Ugandan Bill: Warren Takes No Sides

Finals week=quick post today (I know, I said that yesterday, but...).

Major news entities are joining discussions and reactions to the proposed Ugandan "Bahati" Bill that would sharpen prohibitions against and punishments for homosexual behavior and related acts (e.g., the death penalty or life imprisonment for gay people, hard labor for those "aiding and abetting" homosexuals). I am pleased that my denomination has (finally) come out formally against the bill. So too has an Anglican canon in Uganda.

In odd contrast to these, evangelical super-pastor Rick Warren (The Purpose-Driven Church, Saddleback Church) has come out resolutely as not being against the bill. Warren had initially (back in October) distanced himself from the bill and some of its main pastoral supporters in Uganda with whom he and Saddleback had previously worked. Of late, though, Warren has taken a stance of no-comment on the politics of a foreign nation. He has refused repeated invitations to condemn the bill, most recently stating on Meet the Press that "As a pastor, my job is to encourage, to support. I never take sides." Update: This quote is taken from a context unrelated to the Uganda issue. See here.

I'm going to need to do a bit more investigating there because that just doesn't sound right. Generally counted among the most popular evangelicals in the US today, Warren occupies an odd place in the evangelical spectrum. While his book The Purpose-Driven Life made the best-seller lists, it's his model of "seeker-sensitive" or "new paradigm" church (outlined in The Purpose-Driven Church) that really won him fame.

In seeker-sensitive churches like Saddleback (Bill Hybels's Willow Creek Church in Chicago being the other main example), the main Sunday services aim explicitly at the non-churchgoer, whose likes and dislikes have been market-researched and focus-group tested by worship leaders. Using this data, church leaders re-create the service to appeal to "Unchurched Harry" (or "Saddleback Sam")--the generic niche consumer of church services. There's lots of music, multimedia, high energy, inspiring messages, and easygoing atmosphere. Conspicuously absent are high-church symbols like crosses, altars, pews, hymnals, offering plates, etc.

As Warren explains, the "seeker-sensitive" service is not actually the "true" worship service. It's bait, lure to attract people into membership. Once people actually join, they are expected to participate actively in the life of the church, typically through small-group "cells" that re-create in miniature the community atmosphere otherwise impossible in a church of 10,000+. Members have their own (authentic) worship service later in the week.

Warren's unorthodox approach extends to his inter-denominational politics. Saddleback is broadly evangelical and nondenominational, but Warren has distinguished himself as more willing than most other evangelical leaders to reach out to non-evangelical groups, especially on issues such as environmentalism. For many evangelicals, then, Warren is a traitor, a dangerously popular charlatan peddling a watered-down gospel. For others, he represents the next wave of evangelical leaders--doctrinally committed but willing to reach out. His influence, in any case, is not in question. He was, after all, the one who interviewed both presidential candidates about their faith and values in the last debate.

All of this makes his "I take no stand" rhetoric difficult. Warren has not been so coy about taking a stand on other issues in the past, though certainly he has largely steered clear of formal alignments with religious-right standards like Focus on the Family.

I'm sure I'm not alone here, though, in finding his newly stated neutrality in all things political... odd. Even un-pastoral.

More tomorrow,

JF