On July 4th 2009, Dr. Rick Warren, Senior Pastor of Saddleback Church and a voice listened to and respected in the evangelical world at large and by many in the Southern Baptist Convention, was the keynote speaker at the 46th Annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America (you can see his entire transcript here).  This event was a gathering of 45,000 Muslims in our nations capital with many sessions of interest to Muslims residing in the U S.   What Dr. Warren addressed should be of upmost importance to us.

Dr. Warren addressed the need for Christians and Muslims to unite in order to address various issues that we have in common.  I would like to point out the things that Dr. Warren said we have in common and then address these issues and how we can handle them.

Dr. Warren, in typical evangelical style, presented a talk with four points.  He presented four areas he believed, as Christians and Muslims, we could find agreement and thus come together to address these needs in the world.

“The first thing we have to do is what I call on Muslims and Christians together to model; what it means to respect the dignity of every person.”

I stand in agreement with Dr. Warren on this point.  We should never forsake the dignity ascribed to individuals as human beings.  This includes children whose lives have been arranged by their parents to be married.  The ISNA has on their website a link for Matrimonal.  This link provides an online type of match making service for singles.  To be fair, it does appear to be something that single men and women may frequent to find a Muslim husband or wife.  However, the wording of the site gives cause for concern.  It reads, “This website provides a secure Islamic platform for single Muslims and/or their parents to create a profile and interact with other members in this database.” (Emphasis mine)

How many Muslim daughters are promised to Muslim sons without either of them being old enough to make that decision on their own?  Where is the dignity of human beings being promoted in that practice?   Did Dr. Warren address some of the various items where dignity was not being promoted by Christians or Muslims?  No, he just threw this statement out there and never addressed where dignity was being destroyed.

Also, Dr. Warren referenced something that is so confusing I am not sure anyone caught it at the convention.  He stated,  “As the Holy Scriptures tell us since we are created in the image of God, each person has intrinsic value and dignity.“ This begs the question: What Scripture did he reference as “Holy”?  Was he referencing the Qur’an?  Did those attending believe he was referencing the Bible or did they believe he was referencing the Qur’an? I would agree that we ought to treat individuals with dignity, but we are not able to establish this doctrine by referencing, as our authority, the Qur’an.  While the Qur’an may advocate that we all have dignity as human beings, it certainly strays a long way away from that ideal when it begins to address women’s roles in society.

“The second thing we need to do together is we need to work together to restore civility to civilization.”

I agree 100% with the statement.  We certainly do need to work hard to restore civility to civilization.  However, once again he does not state any particular events where this is happening.  He presents a type of harshness within our debates and this seems to be his basis for the statement.  But, Dr. Warren seems to forget that we live in a nation in which the first amendment guarantees the right to free speech.  Dr. Mohler’s article I referenced earlier explains better how Dr. Warren’s desire here is illogical.  The only way we can dictate one speak in a civil tone is to remove the free speech clause.

“Now there is a third thing that we need to do together and I think we can do these, hand in hand, and that is promoting peace, promoting freedom, and protecting freedom, particularly the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion.”

This statement is so full of contradiction it collapses on itself.  Dr. Warren makes certain he desires us to speak civilly to each other then he calls for us to protect our freedom of speech.  As I said earlier, you cannot have it both ways.  Dr. Warren also positions himself as a defender of freedom of religion.  I agree with his statement here.  Dr. Warren spoke about his Baptist ancestors that fought in the Revolutionary War in order for us to have the freedoms we enjoy today.  He then says, “those freedoms are still under attack by people who don’t want you to talk about the things you want to talk about and the things that I want to talk about, or anybody else and they want us to just talk about what they want us to talk about.”

These freedoms must be maintained.  However, we are at the brink of losing the freedom to express our view that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven.  Let’s face it: Dr. Warren was in the prime location to be free to express that view and he did not do it.  Why?  Only he can answer that question.

“Finally, I believe that there are some problems in this world that are never going to be solved by the governments of the world. I call these problems the global giants.”

The five “global giants” that he said could not be solved by government intervention:

“Number 1 is the problem of Conflict. War, confrontation, hostilities, terrorism, refugee camps. The second big problem that is all around the world is corruption. The third biggest problem on the planet is poverty. The fourth big problem is disease. the 5th biggest problem in Illiteracy.“

These five “global giants” certainly can be solved.  However, we need to answer a question.  If the government cannot solve them, can religion?  I say religion and government can solve these problems.  Notice that I said can solve them.  These five giants will be solved when we work together to solve them in a one-world religious order. Certainly I do not advocate a one-world religious order because we all know when that comes about it will be headed up by the Anti-Christ.  I am not against solving the problems of wars.  However, our Lord told us that wars would remain. It seems that Dr. Warren has allowed his desire to end these events to overshadow his knowledge of Scripture.  In Matthew 24:6 Jesus told us that many of the things Dr. Warren wants us to bring to an end are events that take place before the return of our Lord.  I am all for trying to bring about change in order to stop the corruption and other ills of society we see.  However, we must remember that all of this comes about because of sin, sin in the unregenerate hearts of the world leaders.

Thus, Dr. Warren had a great opportunity to make this point but he missed it because it appears he did not want to offend the 45,000 Muslims that gathered to hear him.  Paul’s instructions to Timothy was to be “ready in season and out of season”.   I believe Dr. Warren missed an opportunity to promote the fix to the needs of the world.  He was not ready out of season.  Could it be that he did not desire to offend his Muslim audience?  If that is the reason, Dr. Warren needs to remember that the Gospel is offensive.  He should never present it offensively, but when the Gospel is presented it is an exclusive truth not a truth equal to other truths.  I pray for Dr. Warren as he has a platform that many will never have.  I pray that he does not allow his concern for the masses to be his alone.  I pray that his concern for the masses is coming from the heart of God and not Dr. Warren’s fleshly heart of empathy.  May he remember that God’s heart does not send a confusing message.