This narrow way

Rick Warren has responded to last month’s decision by the Southern Baptist Convention that said Saddleback Church, the California megachurch of which Warren is the former pastor, was no longer in friendly cooperation with the Convention” for having a woman on its pastoral staff. Warren’s remarks were made on a March 8 podcast with Russell Moore.

There’s a lot to dig into here so let’s begin. Warren made it clear that he knows Saddleback is in defiance of what is called the SBC’s Baptist Faith and Mission statement, which reads:

“Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

Warren’s position is that the SBC needs Saddleback a lot more than Saddleback needs the SBC (full of himself much?) and he would just as soon leave, but he’s going to appeal the decision anyway. Magnanimous Rick must stand up for the little guy.

“In my heart of hearts, I just want to walk away from it. You don’t want to be where you’re not wanted, right? OK. I knew last year at the Convention, but I don’t… I don’t think I can do that. I think that’s a selfish thing to do. I think I need to stand up for the pastors who are scared to death by this inquisition, and I think I need to stand up for the millions of godly Southern Baptist women whose gifts and leadership skills are being stymied.”

Two things. Inquisition? Really? The SBC statement that only men are to be pastors is akin the Catholic Church torturing and persecuting Jews and Muslims in the 12^th century? Puhleeeeze. Second, nobody’s gifts and leadership skills are being stymied. Women just can’t exercise their gifts and skills in the office of pastor. Other ministries in the church are wide open, just not the position of pastor. Why is that so hard to get? Scripture couldn’t possibly be any clearer than it is:

“A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.” 1 Timothy 2:11-12.

Not clear enough? 1 Corinthians 14:34, 35 say much the same thing, but remembering these are letters written by Paul and weren’t broken up into chapter and verse originally, let’s take it back to verse 33 and get the context. Then it reads:

“For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints, the women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the law says.”

Again, crystal clear. But apparently not. Warren sees some discrepancy there.

“This is not a battle between liberals and conservatives. All the liberals left a long time ago [apparently not]. Everybody in the SBC believes in the inerrancy of scripture [again, apparently not]. Now we’re talking about difference of interpretation. Those particular passages from Titus, Timothy and Corinthians have hundreds, literally hundreds of interpretations.”

Now, I’m not a megachurch pastor or the self-proclaimed defender of all the victims of the SBC’s inquisition, but it seems to me that “do not allow” and “are not permitted” don’t leave room for any interpretation, let alone hundreds. But what do I know. The passage in Titus he’s referring to calls for elders to be “the husband of one wife” Titus 1:6. Again, not a lot of wiggle room there either.

Warren moved on to some tactics that have become all too familiar in our culture,  usually coming from those who know their argument isn’t on very solid ground. First, the old whataboutism.

“It’s not an accident that the same voices that said we cannot protect women from abuse because of the autonomy of the local church are the same voices that are saying, but we can prevent them from being called pastors. … The autonomy only matters if it’s convenient for you.”

Maybe if Warren had been paying attention he would have noticed that one of the churches found to be not in cooperation with the SBC at the same time as Saddleback, Freedom Church in Vero Beach FL, was because the church refused to cooperate with the SBC in regards to an investigation of an allegation of sexual abuse within the church. Oops. Looks like the SBC can walk and chew gum at the same time. Nice try, Rick.

That failed to pass muster, so let’s go with the old tried and true motive for just about everything. Racism.

“For hundreds of years, Black Baptist churches have been ordaining women as bishops, as pastors, as prophets, as apostles as elders, as deaconesses. If this is true, the SBC is holding up a sign that says, ‘All Black churches look elsewhere.’”

Shameful.

When all else fails in an argument about religion, slam those nasty, old fundamentalist Christians.

“A hundred years ago, I would’ve called myself a fundamentalist, because in the 1920s, it meant you hold the historic doctrines of the church, the blood atonement of Christ, the authority of Scripture, all the basic cardinal doctrines of evangelical Protestantism.

“But that word has changed because now we have fundamental Muslims, fundamental Buddhists. We have fundamental atheists, we have fundamental communists, we have fundamentalists who are secularists. Today, a fundamentalist means you’ve stopped listening. It means you’ve stopped listening.”

Uh, it still means you hold the historic doctrines of the church, which Warren doesn’t, and it still means holding to the authority of scripture, which Warren doesn’t. But never mind that, fundamentalist Christians are now, according to Warren, in the same category as fundamentalist Muslims, atheists, and communists. I’m beginning to get a clearer idea of why Saddleback was kicked out of the SBC. Maybe it wasn’t all about a woman pastor but had a lot to do with a former pastor. If he was preaching this heresy from the pulpit all the time he was pastor, Saddleback should have been kicked out long ago.

Then Warren got to the reason for his change of heart regarding women as pastors. He had an epiphany during the pandemic. He studied the Great Commission and read that both men and women were called to go, make disciples, baptize and teach. (Matthew 28:8-10). He looked at the Day of Pentecost and read “I will pour out my spirit on all mankind and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.” (Acts2:17). Then he went to John where Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection and told her to go and tell the disciples what she saw. (John 20:16-18).  

All those are true and all those are Biblical. All are examples of different ways women have been called and gifted by the Holy Spirit to share faithfully in the ministry of the Gospel, but all have nothing whatsoever to with the qualifications for pastor.  What Warren did was take Scriptures unrelated to the subject, knead and twist them together and come out with his desired result. Pretzel logic. The Bible doesn’t work that way.

Warren took one last shot at fundamentalist Christians.

“The problem with the fundamentalists is there are no disputable, no secondary issues with them. Every one of them matters… This issue women’s role, it’s not a primary issue because it doesn’t have to do with salvation. It is a secondary issue.”

Is there a more primary issue in Christianity than following what the Bible teaches? Absolutely not.