what's wrong with Rick Warren?
I was once dating a woman that got heavily into Joel Osteen (yes theres a point here), she finally convinced me to watch one of his sermons. Within five minutes I was completely turned off and couldn't finish. Something didn't feel right. I have him some more tries, at her request, but always felt the same. And as I heard more I started picking up on problems I had with what he was teaching. I pointed them out to her and she started swaying, but remained unconvinced.
Well, if you kniw anything about him you know how shady he turned out to be and his teachings were questionable at best.
But before I knew what he taught I knew something wasn't right. I have a nose for this stuff. Maybe discernment?
Did the same the first time I heard someone start spewing word of faith at me. I questioned my youth pastor on what they said, I was a teen, and he told me about it and how bad it was. I knew something was off, even if i didn't know anything about wof at the time.
That leads us to Warren. When he first came out with his book, my gf once again urged me towards him and the book. At first it seemed legit and I admit I got caught up in the excitement. We found a group that got together just for the purpose of going through the book together.
As I got deeper into the book I began getting that feeling again. It wasn't long before I quit going and gave up the book.
My gf, once again, wasn't so sure and went to his church services a few times. This is when she got turned off from him completely.
I don't recall everything she spoke on about it, but she did say that he would stop Mid Sermon and bring someone up from one of his support groups to tell their testimony and push for people to join. He did this every week she went.
And the book was such a craze. That group I went to for the book reading, Only got together for the book. They had not gotten together before that. Not for bible studies even. And lots of that was going around.
Then there was his questionable stance around Muslims. Some felt his dealings with Muslims was a bad sign, and some said he was pushing for combining the two.
He, of course, denied such things, eventually everything passed. Then it came up again. This time he made very clear statements about his original intentions and goals, as well as his stand on core central beliefs.
Honestly it all made sense to me and seemed he was attempting something good, with the right motives, but I did question that it took him years to make those statements.
He was also on good terms with some celebs who did not claim to be Christian, which made people suspicious of him as well.
It's been forever since I've looked at the book or listened to him, but there is enough there for me to continue staying away. First and foremost was that same feeling I got about Osteen. And others.