Posted: 02/05/08

Rick Warren Finds the Missing Link!

"Global Strategist" and apostasy enthusiast Rick Warren was at Georgetown University yesterday and declared that "faith-based organizations" are the missing link to solving the world's problems. Wiccans apparently would qualify. They do, after all, have faith. The future of the world, he declared, is religious pluralism. But what is religious pluralism anyway? Doesn't that just mean tolerance for those of different beliefs who may live in your neighborhood, i.e. avoiding the Muslim propensity for burning down the houses of elderly Christian converts? (While they're inside.)

Here's what Harvard University's Pluralism Project says it is:

"First, pluralism is not diversity alone, but the energetic engagement with diversity. Diversity can and has meant the creation of religious ghettoes with little traffic between or among them. Today, religious diversity is a given, but pluralism is not a given; it is an achievement. Mere diversity without real encounter and relationship will yield increasing tensions in our societies.

Second, pluralism is not just tolerance, but the active seeking of understanding across lines of difference. Tolerance is a necessary public virtue, but it does not require Christians and Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and ardent secularists to know anything about one another. Tolerance is too thin a foundation for a world of religious difference and proximity. It does nothing to remove our ignorance of one another, and leaves in place the stereotype, the half-truth, the fears that underlie old patterns of division and violence. In the world in which we live today, our ignorance of one another will be increasingly costly.

Third, pluralism is not relativism, but the encounter of commitments. The new paradigm of pluralism does not require us to leave our identities and our commitments behind, for pluralism is the encounter of commitments. It means holding our deepest differences, even our religious differences, not in isolation, but in relationship to one another.

Fourth, pluralism is based on dialogue. The language of pluralism is that of dialogue and encounter, give and take, criticism and self-criticism. Dialogue means both speaking and listening, and that process reveals both common understandings and real differences. Dialogue does not mean everyone at the "table" will agree with one another. Pluralism involves the commitment to being at the table - with one's commitments. " (Source: The Pluralism Project)

Note that pluralism is not about acknowledging diversity, but actively engaging it and making friends with it. Here's the important line: "Mere diversity without real encounter and relationship will yield increasing tensions in our societies." Translation: If Christians insist on their exclusive views of salvation through Christ alone and refuse to participate in ecumenical/interfaith dialogue and even worship, they will become a threat to public order in our global society. Note in point number four that dialogue is based on give and take. I get it. You give me a pentagram and I'll hand over my cross. Then we'll have world peace, right?

Read through the points carefully again, and you will see where Rick Warren is taking evangelicals. His beliefs about pluralism explain why he can go to Jewish synagogues and never mention the name of Christ, or appear at secular conferences or shows like Comedy Central and never once mention Jesus and the way of eternal salvation. He's content to let them believe what they want, he'll believe what he wants, while we meanwhile all hold hands, talk endlessly about "God" smiling down on us as we fulfill our purposes and work to solve the world's problems. (Not, of course, the problem of eternal damnation of souls who are lost without Jesus Christ. I am not sure Rick even believes this any longer. You cannot believe in the Gospel and believe that Christ is the only way to heaven, and fail to share it with so many who are on their way to hell.)

By Ingrid Schlueter Email: vcyproducer@aol.com Click here for bio and archived articles