As long as Christians discuss the question, "What would Jesus do?" as a book title, as a thought, as an idea, as a theory about what it means to be like Christ, it's mighty easy to claim we really know what Jesus would do in every given situation.
But the answer to the question never ceases to rattle our religious cage once we see flesh and blood step forward and dare to actually do what Jesus would do. Whenever that happens, that embodiment of the real Jesus suddenly becomes a favorite target of attacks, criticisms and complaints.
In his unexpected friendship with Mr. Barack Obama, whom some call the most liberal politician to ever run for the American presidency, Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Community Church has become the latest public portrait of the true Jesus.
From every indication, Pastor Warren has chosen to stick to issues of morality without being stuck on political parties or personalities. The man is all about reaching and touching people in the spirit of Christ's love rather than throwing away the "sinner" with the bathwater of politicized Christian doctrine. Though Pastor Warren adamantly disagrees with Barack Obama on homosexual marriage and abortion, that has not stopped him from becoming friends with Obama. A news report says that Obama asked Warren to read the religion chapter of his book, The Audacity of Hope. Warren did Obama the favor.
Apart from reaching out to politicians who are not on the same page with him, Pastor Warren has also gone on record in his all-out efforts to devote time, energy, and enormous financial resources to people with HIV/AIDS, and to relieve poverty in a radical way. His outreach in African villages is second to none, as he provides clean water, medical services, and other tangible forms of compassion similar to the Jesus of the Gospels, who went about touching lepers, the AIDS patients of His day.
It was in that vein that on World's AIDS Day, December 1, 2006, Rick Warren welcomed Senator Obama to Saddleback Church to speak at Warren's "Global Summit on AIDS and the Church". Part of the event was for Obama to take an AIDS test at a news conference.
Then in August 2008, Warren interviewed both McCain and Obama at his church on moral issues, like abortion and homosexual marriage.
Pastor Warren is as staunchly pro-life as Obama is pro-abortion. But that has not stopped both men from continuing to be mutual friends.
It shocked homosexual activists that Obama asked Warren to pray at the president-elect's swearing in ceremony. And it enraged conservative evangelicals that Warren agreed to give the invocation at Obama's inauguration.
I can understand why the homosexual partisans are raving mad with Obama for inviting Warren, who publicly campaigned for Proposition 8 to amend California constitution in defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman. While the hostility from homosexual activists is understandable, it does more to reveal their own disguise as loving and compassionate. Liberal homosexual activists claim to be tolerant, yet they are among the angriest and most intolerant souls on the planet when someone like Rick Warren stands against their agenda. These guys show that "the church" does not have a monopoly on the game of hypocrisy.
As for the anger of evangelicals against Warren for accepting the invitation... Well my evangelical buddies continue to seal and sear their image as the modern equivalent of first-century Pharisees, who constantly pestered Jesus for hanging out with sinners. The Pharisees would rather shun sinners, condemn sinners to hell, or at least have Jesus consent to stoning sinners to death.
For example, when Jesus visited the home of Zacchaeus, the religious elites murmured, saying of Jesus, "He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner'' (Luke 19:7).
If they were living today, the Pharisees would have probably said the same of Rick Warren: "He is going to give the invocation for a man who is pro-abortion and pro-homosexual."
On another occasion, as Jesus and His disciples were sharing a meal with "many tax collectors and sinners", the Pharisees took notice and asked Jesus' disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" (Luke 9:11).
Our contemporary Pharisees would say, "Why does Rick Warren speak in a friendly manner with liberal Democrats, homosexuals, Muslims, and people with AIDS?"
The answer Jesus gave those holier-than-thou Pharisees should provide Pastor Warren sufficient response to his evangelical critics, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick...For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance" (Luke 9:12-13).
Translated: Traditional evangelicals and their followers do not need the gospel message that Rick Warren has to share; Barack Obama, homosexuals, Muslims, and people with HIV/AIDS do need Rick Warren and his authentic Jesus. Pastor Warren must go to where the sinners are.
You win souls the same way Jesus did: You talk to those you perceive to be "the lost". You eat with them. And yes, you can pray with or for sinners, like Pastor Warren is slated to do for Mr. Obama.
It should be noted that Pastor Warren, unlike traditional evangelicals, is even-handed in his friendship with or courtesy towards liberal and conservative politicians alike. Recently, his group awarded President George W. Bush a medal to honor the Republican president for his HIV/AIDS initiative. That reminds us of Jesus Christ, who befriended the despised Zacchaeus and the Samaritan woman as eagerly as he did respected Pharisees like Nicodemus and Simon.
Rick Warren is my kind of evangelical. Frankly, it will be a breath of fresh air for someone like Warren, along with the likes of Joel Osteen and T.D. Jakes, to become the new leadership for Evangelical Americana, in particular for those of us who are tired of and fed with the shameless, one-sided, and sometime very crude evangelical partisanship we've seen coming from traditional evangelicals in recent years.
What would Jesus do? Take a good look at Rick Warren. He lives the answer.
