CRN.Info and Analysis

Ingrid continues on her nit-picking campaign. This one is just as outrageous as the last. She begins her post with the following statement,

If you wonder why the church is such a carnal mess these days, looking at the pastors will provide some clues.

What is the carnality that these men have brought into the church you ask!?! Is it sexual misconduct? Is it heresy? Is it new age practices? No, it’s Superman!

Thant’s right these men have been accused of answering the following question on their church website: Who would win in a fight, Superman and Batman. Senior pastor Lance Hahn answers, “Hands down Superman because he really has powers. Batman’s a regular dude. Although in my book, Batman’s way more interesting.”

Their other big offense that proves why the church is a carnal mess? The executive Pastor’s favorite movie is Snatch. Which he acknowledges is a “Great film if you can get past the 493 F-bombs! (This film is rated R and neither endorsed nor sanctioned by Bridgeway Christian Church or its corporate officers).” This doesn’t exactly sound like a carnal mess to me, especially when they are speaking out against profanity.

My bigger problem? In my early one on one discussions with several members of CRN and other watchdog sites, they stressed the fact that they were exposing these men and women because they were influencing people on a national / global level. That it was no longer a local church issue because it has now come to their front door. But, has anyone heard of Bridgeway Christian Church in Rockin, CA? How bout Late Night Healing Place? Maybe South Hills Church in Corona, CA rings a bell… anyone?

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anyone?

The fact is that this site has now become a doctrinal Gestapo, roaming through the internet looking for any picture, blog or comment on a church’s site that they disagree with. They are no longer just going after the big guys, but are attacking even the small unknown ministries in America. Either Ingrid has just gone crazy, or she is running out of material.

So it seems that Ken needs to further validate his position that Rick Warren isn’t a Chrsitian.  He calls in his international friends for spiritual backup.  Apparently his post attacking Warren’s salvation wasn’t enough.  This is a classic case of “SEE!  He thinks so toooo!”  Read the article here.   

Just when you thought the level of nit-picking at Slice 2.0 couldn’t go much lower, Ingrid proves that maybe there is no limit as to “how low can you go”…

And today’s persnickety gripe exposé of abject spiritual poverty in modern churches all centers around the ’staff’ page of a college church, where each member has a ’serious photo’ and a ‘not-so-serious photo’ side-by-side right above their bio.  And the problem with this?  Ingrid writes:

But what are these photos saying about the maturity level of ministry workers today?

I think that these photos would tell most college students and young professionals (the demographic of their community) that the folks who work and/or volunteer at Late Nite Church are down-to-earth folks who aren’t so full of themselves that they need to put on a “business-like air” or that they should look like they’ve eaten a diet of sour apples for the past upteen years.

Ingrid concludes by asking:

How do pig noses comport with the teaching of eternal truth? Would you take any of these people seriously?

The first question is (per the Ingrid standard) a false dichotomy, similar to ‘why should Christians have a dance festival when 400,000 babies were aborted last year’.  (In similar fashion, I suppose one could ask ‘how does complaining about someone making a pig-nose comport with the teaching of eternal truth?’)

As for taking these folks seriously, I’m pretty certain I’d take any one of them more seriously than any bitter watchdawggie who would be so shallow as to only focus on petty externals (dress or no)…

In this post from Apprising / CRN, Ken Silva officially comes out and says it: Rick Warren may not be Christian. Yes, it is true folks. Apparently Ken has accomplished the highest rank in discernment wizardry: being able to discern the hearts and salvation of men. I know many of you would like to take this at face value, but let’s look into his logic before we run away to alert the press.

Warren did an interview with beliefnet.com, in which he was asked what were the top five things that Jesus did on Earth, His response:

He planted a church

He quipped leaders

He cared for the poor

He healed the sick

He taught.

Now, the fact that he left out the cross might alarm some people. However, what A Little Leaven left out was the context in which this statement was made. In fact, in the audio clip they have, they provided just the answer, not even the question asked to Warren.

They were discussing Rick Warren’s “second reformation” or his new peace plan. It was an interview over Rick’s work in the social realm, and so these answers would be very fitting. In a discussion concerning what Jesus did on Earth in that context, this answer makes complete sense. When you are dealing with social aspects of ministry, you are going to focus on the social aspects of Jesus’ work here on earth.

However, Ken Silva affirms the statement “Warren isn’t willing to affirm Jesus’ death and resurrection.” For the life of me I cannot see where they are getting this from. Are they actually suggesting that Rick Warren is denying the death and resurrection of Jesus? Because I did not see any links on Silva’s blog to the hundreds of sermons/statements/books/resources in which Warren affirms that very thing. It seems like someone is being quite selective in the things that they are discerning.

Context, context, context people! Say you overheard a heated discussion between and husband and wife saying “Divorce is the answer to nothing!” Would it be fair of you to publish an article saying the couple said “Divorce is the answer!” Or better yet, if someone says in one conversation “I have intense arguments with my wife all the time” and later that day he says “I love the fact that we have such different views on things in life, but always manage to love each other deeply.” Would it be fair to say that this person has a bad marriage because they argue all the time? No. But, I see CRN / Apprising do this all the time. Just because Rick or Erwin or Rob don’t mention something in one interview they give, doesn’t mean that they don’t affirm or believe it.

And, I think we all need to be careful when “discerning” if someone is or isn’t a Christian.