Rick Warren: The bullseye du jour

Look up lightning rod on Wikipedia (what's an encyclopedia?), and you'll see Rick Warren's picture.

That role has been magnified with Barack Obama's selection of the Saddleback pastor as his inaugural invocator. The bolts are a-flying from the right and the left.

Some on the right see him as the great compromiser, and with regard to the Gospel, that's not a good thing. They see Warren's willingness to pray on behalf of the left-of-liberal president-elect as turning a blind eye or even a condoning of Obama's unbiblical positions on most issues. Betrayal. Compromiser!

The left's none to happy either. Homosexuals and others in favor of sexual aberrance cry out like the Wicked Witch of the West freshly splashed with water. Pro-aborts? No happier. How could the One choose a hate-monger and a bigot, one opposed to women's rights, to ask God's blessing next month at so momentous an occasion? (I hope the lunacy of such a question makes your brain loop-the-loop, too).

My take on the situation? Obama continues to show his political savvy. Within the political process, what's an invocation? What harm will it do? The serpent has pitched a bone to the Religious Right. It affects no law, promises no policy. Count on this: after this momentary appeasement to biblical conservatives, policies and laws that mirror what Obama has favored his entire political life will follow quickly. The morally bankrupt feathers are temporarily ruffled. Soon they'll be turning cartwheels.

Rick Warren? He's never equivocated on positions moral. Pro-life. Pro-marriage. Abortion and sexual misconduct are both sin. He's never wavered on grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone. So what gives? By giving Obama an AIDS platform, the body heard first hand the not-quite-right rhetoric of a man pleaser. By offering his church for a political debate, he let the world see that the church has a place in the political arena, and he again, exposed the fact that moral questions were above the future president's paygrade. By praying for the president, he does what we are all called to do (1 Timothy 2:1-3). I don't know that I'd have had the grace to say yes to such an invitation.

Let me back up to his indictment as a bigot, as one who equates incest with homosexuality (here ... this is one of many columns skewering Warren; perhaps the most polite). Last night on the O'Reilly Factor, Juan Williams subbed for Mr. O. Juan Williams sits some where to the left of O'Reilly on the political bench. He was grilling Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of 1st Baptist Church, Dallas about how Warren can state that he loves homosexuals and wants what's best for them when he stands opposed homosexual marriage, homosexual adoption, etc.

Jeffress handled himself reasonably well, but a light came on in my mind. On the left, identity is defined by how you have sex. Therefore, if you define a sexual practice as deviant, aberrant or (gasp) sinful, the left believes you have so identified the person as a deviant, aberrant, or (gasp) a sinner.

Well, the Bible agrees with that assessment (here) ...but the Bible does not stop there. All humanity bears the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27, 9:6), something inherent within the man making him of infinite worth. It doesn't depend upon his sexual preference nor upon whether one likes anchovies on one's pizza. Saint and sinner, young and old, NBA or NHL, red-state/blue-state, Jew and Gentile, all are created in the image of God.

That's why Rick Warren can love those who are homosexual. That's why Rick Warren is not a bigot. He indicts an act of sin. He indicts acting upon sinful lust. And yes, it ought to be equated with incest and even worse. And sadly, those who practice such, those who unrepentantly live the lifestyle, shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

A human being is not defined by what he does in bed. It goes so much deeper.

Praise God for the courage of Rick Warren...on a number of fronts. Let's hope he prays in Jesus' name and that his doctrine doesn't turn to much.

(A couple of other articles on Warren and the Inauguration here and here).