The problem goes far deeper than what Christians ought to be doing...The problem can be summarized in the statement, "All sin goes back to 'I want to be somebody.'"

The Rick Warren's of this world want it both ways...They want to be citizens of the Kingdom of God, and they want to be respected in Caesar's world...That is at the root of why he missed the Sermon on the Mount...It is all about Rick Warren and not about the Jesus in whom he professes to believe...

Go after the sin in the evangelical community, and you will discover what it means to be crucified...

Stan Moody
www.stanmoody.com

The article asks how Christianism could have gotten off its charity message. Easy...
Their elaborate traditions and bounty of screwy scriptures contain multitudes. Short of cannibalism and debt equity swaps, anything can be justified.

Rick Warren + Uganda + gays. Google.

What I find is stunning is Rick Warren's comment. Has he never read his bible? In the Gospel of Luke, just after the story of his birth (Chapter 2) and the announcement of Jesus' coming in the story of John the Baptist (Chapter 3), Jesus first appears. The FIRST public encounter in the community is recounted in Chapter 4, beginning with v. 14:

Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. (v. 15) He began to teach in their synagogues, and was praised by everyone. (v 16) When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, (v 17), and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

(v 18): "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, (v. 19) to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Here, in one text is the overarching arc of Jesus' ministry and message.

How in the world can Rick Warren, who considers himself a pastor and, thus, a preacher, not read this text and checked out the cited sources (Isaiah chaps 61 and 58), and then begin to read more deeply in the Hebrew Bible? Concordances give lists of occurrences of words, and there are a huge number of theological books which set forth the themes of the place of the poor and alienated (anawi'im, to use one term) in both Hebrew prophets as well as Jesus' ministry. The first deacons were selected to help carry out ministry to the poor. And it goes on and on.

Any pastor who hasn't heard this message ought to have any seminary degrees and ordination certificates immediately revoked. Of course, so many of these people are so wrapped up in the "prophecies of the end times" that they don't read the prophets to hear what their message actually is. sheesh!

Pr Chris

Maybe we got caught up in the love of Capitalism and its worship of money. Capitalism after all blames the poor for their own fate.

Thomas is correct. I mis-typed. I should have typed "Fundamentalist Christians are more concerned with fetuses and hating on gay people than taking care of the poor." I know some very good people who happen to be Christians (Catholic and Protestant). However, people that follow the "prosperity gospel" of Warren, Osteen, Roberts, Robertson, Falwell, et al, are not in that number.

But did Mary Magdalene even exist??

NT references (e.g.Mark 15:40, Matt 27:56, John 19:25) describe MM's attendance at and after the simple preacher man's crucifixion but there were no gospel writers there or for that matter none of his followers or his mother were there to substantiate any of this.

As per Gerd Luedemann,

"While noting that the burial tradition may be simply a postulate "derived from the fact of Jesus' death or knowledge of Jewish purity concerns" rather than the memory of an historical event, Luedemann's own preference, influenced in part by John 19:31-37 and Acts 13:20, is that Jesus was buried by Jews who were not his followers. There was no act of affection or devotion involved in the disposal of his remains. His body was simply removed from the cross and buried in some unknown location by Jewish people wishing to protect the imminent festival from the desecration of a dead body remaining on the cross over night."

As per Professor Crossan's analyses as found in his many books, the body of Jesus very possibly would have ended up in the mass graves of the crucified, eaten by wild dogs, with lime in a shallow grave, or under a pile of stones.

Mary D's attendance at the resurrection/tomb is bogus because there were no tomb, pretty wingie talking thingie, or resurrection.

And there is only one other reference, Luke 8:2-3, to Mary D and that was as a traveling companion of Jesus and the apostles i.e. a single attestation which therefore has been judged to be historically unreliable.
e.g.
http://www.faithfutures.org/JDB/jdb444.html

" Compassion should be a natural part of the Christian's DNA -- because it is so clearly in God's DNA."
**********************

God has DNA? Really? So that means he can evolve according to Darwinian principles?

"The problem isn't that Christians aren't doing their share to address the ills of poverty and injustice."

Of course that's the problem, as the authors themselves admit a couple paragraphs on:

"How did 'whatever you do for the least of these you do for me' get skewed--intentionally or not--to 'what is the minimum required of me?'"

Christians as a brand are fond of talking about what others should do while excusing their own neglect of "the least of these" by demonizing poor people as drug addicts, welfare queens, and criminals. Somehow they think this gets them off the hook.

If you want to meet a hypocrite in person, go to any Christian church service anywhere in the western world on any given Sunday. Scan the crowd as it's filing out of church...and take your pick.

But did Mary Magdalene even exist??

References (e.g.Mark 15:40, Matt 27:56, John 19:25) describe her attendance at and after the simple preacher man's crucifixion but there were no gospel writers there or for that matter any of his followers or his mother to substantiate any of this.

As per Gerd Luedemann,

"While noting that the burial tradition may be simply a postulate "derived from the fact of Jesus' death or knowledge of Jewish purity concerns" rather than the memory of an historical event, Luedemann's own preference, influenced in part by John 19:31-37 and Acts 13:20, is that Jesus was buried by Jews who were not his followers. There was no act of affection or devotion involved in the disposal of his remains. His body was simply removed from the cross and buried in some unknown location by Jewish people wishing to protect the imminent festival from the desecration of a dead body remaining on the cross over night."

As per Professor Crossan's analyses as found in his many books, the body of Jesus very possibly would have ended up in the mass graves of the crucified, eaten by wild dogs, with lime in a shallow grave, or under a pile of stones.

Mary D's attendance at the resurrection/tomb is bogus because there were no tomb, pretty wingie talking thingie, or resurrection.

And there is only other reference, Luke 8:2-3, to Mary D and that was as a traveling companion of Jesus and the apostles i.e. a single attestation which has been judged therefore to be historically unreliable. e.g.

http://www.faithfutures.org/JDB/jdb444.html

wpc09

You wrote, " Mary Magdalene was, as far as I can see, as devoted to Jesus and as faithful to Him as any of the male apostles were."

Probably more so than at least some of them, I think in the bible it speaks of Jesus casting 7 demons out of Mary Magdalene, but as far as I know nothing is written specifically.

Don't forget Jesus came for sinners and no matter what people want to call it we all are.

In some circles, Mary Magdalene is referred to as "The Apostle to the Apostles".

Apostle means "one sent" and Mary was sent to the Apostles to tell them something.

She may not have been one of the "12" but she was sent to the "12", actually 11 by then, when they were cowering in the upper room, at least I think that is where they were.

Mary was not the only female that was instrumental in Jesus's earthly mininstry either.

Take care, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

I am just a bit curious about fundamentalist Protestants, who make great claims about their knowledge of Scripture claiming to somehow have missed the prerachings on the needs of the poor.

This old Roman Catholic remembers hearing it often enough in the Epistles and Gospels of the old single year cycle readings, and seeing it expanded into the two reading three year cycle.

Why one would need the references to caring for the poor would need any more emphasis than they get from the Scriptures themselves is beyond me.

It is quite obvious, from all the many religious orders organized to serve the needs of the poor, from orphans to dying widows in Calcutta, trhat I am hardly anamalous in my interpretation of what I read.

Then again those wonderful hypocrits the Salvation Army, who preach Lutheran Protestantism "Doctrine of Faith Alone" but practice Catholic "Doctrine of Works" also seem to have that particular interpretation well understood.

If Warren missed it the first time through he wasn't looking very hard, was he?

Just a correction for Douginmoz, who states "those known for their sinning (... Mary Magdalene)." Nowhere in the New Testament is there any connection of Mary Magdalene with being "known for sinning." Mary Magdalene was regarded as a female disciple and a woman of great devotion and purity. Remember that it was she who first understood that Jesus was alive after His crucifixion. Somewhere around the second-third century of Christianity, church authorities who wanted to remove the influence of the "Gospel of Mary Magdalene" and her place as a close associate of Jesus, church authorities began to associate Mary Magdalene with the woman taken in sin. This was not scriptural. Mary Magdalene was, as far as I can see, as devoted to Jesus and as faithful to Him as any of the male apostles were.

Many Christians were taught about God's preference for the poor and the marginalized from the beginning. I am glad that the conservative/ evangelical/ fundamentalist wing of Christianity is recognizing that the mainline/progressive wing of our faith has something important to add to the discussion as well.

For years, what Sterns and Vest are promoting in their new Bible venture was derided by conservative Christians as "social gospel," and it was called heresy. Welcome home brothers.

Now if we could just get more Christians to recognize that unchecked global warming will kill, endanger, and further imporverish millions of poor people.

From World Vision's Form 990 for the 2007 tax year:

http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2008/951/922/2008-951922279-04f86695-9.pdf

Total contributions/government grants $931 million

Mr. Sterns' salary was $380,854 including benefits plus he had a $40,327 expense account.

One of World Vision's largest expenditures for 2007 was for marketing services from the Russ Reid Company at a cost of $12,520,374.

Total salaries paid by World Vision in 2007 was ~ $92 million including pension contributions with $29,969,200 used for fund raising.

Athena4

You wrote, "Today's Christians care more about fetuses and hating on gay people than actually caring for the poor."

Have you met every "Christian" who is presently on this planet?

If not, then how can you say "Today's Christians...", as if what you wrote, would apply to each and every one of them.

Prejudice: unreasonable feelings, opinions, or attitudes, esp. of a hostile nature, regarding a racial, religious, or national group.

Take care, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

Today's Christians care more about fetuses and hating on gay people than actually caring for the poor.

I, personally, find it interesting that Pastor Rick Warren "missed this." If it were me, I would be wondering what else I had missed. We all have blind spots, and when they fall away, the stuff hiding in them is often amazing. I have had a few of my own blown apart, so I speak from experience.

This quote reminds me of one from his wife, Kay, over being "gloriously ruined" over her first reaction to the AIDS virus. She first felt that was "not one of her issues," that those who contracted AIDS more or less deserved their suffering. A visit to Africa, seeing first-hand the orphans, the destitution, whole towns wiped off the map, woke her out of her complacency, and led the Warrens to devote much effort to fund charities for AIDS relief.

I have always wondered if Kay discoved that blind spot led her to any others. I wonder if Rick will uncover more. The standard "mega-church" gospel tends to be a bit heavy on the judgment, and not so well-seasoned with social justice. A bit of spice might balance out the taste.

We still take care of the poor, homeless and orphans. The "We" aka "new World Visionists" today are the US taxpayers!!!! i.e. no religion or overpaid CEO's of non-profits needed !!!!

There is a story about a lack of Catholic priests in a Latin American country. In order to address the needs of poor rural villages, the diocese gave them Bibles to read in lieu of a priest being there to say the Mass. When the priests returned, they got an earful about how the church was not supposed to connect with the rich and powerful, but with the poor.

Limpscomb:

Certainly, the "Prosperity Gospel" often leads people astray. Even here in Mozambique, the world's poorest country just 15 years ago but rapidly improving, people are enamoured with seeking the "presents" of God and not the "presence" of God. The possessions are basicallly idols.
But please do not think that holiness is excused from the equation. Jesus taught that even relishing in the thought of sex with another outside of marriage was adultery, sinful, and worthy of condemnation. Or that those known for their sinning (Matthew, Zacchaeus, the woman that washed His feet with her tears, the woman about to be stoned, Mary Magdalene,) did not have to repent and change their ways in order to follow Him. It is not "either...or..." It is "both...and..."

Perhaps what too many people see nowadays is the preaching of some who tell their followers that god wants them to be rich, to have all that they want, and to believe it hard enough that it happens.

There is still far too much preaching in fundamentalist and Evangelical churches about how sinful and how depraved the human being is, and very little about how little judgement the man, Jesus made about others. It seems to me that Jesus was much more concerned about the poor, the needy and the sick than about how sinful and how depraved they were.