing. Perhaps citizens will take a serious personal inventory of their lives, determine how and why such a glaring error of judgment was made, and take steps to prevent such a fiasco from happening again in the future.

I know this may be expecting too much in this day and age, but we can hope.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Rick Warren Will Give Invocation at Obama Inaugural

At the ceremony for the swearing in of the most extremist pro-abortion President in U.S. history, pro-life evangelical Pastor Rick Warren will deliver the invocation.

We are not surprised.

On numerous occasions over the past few years The Liberty Sphere has taken Warren to task for his penchant for cozying up to politicians who have the least in common with Christian conservatives, such as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Both have spoken at Warren's church in California.

As a conservative Christian, I have made no bones about my views on Rick Warren. I think he is headed down the wrong path, and I believe that he is making ungodly alliances with wolves who stand against everything Christianity holds sacrosanct.

In fact, Warren is due at least some of the blame for the fact that some evangelical Christians felt free to vote for Obama in spite of his blatant anti-Christian views on a number of issues. Warren gave Obama a rather large platform from which to work his magical charms, even on some of the faithful.

I am therefore not a bit surprised that Warren is going to stand on the inaugural platform with Obama and symbolically lend his blessing to someone who is no friend of traditional Christianity.

Furthermore, the suggestion of the reporter in the news story cited above that Obama and evangelical Christians share a common view on social issues is pure, unadulterated balderdash.

Traditional Christians have NEVER believed that it is the place of government to do what Jesus commanded INDIVIDUALS to do OF THEIR OWN FREE WILL.

In fact, I would call on Warren to repent of this travesty lest he veer so far off the path as to become another Lot who makes his bed in Sodom.

Monday, August 18, 2008

McCain Played Well At Saddleback

The results of the political forum at Rick Warren's Saddleback Community Church are in, and according to most pundits and observers John McCain played very well to this crowd made up largely of Christian evangelicals.

On the hand hand, Barack Obama did himself no favors.

Despite the notion of Rick Warren and some within the evangelical movement that a Presidential candidate can waffle on issues such as abortion and when human life begins, the crowd that attended the forum Saturday night demonstrated that these things still matter to conservative Protestant Christians.

When asked when life beings, Obama claimed that the question is 'above his pay grade.'

That statement is simply not good enough, and most serious Christians know it.

McCain, on the other hand, answered by saying, simply, 'At the moment of conception.'

His answer is consistent with his long career in the Senate, during which McCain has demonstrated that he is as pro-life and anti-abortion as any politician in Washington.

Obama, by contrast, has proved in his short career as a state legislator in Illinois and a one-term U.S. Senator that he is one of the most extremist, militant, abortion-on-demand politicians in the country.

Further, Obama continued with his bash-America-first campaign by suggesting that the greatest mistake he ever made was living in a nation that he obviously thinks has been despicable in its policies.

In short, he never admitted to ever making a personal mistake but made some vague reference to America's failures as a nation.

McCain, however, openly admitted the failure of his first marriage and took full responsibility for it. This, he said, was his biggest mistake. With that one statement, McCain has disarmed those who would lump him in with the likes of John Edwards.

The difference between Edwards and McCain is that Edwards was unfaithful to his wife while she was sick with cancer and while he was pretending to be the 'a man of family values.' This is not to mention his numerous lies that he continues to tell about the matter even after he supposedly 'came clean.' McCain has no such baggage other than his first marriage failed, he made the mistake of having an affair as a result, and he takes full responsibility for this 'biggest mistake he ever made.'

As for the faith perspective of the two, McCain stated that he believes in Jesus Christ and is saved by His grace. Obama makes a similar claim, yet he maintained membership in a far-Left, extremist Church, in a far-Left, extremist denomination, the Pastor of which stated from the pulpit, 'God damn America.'

During the forum, McCain appeared comfortable and answered the questions in a logical, coherent fashion, while Obama's answers seemed forced, sometimes obscure, and certainly disjointed.

In fact, one political pundit has already described the Obama performance as 'a colossal failure.'

As a postscript, it is interesting to note that the candidates answered questions about oil during the forum. McCain stated forthrightly that he is for 'drill here, drill now,' in addition to developing various forms of alternative energy. This is one of the strongest statements yet from McCain concerning where his allegiance lies in the vitally important debate on the nation's energy needs.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

The Rick Warren Forum with McCain and Obama

The Saddleback Community Church in Lake Forest, California held a political forum Saturday evening. This is nothing new for the mega-church founded by nationally-known Pastor Rick Warren.

Warren often delves into politics while claiming neutrality on the matter. Yet when it comes to his much-publicized forums at the Church, he has consistently invited speakers that are clearly Leftwing in their politics while virtually ignoring conservative political leaders.

For example, Warren invited Hillary Clinton to speak at an annual forum at the Church in 2006 and followed up with Barack Obama at the same forum in 2007.

Where are the speakers with a clear conservative Christian point of view?

On Saturday evening, Warren held a so-called 'civil forum' in which he acted as a moderator by posing questions to guests John McCain and Barack Obama, the two Presidential candidates.

But Warren received help and guidance in formulating those questions from the Leftwing group known as 'Faith in Public Life.' This group is loaded to the gills with extremist liberals.

And that's not all.

Warren's position on international affairs is clearly anti-Israel yet flies under the veneer of being an 'opportunity for dialogue between religions.'

While he claims he is simply following Jesus' command of showing compassion to the poor, Warren consistently supports government programs funded through tax dollars rather than emphasizing the simple Gospel message that each individual Christian is charged with the responsibility of caring for the poor individually and by personal choice.

This is a far cry from forced participation in government programs through taxation.

Nowhere in the Christian Gospel does Jesus anoint governments to be the instruments of service to the poor. But individual Christians both personally and collectively through their Churches are certainly admonished to do so. Service to the needy is a matter of individual initiative rather than government mandate.

As Dr. Walter E. Williams of George Mason University often says, 'For me to reach inside my pocket voluntarily to help the poor is a noble and worthy gesture. But for government to reach inside my pocket and take my money to do so is stealing and should be punished by law.'

Make no mistake, Rick Warren has an agenda, and it certainly isn't the standard evangelical model based upon the New Testament.

Although he is often referred to as 'the most powerful evangelical leader in America today,' Warren's vision has inflicted a dangerous, festering wound upon the Christian evangelical movement that has split the Church as never before.

At one time evangelicals were clear about certain things--abortion is wrong and politicians who support it are wrong; liberty does not mean we must place a muzzle on Christians in the marketplace, in the government, and in the schools in order to avoid 'offending' someone; as Christ has made us free so should we work for the freedom of all people, particularly from the shackles of oppressive governments--even our own; if lying is wrong then there is no adequate, moral defense of a politician who lies; if stealing is wrong then there is no justification for government doing it through the confiscation of personal property and funds from the citizens; and on and on I could go listing the basic convictions of the evangelical movement when it comes to politics.

Due to the fuzzy and vague views of leaders such as Warren, evangelicals have begun to exhibit
some shocking waffling on issues that were previously viewed as settled matters.

Rick Warren has not given the views of traditional Christianity and its concomitant conservative political agenda an adequate hearing at the Saddleback Community Church. And this is precisely why many Christians view him and his Church will great skepticism and suspicion.

For more information on this issue, click on the links below:
Gateway Pundit
Fox News
CNN
The Liberty Sphere--previous post 1
The Liberty Sphere--previous post 2
The Liberty Sphere--previous post 3

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Hillary Gets Standing Ovation at Evangelical Church

Hillary Rodham Clinton went to a major evangelical church on the west coast this week to deliver a speech, and received a standing ovation.

When one considers the church and its Pastor, it is easy to see why the candidate would receive such an overwhelming welcome.

Saddleback Community Church is not your normal evangelical church. In fact, you would never know it is a church at all except for the name. Visitors are treated to jazz and rock music upon entering the facility, which can hardly be called a 'sanctuary.' The minister has been known to deliver his 'talks' in shorts and a tee-shirt, or his signature wild-Hawaiian shirts.

The minister in question is Rick Warren, author of the best-selling book, The Purpose-Driven Life.

Warren is the founder of the Saddleback Church, which he claims is purely an evangelical enterprise that seeks to win over the non-church crowd in California. An ordained Southern Baptist minister who graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and who claims that Fundamentalist icon W.A. Criswell, long-time Pastor of the megachurch, First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, is his spiritual hero, Warren has nonetheless discarded most of the accoutrements of the evangelical Christian culture that Southwestern and Criswell held so dear. Warren claims his only goal is to reach people who are turned off by church.

And, to that end, he has been quite successful. The church is now one of the largest in the world. And most of the 'congregants' never cared much for the churchy stuff of which American evangelical Christianity is made.

Hence, everything is informal. There are dance routines, musical groups that sing the popular music one might hear on the radio, and there are no 'sermons' but talks that are geared toward the interests of the non-church suburbanites in California.

The controversy of the church does not stop with its methods, however. For the past two years Warren has made the controversial decision to invite two of the most liberal icons in American politics to speak at his annual AIDS conference.

Last year the special guest was Barack Obama. This year it was Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Warren's hero, W.A. Criswell, surely must be turning over in his grave. Criswell was an unabashed political conservative who made no secret of supporting Barry Goldwater, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan. He was also known to deliver a zinger or two aimed at liberals in his sermons if he felt they had betrayed not only the Christian faith but the ideals of the Founders of the Republic.

Warren, on the other hand, embraces these liberals, and his congregants love it, as the standing ovations exhibit.

It is not clear as to Warren's true motives, his rhetoric notwithstanding. This is an election year, and we are in the middle of a campaign. To invite Clinton to speak at this particular time has a symbolic endorsement written all over it.

In case you are wondering, I have no use for the Rick Warren methodology. The fact that he tends to wrap himself in liberal politics only further raises my suspicions as to just how 'evangelical' he and his congregation actually are.

When I go to church, I want to feel like I have been to church and not to a bar. Yes, I have tried out these so-called 'seeker-friendly' type churches that are modeled after Warren's Saddleback experiment. I departed the building thinking that the only thing lacking in the experience were the drinks and the cocktail waitresses.

Spare me the informalities, the jazz music, and the 'hip-pop' culture. I can get that at the bar.

Oh, and if I had been in attendance at Warren's Hillary-fest, I would have stood up and booed at the end.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Senator Barack Obama Says Troops' Lives 'Wasted'

Washington, DC (TLS). No matter how hard Liberals try to run from their record, their true feelings, their real agenda, and their genuine thoughts about issues, they always seem to find a way to show us what they really are by their 'slips of the tongue.' With John Kerry it was the now infamous faux pas where he suggested that soldiers are dumb. And now, with Senator Barack Hussein Obama, D-Ill., it is stating that the lives of those soldiers who went to Iraq and died were 'wasted.'

Thus, the truth has a way of coming out sooner or later. Obama believes that men and women who enlist in the military and then engage in activity that their country deems to be essential for the survival of liberty are 'wasting their lives.'

And if you die in the midst of battle, yours was a 'wasted life.'

In one simple sentence Obama has desecrated the memory of every single soldier who died on the battlefield for their country. In the world of Barack Hussein Obama, anyone who would make the decision to enter military service and risk dying for liberty is wasting their lives. I would suppose that he would prefer that they go to Harvard or Yale, learn from Leftists how evil America is, and then get a law degree.

What a complete, utter embarrassment to the United States!

Yet this man is the darling of the U.S. news media, Hollywood, and a significant portion of the Democrat Party. This is the man that the Reverend Rick Warren of the Saddleback Community Church in California says is 'definitely Presidential material.'

Sorry, Reverend, but if you would just preach the Gospel rather than sticking your nose into Leftwing politics and getting soiled in the process, then perhaps more of us would pay attention to you. As it now stands, you have lost your credibility by lending your influence and implied endorsement to a man who is a Socialist, a gun-grabber, and a proponent of expanding the powers of government to intrude into our lives.

In the article that you will read below, you will see that Senator Obama is backtracking from his statement and has issued an apology. I believe he is sincere in apologizing for the fact that what he said offended most people. But I do NOT believe for one minute that he is apologizing for his true beliefs. The fact is, he said what he did because he honestly believes that dying on the battlefield amounts to a 'wasted life.'

Not only is this man not fit for the Presidency, but The Liberty Sphere feels he is not fit for the U.S. Senate either.

Read Obama's retraction here:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/sweet/254536,CST-NWS-sweet13.article