Rick Warren faced a raft of backlash on X in response to a post in which he referred to the two thieves who were crucified on either side of Jesus, and declared, “If you’re looking for the #realJesus, not a caricature disfigured by partisan motivations, you’ll find him in the middle, not on either side.”
Warren, the author of the popular book “The Purpose Driven Life,” founded Saddleback Church with his wife Kay in 1980, according to pastorrick.com.
His Feb. 11 post has earned thousands of replies and more than 3 million views.
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Seth Dillon, the CEO of the satire site the Babylon Bee, sarcastically quipped, “Yeah, because if there’s one thing Jesus was known for, it was his desire to meet in the middle and compromise on the issues that matter most.”
“This is possibly the worst Biblical interpretation I’ve ever seen, and that’s really saying something,” conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey declared. “Jesus is not ‘in the middle’ on the murder of children, gender deception, the definition of marriage, or anything else, for that matter. In fact, I seem to remember Him having a particular disdain for the lukewarm.”
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“What happens when the authorial intent of a biblical text is discarded? The text becomes a wax nose, bent according to our own intent. Case in point,” Brad Klassen, a professor at The Master’s Seminary, wrote regarding Warren’s post.
David Limbaugh, the brother of the late conservative radio icon Rush Limbaugh, tweeted, “Meaningless mush,” adding, “with all due respect.”
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In his most recent tweet prior to the one that came under so much scrutiny, Warren had written, “Jesus: “Whoever #serves me must #FOLLOW me.” Jn 12:26,” adding, “Seems obvious, right? But while serving Jesus in ministry, we can stop #following Him! Instead, we start following politicians, podcasters, or peers-and our vision, values & priorities come from social media, not Jesus. #bad”
