Purpose Driven Choices

I think it is great that Barack Obama has chosen Rick Warren to pray at the inauguration. At this point Obama is demonstrating a desire to be inclusive. Some are unsure of his motives, but it is clear to me that he believes the mileage he gets out of this with Christians is worth it. Call this a "purpose driven choice." But the backlash of this choice also points out the beginings of a major movement among liberals.

Rick Warren is unapologetic about his views on homosexuality. His support for Proposition 8 in California has made this choice hugely unpopular to the gay rights community. He also did not back off in a public moment when he was asked by a prominent Jewish person if she was headed to heaven. His clear statements on the fact that Mormonism is a cult has scored no points with them.

It can be said that Rick Warren has no unpublished thought. With book sales topping 40 million there will be plenty of opportunity for critics to find one-liners and phrases to use against him. But there is more at stake by critics of Obama’s choice.

In an article critical of Rick Warren in Slate by Christopher Hitchens, you get a feel for how basic Christianity is being marginalized. Hitchens calls Warren a vulgar huckster. About Warren he states:

. . . if someone publicly charges that "Mormonism is a cult," it is impossible to say that the claim by itself is mistaken or untrue. However, if the speaker says that heaven is a real place but that you will not get there if you are Jewish, or that Mormonism is a cult and a false religion but that other churches and faiths are the genuine article, then you know that the bigot has spoken.

Do you get it? Warren may be accurately reflecting Christian doctrine. But if that doctrine is bigotry then it is beneath the new enlightened standards of the true Americans now in power. And if Warren needs to be held accountable for bigotry and discrimination then certainly the rest of us do too. There is no question that the liberal church, the one that doesn’t exclude people of different beliefs, is growing as it lines up with the standards of the political left. To them, it doesn’t make sense that God would make a narrow way. It should be a wide way. It should have no restrictive standards regarding peoples morals, beliefs, or sexual orientation. We know that Muslims need to ignore some hateful verses in their Koran. Fundamental Christians need to do the same with our Bible.

We are being marginalized. It is happening faster than we realize.