I have before me the full transcript of a presidential inauguration prayer. . .the one that has gone largely unnoticed due to the furor created by another inauguration prayer made by Rev. Joseph Lowery.
In the prayer made by Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, popular author, and often billed as America's pastor and the next Billy Graham, he made some very far-reaching statements that have ignited all sorts of reactions from various groups of people.
The prayer was designed intentionally to be inclusive of people of all faiths and all walks of life. At the beginning, to appeal to the Jewish segment, he quoted the familiar Shema out of Deuteronomy, a foundational Jewish prayer. Immediately on the heels of that, he referred to God and "the compassionate and merciful one." That God truly is, but all Muslims recognize that as the invocation given at the beginning of every chapter except one in the Qur'an, "In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful."
A little later in his prayer, Pastor Warren says, "We are so grateful to live in this land of unequaled possibility, where the son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership. And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in heaven." Such sentimental thoughts may be nice, but they are hardly biblical. We have no scriptural authority to rest on that the the witnesses in heaven, i.e. only justified believers in Jesus Christ alone, can witness the events on earth. More importantly, though, it is hard to tell who Rick Warren believes who are the ones who are the witnesses in heaven.
After these remarks, Pastor Warren delves into a World Council of Churches social gospel type of prayer litany. He concludes his prayer by reciting the traditional Lord's prayer, which was preceded by this statement, "I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life--Yeshua, Isa, Jesus (Spanish pronunciation), Jesus. . ."
Isa is the Qur'an's spelling of Jesus, a prophet of God but he is no way in the eyes of Muslims a prophet on par with Muhammad. Isa can not be fully trusted, nor can the Bible. Isa did not die on the cross; Judas Iscariot did. Isa was not the divine Son of God. Isa is not the only way to God. Isa was not resurrected from the dead. Isa does not reign in heaven now. Isa is not King of kings and Lord of lords. There is no forgiveness or atonement from sin by Isa. Jesus of the Bible in no way compares with the Isa of the Qur'an.
Yet, Pastor Warren saw no apparent conflict in using the name of Isa as a substitute for Jesus in his inclusive prayer.
The reaction to Rick Warren's prayer has been mixed. Some laud it as being generously inclusive as he tried to reach out to all groups of people. Others, though, who some might think would appreciate his attempt to include everyone, are very critical of Warren's effort to straddle the fence and of trying too hard to to be all things to all people. Catholics are upset that "for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever" was used, since they don't say that line in their recitation of the Lord's Prayer. Others see it as a very non-inclusive prayer since invoking Jesus' name alienates non-Christians. Muslims may think the quotation from the Qur'an was just a bone thrown to appease all Muslims. Jews found the mention of Jesus as offensive. Even though Pastor Warren used words from Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy texts, he is finding criticisms from all groups of people of "faith", the very groups he wanted so much to please in his inclusive prayer.
So what do we learn from all this? If our best efforts to be "inclusive" of all peoples encounter hostile or critical reactions from the people we want to "include", then why even try? How inclusive must we go in order to be liked by all people? Are we going to get to the place where if you just breathe, no matter if you are a Muslim, Hindu, atheist, or lesbian, then that means you are loved by God and He will accept you into His heaven, whatever that is and whatever you want it to be?
How "inclusive" is God? "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated." Was Jesus being inclusive in John 14:6? Was the apostle Paul being "inclusive" in Acts 17 when he met up with a different people of "faith", who were idol worshippers, or did he say instead, "God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead"?
Let us not confuse citizenship in this country, where we can be and are inclusive, with citizenship in the kingdom of God, where most people are excluded because they have not believed in Christ alone for their salvation and repented from their sin.
Rather than trying to bend over backwards to show how big-hearted and open-minded we are, how about us being faithful to the One who has called us and to the Word which He has given to us? I don't remember reading that what we want to hear from God one day is something along the lines of, "Well done, good and inclusive servant, enter now into the joy of the Lord," but instead we should desire to hear, "Well done, good and FAITHFUL servant, enter now into the joy of the Lord."
Exclusively for Christ,
Chris
