{"id":330,"date":"2008-12-15T13:13:58","date_gmt":"2008-12-15T13:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/sick-of-rick.html"},"modified":"2008-12-15T13:13:58","modified_gmt":"2008-12-15T13:13:58","slug":"sick-of-rick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/sick-of-rick.html","title":{"rendered":"Sick of Rick"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Ok, I admit it. I have Rick Warren fatigue.  <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

It’s not that there aren’t thing to admire about the mega pastor.  He is reported to have delivered my favorite slam of prosperity gospel (“the only people getting rich from prosperity preaching are the preachers”); and he and his wife have done well to wake up evangelicals to the fact that God cares about poverty and they should do something about it (duh.).  <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

It’s just that I think he may have run his purpose. Warren’s recent interview with Beliefnet’s Steve Waldman <\/a> has a lot of juicy bits and is well worth reading<\/a>. But in the end, it leaves me more convinced than ever that America doesn’t need “a” pastor, and if it did, it wouldn’t be Warren. (Rabbi Saperstein<\/a> would be a decent choice)  The good news in this interview is that Warren is evolving as a peson of faith. But he isn’t there yet.  He first needs to learn the difference between incest and consensual same sex relations.  And have a little humility about the work of his church on AIDS (“my church has done more than any other chuch helping people with AIDS” – please! Try talking to Glide Church<\/a> in the tenderloin in San Francisco ).  Finally, as you will see in a different post of mine, Rick Warren is more of a social gospeler that he would like to admit – his shrill denial gives him away.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Here is a break up of the interview with Waldman.  Enjoy! Or not. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

Most Likely to Infuriate Liberals<\/span><\/u>:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Gay marriage is morally equivalent to allowing brothers and sisters to marry. Watch.<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He opposes torture but didn’t try to convince President Bush to change course<\/span><\/p>\n

because “I never had the opportunity.” Watch<\/span><\/b><\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A possibly veiled slap at Islam: “He could have made us all puppets. … He could<\/span><\/p>\n

have put us on strings and we’d pray five times a day and we’d have no choice.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Watch<\/span><\/b><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>“Abortion reduction” efforts are mostly a “charade.” Watch<\/span><\/b><\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

His historical argument that “social gospel” Protestantism was “just Marxism in<\/span><\/p>\n

Christian clothing” and that “the mainline [Protestants] died.” Watch<\/span><\/a>.<\/b><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Most Likely to Infuriate Conservatives:<\/span><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

He supports partnership rights for gays including insurance and visitation benefit<\/span><\/p>\n

This appears to be a similar position to that which just prompted the resignation of a<\/span><\/p>\n

top official of the National Association of Evangelicals. Watch<\/span><\/b>.<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/span>His declaration that it’s a “no brainer” that divorce is a bigger threat to the American<\/span><\/p>\n

family than gay marriage, and that Christian leaders focus on gay marriage instead<\/span><\/p>\n

because “we always love to talk about other people’s sins.” Watch<\/span><\/b>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Religious conservatives have misled people into thinking Christ’s message was<\/span><\/p>\n

primarily about conservative politics and that politics is the primary way to change<\/span><\/p>\n

culture. Watch<\/span><\/b>.<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Bush administration seems to have engaged in torture, which he condemned<\/span><\/p>\n

Watch<\/span><\/b>.<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

  <\/span><\/span><\/span>While condemning abortion as a Holocaust and abortion reduction as a “charade” he<\/span><\/p>\n

nonetheless said he would support those efforts, which he equated to Schindler’s list <\/span><\/p>\n

– a way of reducing the harm of an overall evil. Watch<\/span><\/b><\/a>.<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Most Likely to Titillate Theologians:<\/font><\/u><\/p>\n

<\/span>  <\/span><\/span><\/span>While your behavior doesn’t determine whether you get into heaven, it does determine what you do once you’re there. Watch<\/span><\/a><\/b>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

  <\/span><\/span><\/span>His statement that “I really don’t know” whether people who don’t know about Christ<\/span><\/p>\n

will be blocked entry into heaven. Watch<\/span><\/b><\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“God’s will is not done most of the time on earth. When people go, ‘oh, that hurricane<\/span><\/p>\n

must have been God’s will’ – baloney!” Watch<\/span><\/b>.<\/span><\/a><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Most Likely to Inspire and Challenge:<\/u><\/p>\n

<\/span>The story of his daughter in law’s brain tumor and its surprising lesson the family learned. Watch<\/span><\/b><\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/span>His relentless commitment to awakening Americans to African poverty. Watch<\/span><\/a><\/b>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

His personal Christmas prayer. Watch<\/span><\/b><\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

His argument that the economic collapse comes from abandoning Biblical principles of<\/span><\/p>\n

thrift. Watch<\/span><\/b><\/a>.<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ok, I admit it. I have Rick Warren fatigue.    It’s not that there aren’t thing to admire about the mega pastor.  He is reported to have delivered my favorite slam of prosperity gospel (“the only people getting rich from prosperity preaching are the preachers”); and he and his wife have done well to wake up evangelicals…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicals"],"yoast_head":"\nSick of Rick - Progressive Revival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/sick-of-rick.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sick of Rick - Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ok, I admit it. I have Rick Warren fatigue.    It’s not that there aren’t thing to admire about the mega pastor.  He is reported to have delivered my favorite slam of prosperity gospel (“the only people getting rich from prosperity preaching are the preachers”); and he and his wife have done well to wake up evangelicals…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/sick-of-rick.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-15T13:13:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Paul Raushenbush\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sick of Rick - Progressive Revival","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/sick-of-rick.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sick of Rick - Progressive Revival","og_description":"Ok, I admit it. 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Paul B. Raushenbush is the moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University. .An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and institutes around the country including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, and the New America Foundation. Rev. Raushenbush has served at Seattle First Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Columbia University and as College and Young Adult Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN. He has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for Beliefnet.com. His first book, Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths (HCI) was released in the Fall of 2004. He is the editor of the 100th Anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book Christianity and the Social Crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c In the 21st Century (HarperOne). His work at Princeton includes strengthening the interfaith community on campus. He is the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. Rev. Raushenbush studied religion at Macalester College before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated with distinction.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/praushenbush"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}