Question: Who first used the term “America’s Pastor” with regard to Rick Warren?
Answer: The earliest we can date that phrase attributed to Rick Warren is 2005 in an article written by The Nation titled “Rick Warren, America’s Pastor.” Just a few months before that article was written, Time magazine came out with their “25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America.” Rick Warren was at the top of the list. His book, The Purpose Driven Life, had come out in the fall of 2002. Thus, it took less than three years from that best-selling release for Rick Warren to be dubbed “America’s Pastor.”
And Now the Rest of the Story: It is interesting to note that in the 2005 Nation article, Warren’s speaking engagement at the Pew Forum on Religion in 2005 was mentioned. Lighthouse Trails is very familiar with that talk Warren gave at Pew. It was in that talk that Warren told the audience he was hoping for a “second Reformation.” He explained his vision for this reformation:
Who’s the man of peace in any village – or it might be a woman of peace – who has the most respect, they’re open and they’re influential? They don’t have to be a Christian. In fact, they could be a Muslim, but they’re open and they’re influential and you work with them to attack the five giants. And that’s going to bring the second Reformation.1 (see full transcript of Warren’s talk at Pew)
Lighthouse Trails has always contended that a “second Reformation” (which implies this is a reformation from God) that would include those from other religions would not actually be a reformation from God. An interspiritual, interfaith reformation falls more in line with biblical prophecy and a one-world religion that would be a platform for the last days Anti-Christ.
Similarly, in an interview between anchor Charlie Rose and Rick Warren on August 17, 2006 (CBS removed the video in 2013), Rick Warren expanded his “second reformation” vision to include homosexuals. He said he just met with the President of the homosexual-activist group ACT UP, and asked him, “Eric [Sawyer], how can I help you get your message out?” Sawyer answered, “Use your moral authority.” Warren then said to Rose, “I’m working with these guys … I’m looking for a coalition of civility, which means let’s get back to the original meaning of tolerance.”2
In the interview with Charlie Rose and Warren, they discuss the Purpose Driven Life paradigm and its relation to Christianity in North America and around the world. Here are a few of the comments on that interview:
1. Rick Warren states there are over 2 billion Christians in the world, and says that this number includes hundreds of millions of Catholics.
2. Warren said that, with regard to his book, “I couldn’t figure out why it became such a phenomena. I think now it was because God wanted to provide a platform for these other issues we care about.” (Warren’s 5 global giants)
3. “I’ve been taking people, irreligious people, people with no background in any kind of faith or they haven’t been to church or synagogue or temple in forty years … and we take them where they need to be…. My goal is to move the American church [away] from self-centered consumerism.
The interview showed very clearly Warren’s dream to see Christians and Catholics join together, stating that “minor doctrinal differences” should not keep them separated. “What I am interested in is bringing the church together … we are never going to agree on a lot of things, but I found we do agree on purpose.” He talked about the purposes that all Catholics and Protestants agree on.
In a Christianity Today article in 2005, it stated:
“Personal computers have brand names. But inside every pc is an Intel chip and an operating system, Windows,” [Rick]Warren says. “The Purpose Driven paradigm is the Intel chip for the 21st-century church and the Windows system of the 21st-century church.” – Rick Warren, Christianity Today, October 2005 (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/october/17.32.html)
Rick Warren rose up quickly to become “America’s Pastor.” Over 400,000 churches worldwide followed him, with untold numbers still going down the Purpose Driven path.
At the Pew Forum in 2005, Rick Warren said something that was quite revealing:
You know, 500 years ago, the first Reformation with Luther and then Calvin, was about beliefs. I think a new reformation is going to be about behavior. The first Reformation was about creeds [doctrine]; I think this one will be about deeds. I think the first one was about what the church believes; I think this one will be about what the church does. The first Reformation actually split Christianity into dozens and then hundreds of different segments. I think this one is actually going to bring them together.”–Rick Warren, Pew Forum on Religion
