Posted on 11/26/2006 10:39:52 PM PST by Gamecock
I am much obliged to Bruce Delay, a talk-show host at KFAQ 1170 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for downloading the audio version of Rick Warren's YouTube video, recorded while in Syria.
Now, keep in mind, Warren has been telling the world he was misquoted by the Syrian press when he extolled the virtues of the totalitarian police state.
But before anyone questioned his statements, Warren's Saddleback Church had recorded him as he strolled down a Damascus street explaining what a peaceful and tolerant place Syria really is.
As soon as I hotlinked to the YouTube video last week and questioned Rick Warren about it, the church yanked it. I didn't have time to download a copy, but, thankfully, one johnny-on-the-spot talk-show host did.
You may not be able to see it, but you can at least hear it. Here is a word-for-word transcript of what Warren said in the 50-second video:
"Syria's a place that has Muslims and Christians living together for 1,400 years. So it's a lot more peaceful, honestly, than a lot of other places because Christians were here first.
"In fact, you know Saul of Tarsus – Saul was a Syrian. St. Paul, on the road to Damascus, had his conversion experience and so Christians have been here the longest, and they get along with the Muslims and the Muslims get along with them. There's a lot less tension than in other places.
"It's a moderate country, and the official government rule and position is not to allow any extremism of any kind."
It's not a press release from the Syrian government that Rick Warren can deny. He didn't make these remarks under duress. He spoke these words of his own free will. By the way, this audio clip is not taken out of context. It represents the entire content of what Rick Warren and his team produced, posted on YouTube, then removed once I linked to it and questioned him about it in an e-mail.
It's not a case of someone twisting his words. Rather, it's a case of twisted ideas expressed in words.
Let's analyze this statement carefully.
When Warren suggests Christians were in Syria first, he's certainly forgetting the progenitor of monotheism – Judaism. He rightly claims Saul as a Syrian. But Saul was not a Christian. He was a Jew until that Damascus road conversion. It's not a technicality. It is more than worth noting that someone who praises Syria, one of the most viciously anti-Semitic regimes in the world, claims Christians, not Jews, were there first.
Then Warren moves into this Muslim-Christian brotherhood sophistry. The only way Christians get along with Muslims in an officially Muslim country is by accepting the role in Islam known as "dhimmi." Think of the dhimmi life as religious apartheid. It's a good analogy. Christians are not free to evangelize Muslims. In a civil dispute between a Muslim and a Christian, the Christian's word is worth less than nothing.
Rick Warren demonstrates his complete ignorance of the subtle repression Christians face in the role of dhimmi. Perhaps he hasn't been briefed on the phenomenon by the Council on Foreign Relations, from which he claims his expertise on the Middle East.
Again, Warren neglects even to mention the Jews – the pathetically small community of Jews in Syria who have historically been subjected to barbaric pogroms to keep its members in line and to give the average Syrian Muslim an artificial feeling of superiority.
Less tension? Let me explain how Warren's buddy, dictator Bashar Assad, manages to keep peace and tranquility. Secret police. Wiretapping. Torture. Political prisoners. Death squads.
Bashar's father, Hafez, was the master at heavy-handed Big Brother tactics. When the citizens of Hama rose up to challenge his authority in February 1982, Assad sent in Syrian troops to massacre between 10,000 and 25,000 civilians. The town was paved over and marked permanently to ensure that others would learn the terrible lesson.
It worked. There's been "peace," as Rick Warren would call it, ever since. There's been a lot less "tension," as he would put it.
Lastly, Rick Warren says: "It's a moderate country, and the official government rule and position is not to allow any extremism of any kind."
Where does one even begin answering such a lie?
True, the Assads simply crush any extremism that threatens their tyrannical rule. But Syria plays ball with the terrorists by allowing them to use Syria – and neighboring Lebanon – as staging grounds under the proviso they do not subvert the Assad regime. That's why Syria serves as the headquarters for more terrorist organizations than any other country in the world – yet experiences little of its own.
My goal is not to beat a dead horse with Rick Warren's trip to Syria. My goal is to bring understanding and truth to an issue that has been perversely distorted by Rick Warren.
And I have to note that Rick Warren has been deceitful about the nature of this trip and the content of his statements from the beginning. Last week, after I first challenged him about the trip, he denied making any statements like this. He claimed his words were misrepresented by the Syrian government. When I asked him if he made any recordings while there that could help clear his name, he said he did not.
Yet, not only did he indeed record something, but what he recorded affirms the essence of what the Syrian government claimed Warren told officials. Warren's church posted that recording on YouTube and pulled it down only after it was cited as evidence of his mischievous activities in Syria.
In other words, Rick Warren seems to want to be everything to everyone. He seems to want to please the whole world – everyone, that is, except the voiceless victims of tyranny, anti-Christian persecution and anti-Jewish bigotry in Syria.
Count me in on that. I know too many people that buy into that stuff. It is always good to have refutation material that is current when I don't always have to time to do the research.
How sad doc. How very sad for you. What do you intend to do?
oops.. I see that I didn't read far enough when I asked what you were going to do. Please ignore my question. :) I plead fuzzy head from a cold and cold medicine. (At least this time I have an excuses - haha)
I still give Warren the benefit of the doubt theologically and politically. He may have been Syria's dupe here, but we don't know the real story. Since the source is WorldNetDaily (spit!), a website which makes FOX News look like the bastion of reasoned, even-handed journalism, I reserve judgment.
Yeah; that's a problem.
There are times when it's appropriate to say "you won't need your Bibles today." For instance, when my fellow Sunday school teacher was discussing absolute truth, that was a much more logical than Biblical discussion and I don't think he cracked a Bible at all on that day. He more than made up for it the next week he taught.
Entire Bible studies, however, where you don't even touch the Bible, is a much larger problem. Frankly, that was one of the reasons I didn't stay in a Baptist church I checked out several years ago.
It's a pity. A few weeks ago, I was talking with a kid from a local megachurch who was bemoaning their lack of interest in doctrine and he casually mentioned that only the (conservative) Presbyterians had any doctrinal depth any more.
Sounds like your church is pissing that away. Too bad.
That's the way he has always struck me.
I do believe he is blessed though. I say this because every time I see him on TV I say "bless his heart".
I hear this all the time. It's an attempt to push the Lord out of His own house.
Exactly!
As one foolish person once interjected, "there's one born every minute."
I dare say that this pastor is losing some of his congregation. Hard to believe that such political statements are coming out of a pastor.
Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., with bestselling author Rick Warren took a plunge down from number five to number thirty-nine. New membership gains in the past year dropped by nearly 1,500 people to 1,149.You should see what else Rick Warren says...
"The power of deception is that it appears true - yet it is always the shallow way to comfort, glossy, and by this we may recognize it: it does not comport with the Way of God, the cross of Christ our Head, despised and rejected by men, betrayed with a kiss, murdered by brethren outside the camp. Love crucified in full daylight, naked and unashamed in agony for men, is the Truth. How frequent are its imitations."
Thank you,.30Carbine, for your post!
You may be willing to give your head for pan-islamism. But I want my children and theirs to be able to keep them, thanks.
There were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed. (2Pet.2:1-3)
These people—who claim authority from their dreams—live immoral lives, defy authority, and scoff at supernatural beings. But even Michael, one of the mightiest of the angels, did not dare accuse the devil of blasphemy, but simply said, “The Lord rebuke you!” (This took place when Michael was arguing with the devil about Moses’ body. But these people scoff at things they do not understand. Like unthinking animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and so they bring about their own destruction. What sorrow awaits them! For they follow in the footsteps of Cain, who killed his brother. Like Balaam, they deceive people for money. And like Korah, they perish in their rebellion. (Jd.1:8-11)
I wish I had a copy of those instructions!!
Are they from Warren or Saddleback?
Alpha and Dr not that I do not believe you but I need proof. Are these instructions written anywhere I can get them? My pastor is considering doing PDL and I need some bullets if I am going to war.
I NEVER HAD THE TEACHER'S GUIDE.
WHEN I WAS ASKED TO TEACH WITH NO BIBLE I REFUSED TO TEACH THE SERIES.
ALL OF MY TEACHING IS INDUCTIVE!
SHOW YOUR LEADERSHIP A GOOGLE SEARCH ON WARREN AND SADDLEBACK.
Jesus
This includes the notice of the removal of PDL materials
http://www.calvaryd.org/assets/uploads/RecallonStorms.pdf
This is the statement about the "emergent church"
http://www3.calvarychapel.com/ccof2/parsontoparson.pdf
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