The Burr in the Burgh

Hey, go check out the scribblings of the brothers at Fide-o. Look around awhile and you'll see their section on Saddleback Church. That's Rick Warren's. Since Mr. Richard Abanes is now on record calling me a bunch of names, it was comforting to see I haven't been his only target.

As you can see, Abanes calls me a witch-hunter, a liar, small-minded, unloving, unChrist-like, hate-filled, arrogant, ignorant, evil, fanatical, sectarian and damaging to the Body of Christ. All in one comment. Not to mention an embarrasment to my denomination.

The thing is, in all honesty, he is right (not necessarily in the ways he meant it but even so). I don't deny any of it. That's what is so wonderful about Jesus and His cross. And that's why Rick Warren's book The Purpose Driven Life is so pointless. It's not just that Warren distorts and misapplies the Bible over and over and over. It's not just his false teachings. It's also what he doesn't say. There ain't much gospel there folks and w/o the gospel, your life has no purpose.

I'm sure that Rick Warren means well. I don't question his intentions or motives. I challenge his words.

While there are hundreds of websites condemning The Purpose Driven Life and articles too numerous to cite, I like what Pastor Gary E. Gilley of Southern View Chapel in Springfield, IL had to say in his short review:

when every third page of a book presents either an unbiblical, or at least a biblically unsupportable idea, there is not much sense bothering to read it. And that would be my suggestion - don't bother.