The Church in the World or the World in the Church

I've been doing a lot of thinking over the past few days about this AIDS conference at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church. You know, the one Hillary Clinton spoke at (the radical socialist, pro-abortion Hillary Clinton) and received standing ovations and lots of rah-rah's from Christians?

Though having Hillary Clinton there and seeing that kind of reaction from people who supposedly believe the Bible scares the daylights out of me (maybe Christians really do wear that "KICK ME" sign on their backs), I'm more concerned about the substance of the conference itself.

Helping people with AIDS is something that should be done. Sure, the vast majority of them have AIDS because of immoral behavior (drug use and sex outside of marriage). But Christ's church should still reach out to the hurting, because we're all born sinners and all suffer the consequences in some capacity of our sins.

But there are two chief problems I have with the effort to help AIDS victims.

The first is that the emphasis on prevention is almost non-existent. Oh, I know, we throw condoms around like they used to pass around matchbooks. But condoms frequently fail...if they're even used in the first place. The best way to avoid AIDS, especially in America, is to warn people not to do drugs and not to engage in homosexual behavior. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 72% of AIDS cases come from homosexual behavior and homosexuals using drugs. You could wipe out nearly 3/4 of all AIDS cases in the United States if people quit doing drugs and sodomizing each other. But you almost NEVER hear this said, even from Christian folk like Rick Warren. The key to helping people caught in suffering that came about as a consequence of sin is that you have to help them identify what got them in trouble in the first place--then help them see that Christ can deliver them from that kind of destructive lifestyle, if not the consequences already incurred.

The other problem I have is that wealth redistribution schemes is always how to do it, they say. Even Rick Warren, a Christian preacher, is for this unconstitutional, unbiblical "government compassion:"

Asked about his thoughts on Clinton's plan, Warren said the battle against AIDS would require partnership by government, the private sector and the church. The government's main role, he suggested, is in picking up the tab.

Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily nails it right between the eyes:

So why turn to the government? Why not turn to the affluent church in the U.S.?

Is the church really too small and too ineffective at taking on this challenge? Is that the way the Bible instructs us to think and act as believers? Don't we serve a God bigger even than the federal government in Washington, D.C.?

Do you see my problem with this kind of thinking?

I don't want to discourage people from trying to do good – especially believers. But it is important to follow the biblical prescription for good works. Nowhere in the Bible do I see believers called to force people to join their ministry. Nowhere in the Bible do I see believers called to lobby government to take on its burdens. Nowhere in the Bible do I see believers "partnering" with government because the church is "too poor" to accomplish its objectives.

Even if you're not a Christian, you shouldn't be supporting this kind of activity, for purely secular reasons:

But, in America, we are supposed to be governed by a Constitution that strictly limits the powers of the federal government. Nowhere in that document – and I mean nowhere – does it even remotely suggest Congress or the president have any authority to spend U.S. taxpayer funds curing illnesses in foreign countries. Nowhere in that document does it remotely suggest Congress or the president have any authority to transfer the wealth of American citizens abroad. Nowhere, in fact, in that document does it remotely suggest Congress or the president have any authority to transfer the wealth of American citizens within the United States.

I've been reluctant to say a whole lot about Rick Warren, good or bad. Though I have plenty of friends who have read his books and done Bible studies of them, I've never done so myself. I'm a little reluctant to comment on something I haven't researched for myself, unless evidences starts to pile up of it's own accord.

But after a while I began hearing things that didn't quite sound right. Then there was Rick Warren's trip to the terrorist haven of Syria, and his assessment that it's a "moderate" country. And he's cozied up with liberals in the past, though at the moment I can't recall names. Now there's his assertion that Christians show the love of Christ by advocating that government take money out of one person's pocket and put it in another person's pocket, without the consent of the first person. Friends, it's not looking good.

I'm really starting to wonder if Rick Warren's offerings represent a church in the world to spread the light and salt of Christ, or a church that's gotten too much of the world's way of thinking in it.