Rick Warrens Civil Project - Road to the Middle Class

MOST PEOPLE agree that it was Roe v. Wade that created the Christian Right. The forcible introduction of abortion-on-demand as the law of the land by the Supreme Court acting as the agent of the educated elite created a spark. It blew up, first of all, into Jerry Falwell. He was the Christian that liberals loved to hate. Falwell’s political vehicle as the Moral Majority, a cadre lobbying group.

Ten years later it was Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson’s turn to enter the political arena. He ran for president in 1988 and brought millions of conservative evangelicals into the political process. Robertson became the Christian leader that liberals loved to hate.

In 2008, Falwell is dead and Robertson is old. It is time for a new generation of Christian leaders. After the Saddleback Civil Forum last Saturday night it is obvious who the top Christian leader is in America. He is Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback and author of the best-selling Purpose-driven Life.

Warren’s book The Purpose-driven Life first really came up on the national radar in a kidnap incident in 2005. Kidnapped by an escaped convict, 24-year-old widow and mother Ashley Smith sat down with him and they read the Bible and Chapter 33 of The Purpose-driven Life together. As I wrote at the time:

They read Chapter 33 together. For those of you without your own copy to refer to, Chapter 33 is titled “How Real Servants Act.” The epigraph reads: “Whoever wants to be great must become a servant.” Warren writes about how we talk a lot these days about leadership and very little about “servantship,” and that the real purpose to life is to become a good servant. The Point to Ponder at the end of the chapter is “I serve God by serving others.”

Then the convict released Ashley and she called 911. No need for counsellors, hostage negotiators, or SWAT teams. Not for a woman who read and practiced from The Purpose-driven Life.

Recently conservatives have worried about Warren as he has reached out to environmentalists and become, as he said at the Forum, friend to both Obama and McCain. Doesn’t he know what side he’s on?

Actually, after the Forum, it is liberals who should be worried. Warren clearly understands that, in order to make a difference, he has to use a different strategy than the previous generation of Falwell and Robertson. So this is how he opened the Forum:

Welcome to the Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency... We believe in the separation of church and state, but we do not believe in the separation of faith and politics, because faith is just a world view, and everybody has some kind of world view. It’s important to know what they are.

See what is going on here? He is using Englightenment lingo. “World view” is a term invented by Immanuel Kant. He is saying that everyone grounds their world view, including their notions of ethics and morality, on faith. It might be a religious faith or a secular faith, but it is still a faith.

And that is what gives a pastor the right to inject himself into the presidential campaign.

I’ll tell you what I think. I think this: Liberals, be afraid; be very afraid. This chap is sophisticated. He’s playing by the liberal rules. He represents the same moral majority as Falwell and the same Christian churches as Robertson. But he’s doing it without the partisan edge.

Mark my words. Liberals will soon start to hate Rick Warren, just like they hated Falwell and Robertson. But they are heading straight for the briar patch. Because this guy is smart. He won’t produce the copy that liberals used to make Falwell and Robertson into right-wing kooks. He is presenting himself to America as a moderate, and he will force liberals into the role of the heavy.

Very shortly, liberals will start frothing at the mouth over Rick Warren.

Sphere: Related Content |

Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.