Rick Warren and Compromise

by Mike Ratliff 

“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” (Matthew 5:33-37 ESV) 

Hypocrisy is something that we must all diligently work with the Father to expose and kill within the heart. The act of compromise results in hypocrisy. Some compromise that is based outside of God’s commands could possibly be an exception to this, but when it comes to the Christian’s call to obedience to God, compromise is disobedience and this is sin. Those deep into their compromise have become hardened to the conviction that they are deliberately sinning so we see them do some sort of dance when they say one thing to please one group while saying something else to try to appease others who are contending with him or her about their stance. It is hard to pin down some hypocrites, but God is expert at it. He will not let professing Christians get away with this very long. Either they will respond by coming to the throne of grace seeking forgiveness and the cleansing of God granting repentance or they will harden their hearts and continue to slide down the slippery slope of compromise. 

The following is an excerpt from an article at OneNewsNow.com. 

California mega-church pastor and author of The Purpose Driven Life Rick Warren says he apologized to his homosexual friends for making comments in support of California’s Proposition 8, and now claims he “never once even gave an endorsement” of the marriage amendment. 

Monday night on CNN’s Larry King Live, Pastor Rick Warren apologized for his support of Prop. 8, California’s voter-approved marriage protection amendment, saying he has “never been and never will be” an “anti-gay or anti-gay marriage activist.”
 
”During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never — never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop. 8 was going,” Warren told the CNN audience on Monday. ”The week before the — the vote, somebody in my church said, ‘Pastor Rick, what — what do you think about this?’ And I sent a note to my own members that said, I actually believe that marriage is — really should be defined, that that definition should be — say between a man and a woman.”
 
However, just two weeks before the November 4 Prop. 8 vote, Pastor Warren issued a clear endorsement of the marriage amendment while speaking to church members. ”We support Proposition 8 — and if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8,” he said. 
 
 

The following is a complete transcript of Warren’s comments just weeks before the Prop. 8 election: 

“The election’s coming just in a couple of weeks, and I hope you’re praying about your vote. One of the propositions, of course, that I want to mention is Proposition 8, which is the proposition that had to be instituted because the courts threw out the will of the people. And a court of four guys actually voted to change a definition of marriage that has been going for 5,000 years. 

“Now let me say this really clearly: we support Proposition 8 — and if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8. I never support a candidate, but on moral issues I come out very clear. 

“This is one thing, friends, that all politicians tend to agree on. Both Barack Obama and John McCain, I flat-out asked both of them: what is your definition of marriage? And they both said the same thing — it is the traditional, historic, universal definition of marriage: one man and one woman, for life. And every culture for 5,000 years, and every religion for 5,000 years, has said the definition of marriage is between one man and a woman.
 

Now here’s an interesting thing. There are about two percent of Americans [who] are homosexual or gay/lesbian people. We should not let two percent of the population determine to change a definition of marriage that has been supported by every single culture and every single religion for 5,000 years. 

“This is not even just a Christian issue — it’s a humanitarian and human issue that God created marriage for the purpose of family, love, and procreation.
 

”So I urge you to support Proposition 8, and pass that word on. I’m going to be sending out a note to pastors on what I believe about this. But everybody knows what I believe about it. They heard me at the Civil Forum when I asked both Obama and McCain on their views.” 

During his CNN interview on Monday, Warren expressed regret for backing Prop. 8. ”There were a number of things that were put out. I wrote to all my gay friends — the leaders that I knew — and actually apologized to them. That never got out,” he admitted.
 
Additionally, Pastor Warren said he did not want to comment on or criticize the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision last week to legalize same-sex “marriage” because it was “not his agenda.” 

Rick Warren has the moves of a politician. He seems to believe that he can lie and get away with it. I find several disturbing things in this article. The first is the obvious hypocrisy to publicly support Proposition 8 then deny that he did. When he is pinned down about this then he comes out in support of his “gay friends” and is concerned that a stance by a supposed evangelical Christian Pastor that the Word of God saying that homosexuality is an abomination to God would be offensive to them. Pastor Warren, this tells us that you do not consider the Word of God to be authoritative. You do not accept Sola Scriptura. Also, your “dance” around this obvious self-protective act of hypocrisy calls for you to come before the Body of Christ and confess your sins and then show the fruits of repentance by becoming separate from those cultural things that are causing you to compromise. 

The death of a church begins when the leadership and body of believers tolerate sin. Eventually, a church that does this will die. What does this tell us when it is “America’s Pastor” who is doing this? 

Soli Deo Gloria! 

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