I thought the point re “faith” vs. “worldview” is central to what is wrong not only with the way Rick Warren set up this forum, but more importantly with how the Christian Right — and many ’50s era Christian theologians — think about Christian belief and practice. It reminds me of Kierkegaard’s warning in “Training in Christianity” regarding turning Christ into a historical Christ alone. Faith is in a “contemporaneous Christ,” the God-Man who is NOW among us, calling us, demanding our belief exercised via obedience. People can believe in an historical Christ — believe in every Word of the gospels in a historical sense — yet not have faith. Intellectual assent is not faith. “Right” (in both or either sense of the word) abstract understanding is not enough to be called faith.

Rick Warren’s framing of this forum in these 1950s terms creates a modernist rather than biblical discussion in my opinion. I do think Warren is a far better voice for Evangelicals than is James Dobson or Pat Robertson, and I appreciate Rick Warren’s far-reaching efforts in combatting HIV-AIDS as well as other issues hitting the poorest in this world. But I think we Evangelicals can do better politically than, like the dog and its vomit, go back and back and back (this WILL be the third time we vote overwhelmingly for a Republican candidate on their ALLEGED Christian “worldview” — laughable if it weren’t so tragic!).

I continue to warn my fellow Evangelicals that their negative perception to most of this nation and the world is not due to their faith in Jesus Christ, but rather their failure to hold a faith consonant with the Scriptures’ own deepest concerns. Few younger people will remain within the Evangelical camp; our destiny is, I strongly suspect, to become as irrelevant as the mainstream church became in the ’70s on to the present. They failed due to abandoning Christ in their scramble to embrace higher criticism; we are failing due to our abandonment of Christ in his suffering, and in our worship of American nationalism. Which sin was worse? As an Evangelical, I think we are the greatest sinners.

jon

I too have watched with disdain as Evangelicals have given so little thought and rounded critique to the complexity of political issues. Additionally, I agree that the church’s role as a political force is much broader than politics narrowly defined. Moreover, I am not a Rick Warren fan nor do I aspire to attend his church.

That said:

Your suspicion towards Rick Warren’s motives appear uncharitable and disconnected from the enormous amount of real work this man is doing to address pressing issues in the world while disolving false divisions drawn between personal morality and social justice. I find your parsing between popular vs. technical distinctions on the use of word “worldview”, though possibly correct, as equally nit picky. When Rick Warren stands before God do you see a similar critique? God says, ” I was hungry and you and your parishoners fed me, etc., etc. but I have this against you, you misunderstand the distinctions between a theological and philosophical understanding of Weltanschauung. Depart from me….”

Also, should we see the church as “selling out” by asking political leaders to answer questions in a church context? To his credit, Warren has attempted to disassociate the Evangelical movement from simply an extension of the Republican party; thus his idea of bringing a forum where both candidates could address the issues was groundbreaking, not pandering. In my view, Rick Warren was not the culprit but John McCain’s approach of “playing the crowd” (i.e. to the mindless Evangelicals looking for simplistic answers). All of us who have attempted to reshape the Evangelical movement with some measure will but up against this. Even your blog, if it was to be read by a large number of “Evangelicals”, would engender a similar “buzz word” response. Let’s not pick on Rick Warren, He might actually be on our side.

-Bob

With Hope