This is Not Christ
Kay Warren, Rick Warren’s wife, is a giant in the effort to show help and compassion to the sufferers of AIDS in Africa, and in particular the orphans of AIDS victims some who have the disease. I urge you to read this article which gives some of her speech. Of course many of us have substantive disagreements with Rick Warren on a number of levels, but this issue is not one of them. On one of the discernment blogs, CRN, they referenced this speech by Mrs. Warren. At the end of their selected quote they used that opportunity to take a sarcastic swipe at Rick Warren. This is not Christ.
Brothers and sisters, we must not take every opportunity to make our points, especially presented in sarcasm and on the backs of the AIDS orphan’s issue. Mrs. Warren was sharing her heart and challenging others as well. What would legitimize this as a place to use this as another opportunity for sarcasm and theological points? Are we all so saturated with outward and inward expressions of compassion around the world that we feel justified in standing upon our unassailable humanitarian soapbox and malign even a call for compassion? It is unseemly and repugnant and in my view relegates someone’s ministry as flawed regardless of how doctrinally sound they are. And Mrs. Warren gladly attached her name to her speech while the article at CRN was anonymous. Typical.
One can be doctrinally sound in their systematical theology and yet be a heretic in their methodology and tone. Self righteousness is heresy in its truest form and all who build upon that foundation are sounding brass and tinkling cymbals whose theological houses are structurally unsound regardless of how many "solas" one seems to profess. We neither weep for suffering AIDS orphans or their parent’s souls; we neither weep for people in bondage to the gay lifestyle or their parent’s heavy hearts; we neither weep for deceived preachers or the people who follow their deception; but let someone like Kay Warren make an impassioned plea on behalf of the colossal tragedy in Africa and it becomes a heartless platform for another verbal missile at her husband while conveniently ignoring the issue she referenced entirely.
Here is a quote from her speech:
‘How many times can you pursue the American dream before you find it’s hollow? Ladies, how many pairs of shoes can you own? Gentlemen, how many gidgety gadgety things can you own before you reach a point where it just doesn’t satisfy your soul? Why not choose to be ruined for something of eternal value?’
It’s a shame preachers don’t say something like that once in a while. Let us not always ride the stallion of doctrinal sentry duty, let us sometimes climb down from our great steeds and humbly acknowledge in love when someone with whom we disagree says something of value. Thank you, Mrs. Warren, we needed that…
Posts
