Rick Warren: America’s Dwight Schrute
In an hilarious episode of NBC's The Office, Dunder-Mifflin übertwerp Dwight Schrute unwittingly adapts the words of several speeches by Benito Mussolini and Karl Marx in order to appear impressive at a conference for salesmen. "Blood alone moves the wheels of history!" he cries, and by the time he gets to Il Duce's "It is a privilege to fight!" the equally witless conference audience is chanting along with him. "Salesmen of the world, unite!"
Explaining a joke tends to make it unfunny, but it might be helpful here. We, the viewers, laugh, because we know that Dwight's adaptation is a little, shall we say, inappropriate. We laugh at Dwight, the fascist salesman, and we laugh at his fever-whipped audience, barely suspending disbelief. Yes, it's possible that a roomful of several thousand salesmen with bachelor's degrees would not recognize any of these "historic" words. Again, the joke's on them, and we laugh.
Reflecting on Rick Warren's invocation at the "historic" inauguration of Barack H. Obama, I wondered: Whom is the joke on this time?
Mainstream newspapers were critical of the choice of "America's pastor" to deliver this prayer, but here in the afterglow they are praising the prayer as "tolerant." Of course, they aver, he prayed in the name of Jesus; what do you expect from an evangelical?
Warren invoked "Almighty God, our father," which is unsurprising. But very quickly, he turns to the Old Testam—er, Hebrew Scriptures to remind God of the Shema: "The Scripture tells us Hear, oh Israel, the Lord is our God; the Lord is one." Of course, as my dear-departed granny would say, "That's Bible Scripture." But of course, that One God is three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—the Name imprinted on our foreheads in Holy Baptism. Unsurprisingly, Warren doesn't go on to clarify that.
What he does go on to clarify, in the very next sentence, is that the one god he's referring to is Allah. "And you are the compassionate and merciful one."
Each Sürah of the Koran begins with the phrase, "In the name of Allah, the Compassionate and Merciful One." Pulling my English Translation of Al-Qur'an from the shelf, I let the book fall open to page 194, Al-Ma'idah, to find the same phrase at the Sürah's heading. Skimming a couple of pages detailing the prohibition of meats not slaughtered in the name of Allah, I land on condemnations of Christians and the Christian Faith (emphasis original).
O people of the book (Jews and Christians)! Now Our Rasool has come to you to reveal much of what you have concealed from the Holy Books and to pass over much which is no longer necessary . . . Indeed those have committed Kufr (rejected faith) who said, "God is the Messiah, son of Maryam." O Muhammad, ask them, "Who has the power to prevent Allah if He chose to destroy the Messiah, the son of Maryam, his mother and all that is in the earth?
Get that? In case you didn't, the publishers provide a handy note in the margin: "Jesus, son of Mary, is not God or son of God" [sic!]. This is the word of "the compassionate and merciful one."
But wait! Warren closes his prayer in Jesus' name, right? Here's the AP's transcript:
I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus, Jesus (hay-SOOS), who taught us to pray, Our Father [etc.]
Yeshua ("Joshua") is the Hebrew word for Jesus, and "hay-SOOS" will be familiar to Spanish-speaking viewers who apparently didn't understand any other word of Warren's prayer. Who is "Isa"?
Isa is the Arabic word for Jesus, used in the Koran in order to deny His membership in the Godhead, His resurrection, His saving mission.
But see, Warren fans might argue, America's pastor was making use of a teachable moment. He was showing Muslims that the Isa they subordinate to Muhammad is really . . . well, the "one who changed my life." Here in this country where we are "united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all," we're all really praying to the same Allah. Now, let Isa change your life.
People of the Book, UNITE!
Warren does remind us (though he is addressing God) that Judgment Day is coming: "And may we never forget that one day all nations and all people will stand accountable before you." That's good advice. It meshes with Our Lord's statement in Matthew 10:
Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Does invoking Allah and praying to "Isa" amount to confessing Christ before men?
Listen, dude! If Rick Warren were the kind of guy who insisted on invoking the Holy Trinity and leaving out Isa and Allah and Shiva and the Dharma Initiative and Dr. King, he never would've been asked to pray in the first place! "Some people will tell you salesman is a bad word. They'll conjure up images of used car dealers, and door to door charlatans. This is our duty—to change their perception."
Tee hee. Joke's on us.
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While Warren likely is a charlatan and the prayer is biased as you infer, perhaps you are overstating your case forgetting that Arabs were first Christians--indeed, the name "Christian" first took hold in Antioch; and Arab Christians still use Isa just as you use Jesus.
Const, I haven't forgotten. What I'm looking at is the context here. Do you think Rick Warren was reaching out to Palestinian Christians? I wish he were.
No, Isa (in Arabic script: عيسى) the Mohammedan term. Arab Christians use a term that is transliterated as "Yasu" (in Arabic script: يسوع).
By using "Isa", (in Arabic script: عيسى) Rick Warren was praying to Allah.
Quite disturbing.
Yeah, the joke's on us, but why is it I don't find myself laughing? Does this whole Obama thing mean we who live for Christ will find the days ahead more difficult? Even dark and bloody?
Wolf explains why, when I heard the Rev. Warren's speech -- or prayer? -- I both became queasy and giggled.
Let's also not forget the Rev. Lowery's benediction: "We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to give back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right."
Notice that only whites are singled out for committing sins, and have yet to “embrace what is right.” Everyone else is sinless, but the victims of whites. (Although Asians, according to Lowery, apparently have a mood disorder; but that’s not a sin.)
I saw Obama chuckling during those words.
Recently coached a game vs. a Roman Catholic school after which we (a football team representing an evangelical, protestant school) met them in the middle of the field to pray. The other team won so, by unofficial coaching default, their coach led the prayer. I told our players ahead of time that Catholics will often begin prayers "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Amen"...which sounds like the end of a prayer to most protestant ears. In fact, protestants usually just say "In Jesus' Name Amen." Most of our players found this respectful, a few found it "a little weird." I told them beginning our prayers this way is not only addressing the true God, but also signals to others around us who is the object of our petition and worship.
Warren's muddling of petitions and religious sampling would have been far too clear if he began (or ended) his prayer in a truly Christian manner...much less if it had been distinctly Christian in content.
I'm not sure clarity and distinctive Christianity are what much of evangelicalism is all about.
In addition to Aaron's comments above, I would add that Rick Warren's invocation was the rhetorical low-point of the event. It seemed a bit stiff and clumsy to me (There is a good editorial about this at by Lisa Miller at Newsweek.com).
I thought that the way he phrased the references to the "first African-American president of the United States" and "the son of an African immigrant" seemed either to be re-stating the obvious or even belittling to Mr. Obama.
With regard to Joseph Lowery, his prayer was certainly no more "Christian" than Warren's, but it certainly was more eloquent. His prayer also had a context. He is an 87-year old black man who in his lifetime has seen prejudice and discrimination like none of us young, white men can even imagine. He has spent a lifetime marching, preaching and praying for the event that our country celebrated yesterday. In his prayer he quoted James Weldon Johnson at the beginning, and at the end the comments about black, brown, yellow, etc. were not something he made up, but a reversal of an old civil-rights area adage. While they were mostly lost on us (except that those who weren't familiar with that phrase heard those words as racist), but for people of color whose experience for generations in this country has not been "freedom and justice for all" they struck a very personal note.
Hmm, maybe Obama really is a Muslim as the right-wing talk show hosts claim.
Does it matter to whom the joke is on? Chrisitanity is already a parody of itself, so I don't see what the big commotion is. You should be more worried about the March of Marxism in America that is coming very soon.
""but it certainly was more eloquent. His prayer also had a context. He is an 87-year old black man who in his lifetime has seen prejudice and discrimination like none of us young, white men can even imagine.""
Blah blah blah. So what? There is black on white hatred everyday in this country. Race issues have been going on since the beginning of man in all directions. You multicults are a religion all unto yourself. The self flagellation and kum-by-ya dribble over the black benediction from the "Conservatives" shows just how devoid America has become. When you defer to those who hate you might as well stick a gun in your mouth. We have become babel and believe in everything so in reality believe in nothing. The true sign of a diseased and totally destructive society.
I have been feeling decidedly unmulticultural and intolerant recently. If I were being inaugurated as President I would ask an old priest friend of mine to give the invocation and I would insist it was a pure Catholic gem. I would even insist he consecrate the nation to the Sacred Heart while he was at it. And the Devil take the complainers. Rick Warren? God have mercy on us. If Obama is smart he will have a meeting in the white house with two or three major "evangelicals" and say some nice things about them and that his favorite philosopher is Jesus. It will be smooth sailing for him from them on.
My father completed the eleventh grade, the grade at the end of which one graduated in his day. He trained to become a cement mason, joined the National Guard, was federalized and fought in Europe in WWII. He read the Bible every day, the Alexander Daily Town Talk every day, all of the books which Zane Gray had written and U.S. News and World Report. Otherwise, he farmed, fished, hunted and, in his latter years, met Monday through Saturday at the Post Office as one of the Old Geezers or as he put it "one of the Old Gazers"!
When Rick Warren's "program," "Forty Days of Purpose" came out, I had never heard of him, his Saddle Back mega-church or his "program." Many Baptist pastors immediately imposed it, most unBaptist-like, on their congregations. Our congregation heralded the start of the "program," and so did the congregation to which my mother and father belonged. My father had attended the service in which Warren, his Saddle Back Church and the "program" were initially presented. In a conversation at the supper table, my father told me that he was not going to church while the "program" was being offered. He stated that he went to Church to met and worship the Living God and not to be programmed and that, based on what had been presented of Warren, he considered Warren to be a counterfeit, adding that Satan was the father of the counterfeit. This was 2005. Old Geezers who know their Bible, who love their Church and who know the voice of their Lord, recognize a counterfeit when they encounter one!
@9 Robert
Do you mean to say that American Christianity is a parody of itself? The apostolic church is indeed alive and well, but rather small and necessarily foreign. I escaped the lunacy of the Azusa Street revival, latter rain, the Pensacola Blessing, the Toronto Airport blessing, holy laughter, inner healing, talking gibberish and falling (getting pushed) backwards, and became Romanian Orthodox. I felt it necessary to escape these crazy American inventions concocted during the 20th century.
"Hmm, maybe Obama really is a Muslim as the right-wing talk show hosts claim."
Mr. Oosbree,
I think it's more that self-loathing and cowardly white males, in their heart of hearts, think he is a Muslim.
That's what came out of Warren in his rather odd invocation.
And this explains a big part of how the president got elected:
1. The self loathing whites (by which I actually mean John McCain) felt all this guilt over the Muslims they mass murdered in Iraq.
2. So they decided to show the world that they commited the mass murders for respectable Zionistic purposes.
3. And not non-respectable reasons related to religion or race.
4. By elected some guy who probably might be a Muslim for all we freaking know.
"1. The self loathing whites (by which I actually mean John McCain) felt all this guilt over the Muslims they mass murdered in Iraq."
Thinking about it, this should actually read:
"1. Self-loathing zionist white males (including many who opposed the war) felt this guilt over the Muslims their government mass murdered in Iraq, but they had to repress and/or mask this guilt for Zionistic reasons."
"I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus, Jesus (hay-SOOS)..."
You just can't get any more post-modern than that.
But while we and the terrorists may dislike the invocation, the important thing is that we'll never defeat the spirit of america.
We may knock down their skyscrapers, we may blow their airplanes out of the sky, we may stop them from putting the sun into harness, we may set off a nuclear bomb in New York City rush hour traffic, we may rebuild the walls between tribes, we may make the Potomac run red with blood.
But we'll never defeat their spirit of wussiness, which shall evermore shine as a beacon to people the world over who are just tired of caring who is right, and just want to die inside without going through that whole spooky dying thing..
"Rev." Joseph Lowery's benediction was a lot of nonsense but was perfect for the occasion of the inauguration of an anti-Western president of a nation whose majority has turned their backs on Western Civilization. Had a white man rambled racial ditties like Mr. Lowery, he would have been hooted off the stage and banished from public life. However, today's hollow men would explain Mr. Lowery's silly rhymes as black style just as other hollow men would explain "Dr." Martin Luther King's plagiarism as a legitimate African-American intellectual pattern. It would be racist of anyone to call Mr. Lowery's swill for anything other than what it is- childish tripe.
As for Rick Warren, he had nothing to say. I could only surmise from his barren invocation that the Protestant Megachurch movement is sterile and that the arenas that the Megachurch pastors claim are churches are filled with empty men and women. If Rick Warren is the future of Protestantism, then that faith must be deeper in the abyss than I ever thought.
>“Rev.” Joseph Lowery’s benediction was a lot of nonsense but was perfect for the occasion of the inauguration of an anti-Western president of a nation whose majority has turned their backs on Western Civilization. Had a white man rambled racial ditties like Mr. Lowery, he would have been hooted off the stage and banished from public life. However, today’s hollow men would explain Mr. Lowery’s silly rhymes as black style just as other hollow men would explain “Dr.” Martin Luther King’s plagiarism as a legitimate African-American intellectual pattern. It would be racist of anyone to call Mr. Lowery’s swill for anything other than what it is- childish tripe.If Rick Warren is the future of Protestantism...<
I don't think anyone has suggested that he is.
Const #1,
Mr. Wolf didn't infer anything in his article; perhaps he implied something in his piece that you inferred.
Allah on divorce: "Divorce your wife(s) by declaring it, but do it when they're on the rag, and dump 'em next time they're on the rag unless you change your mind. Alternatively, wait 3 full moons if they're pre-menstrual like Aisha."
The Living God on divorce: "Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery"
Not the same being.
@Aaron D. Wolf 2
No, you are right, he was not--for him they probably do not exist or are irrelevant or are "wrong" (and have been for 2000 years) anyway so they do not matter. Sad...
@ Ivan 3
Thank you for clarifying.
@ John Q. Reb 21
Agreed.
Bruce @22,
Don't tell Bush!
The funny thing is I guess there's some kind of ambiguity on the issue of whether it was political correctness that led Bush into the Mosque to say he actually worships Allah, or whether it was proof that the same god (Allah) who punished America with the blessed attacks of 9/11 decided to further humiliate the enemy of all goodness in the world by making its president reject the Christ for the greater glory of his name.
That name, of course, being Allah!
Surely it couldn't have been for political reasons that Bush did this, considering the Muslims (like the hispanics) have never swung an election in the entire history of this country.
P.S.
Like a typical right-winger, Pastor Warren wasn't inclusive enough. He didn't invoke the names of the Buddha (WTH do they worship again??), Zoroaster, the mighty thor, various tree spirits (for the Wiccans you know), Gaia (perhaps the same being as Oprah??), the supreme practioner of voodoo, AND that trippy, elephant-trunked Hindu demigod that looks like something from an Emerson Lake and Palmer record album cover.
The prayer strikes me as game playing, and it is too clever for its own good. It seems to me like Warren was trying to be both inclucive (with the names) and exclusive at the same time. I suspect he was thinking he was pulling one over on them. But it doesn't work. Because the overall effect is wishy-washy whether he intended it to be or not.
It is a great over-estimation of the character of Bush, McCain, etc. to think that they would feel any guilt over murdering people.
PPS,
Please forgive my crudeness @ 20. Of course, even without my slang it's not particuarly pleasant.
A couple thoughts about Warren's prayer. 1) Prayer by committee -- you know that the Obama team vetted this prayer and probably made Warren add the incoherent references pointed out in the article; 2) I've seen this kind of PC nonsense in military chaplain invocations as well where Christian chaplains have to write watered-down, ecumenical sounding prayers to avoid offending the perpetually offended (ie, Muslims and Jews); 3) He probably did think he was playing games and trying to back-door Jesus into a pluralist setting but instead he failed; 4) Why can't people accept that a Christian minister or priest will pray to Jesus Christ and/or God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Isn't it more insulting for a Christian to water down his invocation instead of giving his audience the fullness of the faith he professes? I suspect Jesus would have hurled Warren's PC prayer out of His Mouth.
I am sometimes critical of Chrolicles. But this article is indepensible in understanding Rick Warren and his Obama-philic prayer. I knew the theology was skewed, but I did not know the extend of the bending until I read this article. The saddest thing is that so-called conservatives DEFEND Rick Warren for being TOLERANT and INCLUSIVE in a "historic" event of state. "After all, he realizes that not all his audience was Christian. He did not want to say anything that might OFFEND Muslims (or presumably Wiccans)."
conservatives DEFEND Rick Warren for being TOLERANT and INCLUSIVE in a “historic” event
@30 Jospeh
Tolerate only appears once in the Scriptures, it's in Romans, and the context is that God tolerates our sins. However, our left liberal bosses want it added to both the gifts and the fruits of the Spirit.
Why would we expect anything else from BO, the stealth Muslim.
Those so called "conservatives" that defended Warren are Marxists, pure and simple.
@Arius
I seriously doubt that he is a Muslim more likely a stealth Jew declaring before AIPAC 'Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided' and "that any negotiations with the Palestinians must preserve Israel as a Jewish state" and that he will implement a policy of 30 billion dollars of direct aid to Israel over the next 10 years.
He is a stealth jihadist in regards to Serbia and Russia with his rhetoric and staff appointees and there history in dealing with the two countries during the 90’s.
Sam @29 "Isn’t it more insulting for a Christian to water down his invocation instead of giving his audience the fullness of the faith he professes?"
Rick Warren performed some twisted mental gymnastics with his invocation. It's silly to have this multi-faith oratory if the result is watered-down politically correct mish-mash. The only conclusion is he's not a true Christian. If he was, he should have declined the invitation.
As for Reverin' Lowrey, he's just an older version of Al Sharpton pinging whitey with the race card. With the economy going down the tubes, it seems Obama will be our Mugabe.
I can't say I'm the least surprised by the words and prayers of the Gantry-in-Chief (to borrow Dr. Fleming's delicious description). As Chuck Baldwin pointed out in his most recent articles, Warren is a CFR member whose globalist-utopian whose ideology is centered around a one-world government, a one-world economy, and ....... (imagine my surprise) a one-world religion.