Why Rick Warren Must Publicly Rebuke Rupert Murdoch
Published May 4th, 2007 by Ken Silva in Purpose Driven, Rick WarrenRick Warren: Purpose-Driven Pornography? is certainly a most disturbing piece of information. My friend Chris Rosebrough is going to be on Crosstalk with Ingrid Schlueter to discuss this important issue today. Rosebrough is exactly right when he says:
Rupert Murdoch is a born-again Christian and Rick Warren claims to be his pastor. As a Christian, Murdoch is committing an egregious sin by owning, expanding and profiting from pornographic channels and Rick Warren, as his pastor, has a Biblical duty to call Murdoch to repentance and/or put him out of the church.
As a pastor-teacher myself I know I would never knowingly allow sin to go on within the flock that Christ has made me undershepherd. So the question we need to ask now would be: Is Rick Warren responsible for Rupert Murdoch? According to Warren himself in an article entitled "New Yorker article on the ministry of Rick Warren by Malcolm Gladwell," which "originally appeared in The New Yorker magazine on Sept. 12, 2005," and was reprinted in Rick Warren’s Ministry Toolbox, Warren tells us:
"I had dinner with Jack Welch last Sunday night," he said. "He came to church, and we had dinner. I’ve been kind of mentoring him on his spiritual journey. And he said to me, ‘Rick, you are the biggest thinker I have ever met in my life. The only other person I know who thinks globally like you is Rupert Murdoch.’ And I said, ‘That’s interesting. I’m Rupert’s pastor! Rupert published my book!’" Then he tilted back his head and gave one of those big Rick Warren laughs.
So now that we have established from Warren himself he is indeed Rupert Murdoch’s pastor, then what does Pastor Rick Warren have to say about dealing with people in sin. Well over at Rick Warren’s Ministry Podcast Warren posted a piece called What Happens When a Staff Member Falls where he informs us:
"Public sins (those that affect a large group of people in our congregation) regrettably must be dealt with publicly as a warning to others."
One would certainly have to think that "owning and expanding a network of pornographic channels in Europe" would certainly qualify as "public sins." In the Podcast piece Warren also states correctly that:
"The Bible says that those who teach are held to a greater public accountability because of their visibility to those they teach. (James 3:1, 1 Tim. 5:20)."
So now that Rosebrough has brought this flagrant and obviously public sin before the Church, and because Warren is a pastor-teacher who is very well known to the public himself, then both Warren and Murdoch have to be held to a greater public accountability because of their visibility. And this is exactly why Rick Warren must now publicly rebuke Rupert Murdoch.
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