Consider Warren's view of the Christian Bible, given by this quote from 'Day 24' of 'The Purpose Driven Life', entitled 'Transformed by Truth' --
I must accept its authority. The Bible must become the authoritative standard for my life: the compass I rely on for direction, the counsel I listen to for making wise decisions, and the benchmark I use for evaluating everything. The Bible must always have the first and last word in my life.
Now consider Warren's view of what it means to 'surrender to God', given by this quote from 'Day 10' of 'The Purpose Driven Life', entitled 'The Heart of Worship' (italics added) --
What it means to surrender. Surrendering to God is not passive resignation, fatalism, or an excuse for laziness. It is not accepting the status quo. It may mean the exact opposite: sacrificing your life or suffering in order to change what needs to be changed. God often calls surrendered people to do battle on his behalf. Surrendering is not for cowards or doormats. Likewise, it does not mean giving up rational thinking. God would not waste the mind he gave you! God does not want robots to serve him. Surrendering is not repressing your personality. God wants to use your unique personality. Rather than its being diminished, surrendering enhances it.
...
Surrendering is best demonstrated in obedience. You say “yes, Lord” to whatever he asks of you. To say “no, Lord” is to speak a contradiction. You can’t call Jesus your Lord when you refuse to obey him. After a night of failed fishing, Simon modeled surrender when Jesus told him to try again: “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” Surrendered people obey God’s word, even if it doesn’t make sense.
Good luck to those who think it is possible to reconcile being rational with obeying that which does not make sense — or to reconcile maintaining one's own personality with being obedient.
Of course, the contradictions in the quotes above from Warren's book 'The Purpose Driven Life' are obvious. But that way of writing is on a par with the Bible, since so much of the Christian Bible cannot be reconciled with rational thought. Indeed, if you wish to actually follow the Bible, you must be willing to obey that which does not make sense, just as Warren wrote — but you then cannot also claim to be rational. That is, doing that which does not makes sense, as Warren wrote, is the essence of being irrational.
In a previous post I wrote about the massive, well known problem of evil for religious believers, and why there have been so many works on theodicy as a result. That post includes a sample of revolting passages from the Christian Bible —
http://maxautonomy.blogspot.com/2015/06/theodicy.html
Listed below are more revolting passages from the Christian Bible, which should also make any rational person wonder what exactly Rick Warren means when he says: 'The Bible must always have the first and last word in my life.' --
http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/index.htm
Exodus 21:2 - 4 (you can own Hebrew slaves for six years — and possibly the slave's children forever)
If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.
If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.
Leviticus 1:1 - 17 (perform animal sacrifices)
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the LORD, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock.
If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD.
And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.
And he shall kill the bullock before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And he shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into his pieces.
[... etc.]
Leviticus 20:9 (death for cursing your parents)
For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.
Leviticus 20:10 (death for adultery)
And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Leviticus 20:11 - 12 (death for sex with family members)
And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon them.
Leviticus 20:13 (death for homosexuality)
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
Numbers 15:32 - 36 (death for gathering sticks on the sabbath)
And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.
And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.
And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.
And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.
And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses.
Deuteronomy 20:12 - 17 (genocide)
And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it:
And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword:
But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.
Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations.
But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:
Matthew 5:17 - 18 (all the Old Testament is valid, and will be fulfilled)
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Colossians 3:22 (slaves should obey their masters)
Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God.
So much for the compass that Rick Warren relies on for direction.
The video below shows Chelsea Clinton questioning Rick Warren on same-sex marriage in December of 2012. The interview covers well trodden ground (as Warren points out), but Chelsea's avoidance of naming the problem with religious belief is much more fascinating than the topic of same-sex marriage itself, or that a devout Christian like Rick Warren comes down on that issuse on the side of the Bible, just as one would expect.
Here is how Chelsea stated the basic premise of her interview with Warren in her opening statements —
"For some people, they don't understand why that sense of compassion doesn't extend to equal marriage."Well, if you have read the Bible, it isn't hard to understand why Christians oppose same-sex marriage.
Leviticus 20:13 is one of the clearest statements contained in the Christian Bible, and it states that homosexuals 'shall surely be put to death' —
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
Many might give praise to Chelsea for her questioning of Warren in this interview, as if she displayed some kind of courage in challenging him, but Chelsea's behavior here is just another typical display of politically correct cowardice. Why? Because she avoided the harder, extremely unpopular question, which is: 'Your belief system is based on a book that contains a long list of revolting, violent, and shockingly irrational passages, so why would you want anyone to follow it?'
Warren is justified in becoming somewhat frustrated, when he responds to Chelsea's pleading questions at one point by saying —
"What do they expect a Christian pastor to answer: 'I don't believe the Bible anymore' ?"Chelsea does her best to dance around the issue with this response (Bill and Hillary should be proud) —
"No, but I think you can say that the Bible has one place in life, and the State has a different place in life."Chelsea does not make her religious beliefs known in the interview, but one thing is clear — there is no way that she is going to criticize the source of Warren's beliefs, the Christian Bible. Instead of asking Warren why anyone should support a religion that views homosexuality as an abomination, Chelsea questions him as if he alone is somehow responsible for the widespread opposition to gay marriage.
Chelsea implies that the Bible should be rejected, without actually naming the issue. And notice that Warren has already redefined the Bible with his dramatically softened interpretation —
'... well, Jesus accepts all of us, he accepts a gay person, he accepts a straight person, he accepts all of us unconditionally ...'This statement from Warren stands in direct contradiction to Leviticus 20:13, as well as many other Biblical passeges.
The statement from Leviticus 20:13 that something two consenting adults do with one another is an abomination, for which they 'shall surely be put to death', is as far from unconditional acceptance as one can get.
Given that people have always cherry-picked the Bible to suit themselves, and to give themselves the illusion that they are spiritual, or moral (or whatever), while they do not comply with the bulk of what the Bible actually says, it is to be expected that Christianity will continue to become more and more unintelligible. To a great extent, religious belief in general already is unintelligible, in that the vast majority of supposed religious believers have very little knowledge of what the founding religious texts actually say (pretending it does not matter), while they simultaneously claim to be living by the morals of those texts.
Warren deserves criticism for defending a blatantly irrational book with his claim that it must be 'the first and last word in my life', but religious liberals (as Chelsea Clinton seems to be) deserve just as much criticism for their cowardly and hypocritical attempts to also pretend that the Bible has value, while simultaneously criticizing any attempts to even barely follow it.
Rick Warren and Chelsea Clinton have more in common than they realize — the same broken moral compass.
