Apprising Ministries continues with our documentation of what just may be a great falling away.

We watch as silly superstitions disguised as so-called Spiritual Formation slither deeper into the very heart of the mainstream evangelical community.

Now largely only pretending to be Protestant as so many bow before the Golden Calf of corrupt Counter Reformation Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) as perpetrated by Southern Baptist minister Dallas Wilard and his former pastor and close friend, Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster.

You’ll see a perfect example of this with Protholics like Rick Warren of the SBC flagship Saddleback Church as evidenced e.g. in James Robison And Rick Warren Working To Reverse The Protestant Reformation and even with Apprising Ministries Exclusive On Rick Warren, Jim Hinch, And Islam.

That latter piece basically came about because of a post by Ed Stetzer, the President of LifeWay Research—the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. Stetzer felt he need to come to Warren’s defense concerning controversy regarding a document called King’s Way.

You’re probably aware that the conflict began with Rick Warren builds bridge to Muslims where free lance reporter Jim Hinch told us:

The Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest and one of America’s most influential Christian leaders, has embarked on an effort to heal divisions between evangelical Christians and Muslims by partnering with Southern California mosques and proposing a set of theological principles that includes acknowledging that Christians and Muslims worship the same God.

The effort, informally dubbed King’s Way, caps years of outreach between Warren and Muslims… At [a] dinner, Abraham Meulenberg, a Saddleback pastor in charge of interfaith outreach, and Jihad Turk, director of religious affairs at a mosque in Los Angeles, introduced King’s Way as “a path to end the 1,400 years of misunderstanding between Muslims and Christians.”

The men presented a document they co-authored outlining points of agreement between Islam and Christianity. The document affirms that Christians and Muslims believe in “one God” and share two central commandments: “love of God” and “love of neighbor.” The document also commits both faiths to three goals: Making friends with one another, building peace and working on shared social service projects. The document quotes side-by-side verses from the Bible and the Koran to illustrate its claims. (Online source)

Rick Warren would then say Hinch’s story contained factual errors; thereby impugning Hinch’s character as a reporter. Ed Stetzer  now enters this story with his post Rick Warren Interview on Muslims, Evangelism & Missions (Responding to Recent News Reports)  where he opines:

Once again, watchbloggers are accusing Rick Warren of heresy. Why? Because, Warren explains, a secular Orange County newspaper got something wrong about a religious issue. Some of the usual bloggers have done their usual job.

However, due to the nature of the story, some mainstream news organizations and bloggers, without the constant anti-Warren agenda, were asking questions and wondering what what was going on. I was. So, I emailed Rick and asked him.

Rick sent me this interview where he seeks to bring clarification. He gave me permission to share it here at the blog. I think it will be helpful. (Online source)

However, here’s a couple of things we need to get straight. My Christian Research Network editor Daniel Neades of Better Than Sacrifice immediately covered Rick Warren Categorically Denies OC Register Report. Stetzer neglected to mention this; and he also decided not to publish my comment at his blog.

This morning I made Ed Stetzer aware that there was more to this story, which I shared last night, and I left him the link to Apprising Ministries Exclusive On Rick Warren, Jim Hinch, And Islam. You see, yesterday I asked Jim Hinch about the King’s Way document, which he has. Hinch began with a recap of the situation:

Rick Warren initially posted a comment to the article claiming that the article contained “multiple errors.” That comment was later deleted, I presume by Warren. After seeing that comment I reached out to Warren’s director of communications.

On Monday, Feb. 27 a Saddleback representative called and told me that while the Register story was factually accurate, folks at Saddleback would prefer that the opening paragraph read “Muslims and Christians believe that God is one.”

Following a discussion with a Register editor Saddleback decided to withdraw its request for a clarification. At no time has anyone at Saddleback said to me or to anyone else at the Register that the story contains factual inaccuracies.

You should be able to see why online apologetics and discernment ministries work to expose the methodology of Rick Warren. What “multiple errors” is Warren talking about? He also kept insisting that no one contacted him. Hinch then sets the record straight:

Warren states in his white paper that “no one even talked to me about that article!” I made numerous attempts to contact Warren, both by phone and by e-mail, before the story was published.

I was eventually told by Warren’s director of communications that Warren was too busy with other projects to speak with me or to e-mail a response to the story’s main claims, which I had e-mailed to the communications director. Instead I was put in touch with Tom Holladay, an associate senior pastor at Saddleback.

I ran all of the story’s claims by Holladay and he affirmed all of them, including the language of the King’s Way document and the fact that King’s Way was an effort to build bridges of friendship and cooperation, not an attempt to evangelize.

During my conversation with Holladay I asked whether the King’s Way effort, including the December dinner and the theological document, was done with Rick Warren’s approval. “Of course it has his approval,” Holladay replied. It is neither fair nor accurate to claim that this story was published without attempting to solicit Rick Warren’s response.