Megachurch Pastor Rick Warren Goes Scorched Earth in Effort to Push Southern Baptists Down the Slippery Woke Slope

Forward by Jennifer Rae Vliet

I had attended Warren’s Saddleback church in 1990 with some friends as we church hopped every so often. Much to my amazement I found the whole entire front section full of the hugest fake wigs that would be the envy of Dolly Parton. Upon closer inspection, these were some of the oldest and most masculine unshaved faces wearing these wigs as well as an array of frilly floral dresses. They really stood out. It was the first and last time I attended. What once was a culture of tranVESTITES that only felt comfortable going out after 11PM in Orange County California, were breaking daylight and filling up the chairs in his woke church.

Let’s fast forward a bit. Does anyone remember in 2005 when Rick was exposed for having lied about how his Purpose Driven Life book saved a woman who was taken hostage by a man in her home? Rick claimed she used his book to turn the offender toward Christ with his book, diverting his attention from raping her. You know what the truth of that scenario was? She was a junkie and so was he and as their paths crossed, she was able to subdue him with crack. I kid you not.

BY PAULA BOLYARD – PjMedia.com

Southern Baptists are meeting in New Orleans for their annual convention this week. Megachurch Pastor Rick Warren, author of the bestselling book The Purpose-Driven Life, is waging war with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), hoping to push the denomination to the left on the issue of female pastors.

Warren, now “retired” but still listed as the Founding Pastor on Saddleback Church’s website, is pressuring the SBC to allow female pastors, contrary to clear biblical teaching that pastoral roles are reserved for men.

Warren has been all over Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube this past week, viciously attacking his opponents (while calling for love and reconciliation). He’s become increasingly combative, calling his opponents “angry fundamentalists,” “angry fighters,” and “legalist showmen.” (I’ll leave it up to readers to determine who’s playing the role of “showman” in this debate.)

Warren also issued a veiled threat to leaders who oppose him. During a recent podcast with Christianity Today Editor-in-Chief Russell Moore, he warned, “We [Saddleback churches] don’t need the Southern Baptist Convention. They need the 6,000 purpose-driven churches that are in the Southern Baptist Convention in our fellowship, but we don’t need the Convention. It would be for the benefit of others, not for us.” In other words, if he doesn’t get his way on liberalizing the doctrine of the SBC, he’ll take his churches and go home.

As background, in June of last year, the SBC Credentials Committee determined that Saddleback Church was “not in friendly cooperation with the Convention,” essentially disfellowshipping the church for having a female “teaching pastor.” Southern Baptist churches are officially self-governing, but blatant violations of the Baptist Faith and Practice (BF&P — the SBC’s statement of faith) can be cause for removing a church from membership.

The committee ruled that the megachurch “has a faith and practice that does not closely identify with the Convention’s adopted statement of faith, as demonstrated by the church having a female teaching pastor functioning in the office of pastor.”

Saddleback is expected to appeal the ruling at the convention this week, and Warren is expected to issue an emotional plea for the group to liberalize on the issue. While he claims that his goal is not to force other churches to allow female pastors, allowing Saddleback back into the SBC would open the floodgates to other churches following his lead.

As an aside, Warren’s views on egalitarianism are less troubling than some of the other statements he’s made:

A study released on Sunday by American Reformer found that there are currently 1,844 female pastors in Southern Baptist churches — many more than previously estimated.

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