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July 6, 2009 | 10:30 am
Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

It seems Rick Warren has officially joined the Abrahamic speaking circuit.
A few years ago he showed up at Sinai Temple in Westwood and shared the secrets of evangelism, without mentioning Jesus. Then in December he spoke at the annual convention of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Long Beach. And now this past weekend Warren popped up in Washington at the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America.
Warren was joined by Rabbi Burton Visotzky of the Jewish Theological Seminary. The gist of Warren’s speech was that, as the two largest religions in the world, Muslims and Christians need to work together to pursue peace and justice.
The money quote comes from Ann Zahra at the end of the AP story:
“The basics are the same,” said Zahra, of McLean, Va. “No religion teaches cruelty or disrespect or hatred.”
Wow. Talk about an assimilated Muslim.
While I’d say the basics are the same of the foundation—the Abrahamic foundation—of Christian and Islam and Judaism, the stories dramatically differ from there.
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It reminds me of an old joke I heard about Bill Clinton during the Oslo process: “The Palestinians and the Israelis need to work out their differences like good Christians.”
There are lots of “assimilated Muslims” out there, to address Mr. Greenberg’s remark. However, the U.S. media often goes in search of the outliers, not the mainstream, for the sake of sensationalism and attracting more readers/viewers. We welcomed Pastor Warren’s remarks at ISNA.
I agree with you. Islam through Ismeal, Christianity through Isaac. They follow two different paths.
One muslim put it this way “Aren’t Christianity, jewdaism, and Islam the three monotheistic religions?
Monotheism=the beliefe in only one God
Therefore let me say we both believe in the same God”
But we obviously do not when He believes in the judgmental and very distent “Allah”, and i believe in a very close and personal Jesus Christ Messiah, Son of God.
“Allah” Teaches basically Works to get to heaven. While my Bible teaches that “by one man [adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin[death is the punishment] so death passed upon all men for that ALL HAVE SINNED.” “All our rightesounesses are as filthy rags” in comparison to the God of the universe. We can’t please God.
But God in love for us says that if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour and our only means of salvation from an eternity in hell, “Thou shalt be saved.” It’s that simple. He made it so simple anyone can do it.
That’s why we’re so different.
It reminds me of a true incident. I was reading through some talkbacks to a news story, and a Muslim poster angrily groused something like “Why can’t the West butt out and let us fight in peace!” I am not making this up.
The main question you ask is why Rick is speaking at the ISNA conference? While I do not wish to offer an apologia for ISNA, I would refer you to multiple articles that describe the organization’s goals in reaching out to other faiths, including Judaism, and denouncing terrorism (Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the leader of the largest branch of American Judaism, addressed the convention two years ago; also see the AP story on July 1 by Zoll, and stories in the Christian Post, Church Solutions and even the Washington Times in the past week).
What I would like to clarify is Rick’s message and motive. You claim that Rick probably doesn’t have an agenda, but I would like to assert that it is his lifelong agenda that led him to accept the invitation to speak at ISNA. You may have noticed that outside of Saddleback Church, and Rick’s 30 year Purpose Driven Ministry to pastors, he does very little speaking to Christian groups of believers. Instead, he invests his time speaking to groups of unbelievers that most pastors never get the opportunity to share with. He carefully considers the opportunities that God has given him to address these audiences. These are folks that Jesus died for, but would never enter a church to hear the Good News. Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Luke 5:31 (NIV) Rick believes strongly that if you want to actively demonstrate the love of Christ to others as He commands us to, then you have to reach out to a variety of audiences. No one is ever convinced of God’s love by labeling, condemnation, or anger. Rick strongly believes that if we want to behave in a Christ-like example, we must not waste any time judging others (Jesus didn’t), but instead, do everything we can to build relationships of love and respect and trust with others.
In our secular culture, there are about a dozen different groups of influencers that we at Saddleback seek to serve and reach out to including those in academics, business, military, sports, health care, media, prisoners, entertainment, other faiths, and government. If we are to fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission in the world, we must build bridges to all of these, and more. Just know the goal of every speaking engagement Rick accepts is always the same: The global glory of God. We seek to build bridges of love - from our hearts to hearts of even those we may disagree with - so that Jesus can walk across!
The theme of the session at which Rick will speak is “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” a theme most appropriate for a message on perhaps our country’s most sacred day, Independence Day. Rick will bring a message appropriate to the values of the meaning of this day on what America and all Americans, not just Muslims or Christians, need to maintain our independence. Freedom and independence were at the core of our country’s founders and those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect this country across its history. As a pastor, Rick intimately understands these values, particularly the value of religious freedom, and will fiercely advocate for them unashamedly in front of any audience. But religious freedom means the right to practice the religion of one’s choice regardless of whether or not others agree with a particular religion’s tenets, and the freedom to associate for the common good of all Americans and for those less fortunate than us around the world. That is a value that is not only part of our heritage as Americans, but also a commandment of Jesus Christ.
I appreciate the opportunity to clarify Rick’s appearance before ISNA and would refer you to a recent issue of Rick’s “News and Views” in which he thoroughly discusses why he speaks to a variety of audiences.
http://www.saddlebackfamily.com/blogs/newsandviews/index.html?contentID=2625
Rick Warren, like so many other well meaning people of influence, is clueless. If he had any idea of how ICNA has been tied to funding terrorism surely he would behave differently? I wonder if dear pastor Rick knows what hudna, kitman, taqiyya, etc. mean? What a dope. As a Christian, he embarrasses me. Faith is not a license to be uninformed when the truth conflicts with your feelings. ISLAM will always promote the murder of the Jew in its scriptures and as such, people of conscience, must stand against it.