Rick Warren is one of those evangelical leaders with more power and influence than they know what to do with. He wrote “The Purpose Driven Life,” which, at last count, had sold 18 gazillion copies. Warren has also created a widely-used congregation-building plan, heads up a 20,000-member megachurch, and unlike some of his brethren, he gives away 90% of his earnings. In Christian circles, he is as big a celebrity as church leaders get.
And now Warren, who has been, by most measures, a conservative evangelical, is facing criticism for inviting a Democrat to address his congregation. Consider Kevin McCullough’s thoughts in a column this week for World Net Daily.
Rick Warren, the best selling author of “The Purpose Driven Life” and senior teaching pastor at Saddleback Church in California, has invited Sen. Barack Obama to speak to the congregation of the faithful on Dec. 1, 2006. In doing so, he has joined himself with one of the smoothest politicians of our times, and also one whose wickedness in worldview contradicts nearly every tenet of the Christian faith that Warren professes.
So the question is “why?”
Why would Warren marry the moral equivalency of his pulpit — a sacred place of honor in evangelical tradition — to the inhumane, sick and sinister evil that Obama has worked for as a legislator?
Now, I suspect most reasonable people would not characterize Obama’s policy perspectives as being burdened by a “sinister evil,” but World Net Daily is not known for publishing restrained criticisms. Indeed, McCullough goes on (and on) to explain that Obama “represents the views of Satan at worst or progressive anti-God liberals at best.” McCullough wants Christians to call Warren and tell him it would be a “sin” to let Obama address the congregation (Obama and Sam Brownback are scheduled to appear together to speak on the AIDS crisis in Africa).
This criticism struck me as interesting for two reasons.
One is probably obvious. For all the talk about how Dems can and should do more to reach out to evangelical Christian audiences, there’s still a sizable (and loud) core of the religious right that will castigate anyone with a progressive worldview as, quite literally, “wicked” and “evil.”
Obama won’t even step foot in the church for another couple of weeks, but the unhinged right is practically apoplectic. For them, it doesn’t matter what Obama says, or believes, or does as a political leader. Indeed, it’s not just Obama — it doesn’t matter what anyone says or does. If they stray from the religious right’s worldview, they’re inherently malevolent.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say this represents a majority of American evangelicals, but in a purely political context, it does suggest Dems have a high hurdle to clear in their outreach efforts.
The other reason I found McCullough’s overheated tirade interesting, though, is that he didn’t just seem to hate Obama; he also seemed afraid of him.
Barack Obama is likely to run for president in 2008, and speaking from the pulpit of one of America’s most well-known evangelical churches is likely to be footage that could be used over and over in trying to dissuade Christians from thinking about moral issues that real Christians truly value. […]
There is definitely something for Barack Obama to gain by appearing in Rick Warren’s pulpit — the implied endorsement and blessing for the 2008 presidential race. There is definitely something for Rick Warren to gain in promoting Obama and giving him time behind the altar of God’s word — power and access to a future heavyweight contender for the highest office in the land.
Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but it’s almost as if McCullough believes Obama will not only reach out to Christian evangelicals, but that Christian evangelicals might like him.
McCullough, I suspect, doesn’t just want to see Obama steer clear of Warren’s pulpit because he perceives it as some kind of blasphemy, but also because he fears that Obama’s message will be persuasive and inspirational. The religious right has to stick with the GOP, the theory goes, so why invite a charming and articulate Democrat to the pulpit of one of the nation’s leading megachurches?
We’ll have plenty of time to debate the relative merits of Obama’s presidential ambitions, if he chooses to run, in the months to come, but in the meantime, I hope he does throw his hat into the ring — if for no other reason, because I think he makes the far-right very nervous.