I have a lot to say about Rick Warren. This is Part II of a look at the problem you should have with “America’s Pastor”. Part I is here.

I’ve been a Rick Warren detractor for several years now. His pop-Church approach leaves me cold, and more importantly there are serious errors in his approach. Not the least of these is his reliance on paraphrases of the Bible (like The Message) over translations and his habit of using partial verses, both of which are done to bend the Bible to say what he wants.

Another reason I have a problem with him is that I’ve been the victim of the Rick Warren Church Growth Method, better known as The Purpose Driven Life, in which he teaches that people who don’t follow the preacher’s (not God’s, not church doctrine’s) authority without question should be forced to leave the church by any means necessary.

Unity trumps conviction in Rick Warren’s world; he even forces members to sign membership covenants that are re-signed annually. The very first, most prominently placed item on this document (pdf link) is “I WILL PROTECT THE UNITY OF MY CHURCH”, as if unity were the most important principle in church membership.

Is it any wonder that people who’ve been on the receiving end of the Warren Method (me) report being shunned, dehumanized, and worse? The first time I was called the devil several years ago was not because I’m one of The Homosexuals, but because I wanted my preacher to tell the truth and stop attacking me personally in his sermons.

But that’s not the worst of it.

There’s also the fact that Rick Warren is rabidly anti-gay, campaigning from the pulpit for years to defeat gay rights initiatives. He’s managed to fly under the radar, presenting himself as a middle-of-the-road totally unoffensive alternative to James Dobson and the likes, but he’s been right there with Dobson claiming that… Well, how about I let him tell you. Here’s what he said the Sunday before election day in 2008:

Here’s an interesting thing: there are about 2% of Americans [who] are homosexual, gay, lesbian people. We should not let two percent of the population determine—to change a definition of marriage that has been supported by every single culture and every single religion for 5,000 years. This is not even just a Christian issue, it is a humanitarian and human issue, that God created marriage for the purpose of family, love and procreation. I urge you to support Proposition 8 and to pass that on.

I feel the rage rising in me, so I’ll wrap this up quick:

1. Civil marriage is not the same as religious marriage.
2. Every culture and religion has not exclusively identified heterosexual monogamous marriage. That’s just not true. For Heaven’s sake, even the Bible disagrees with Warren’s statement.
3. Procreation is not a necessary component of marriage.
4. Where is his 2% statistic from? Generally we hear 5-10%. Not that it matters, of course. The civil rights of a minority are never dependent on their numbers.

For years, Rick Warren has branded himself as an apolitical, I-just-care-about-people preacher. But here (and here) we see that this isn’t really true. Hopefully more people are starting to see through his façade to what he truly is: A wolf in sheep’s clothing.