Rick Warren’s interpretation of Crucifixion draws ire

Rick Warren’s interpretation of Crucifixion draws ire

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By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter
Rick Warren, founder and former pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., appeals the removal of the church from the Southern Baptist Convention during an afternoon session of the SBC annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 13, 2023. | Flickr/Baptist Press/Sonya Singh

Saddleback Church founder and former senior pastor Rick Warren drew scorn on social media for implying that Jesus Christ would be a political centrist today because He was crucified between two thieves.

“‘They crucified Jesus with two others — one on each side & Jesus in the middle,” Warren tweeted Tuesday, quoting John 19:18. “The guys on both sides were thieves. 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.”

Several prominent Christian voices on X took the bestselling author of The Purpose Driven Life to task for what they deemed a questionable application of the biblical text.

“If you’re going to misuse the story this bad, you should also point out that the thief on the Right is the one that went to heaven lol,” tweeted Babylon Bee managing editor Joel Berry.

Justin Peters, who heads a worldwide expository preaching and teaching ministry, rebuked Warren for what he characterized as sloppy biblical interpretation.

“This is, sadly, typical of Rick Warren’s approach to scripture,” wrote Peters. “This would have been laughed out of biblical hermeneutics on day 1. Basic hermeneutics dictates that you strive for authorial intent, and this is definitively NOT the point the author was making. This is not only embarrassing, it is inexcusable.”

Others accused Warren of exhibiting the lukewarmness that Jesus wanted against.

“Your Jesus sounds more like a lukewarm moderate in your own image,” tweeted Aaron Edwards, a theology lecturer at Cliff College in Derbyshire, England, who was terminated in 2023 after he tweeted in opposition to homosexuality.

Ryan Visconti, pastor of the Arizona-based Generation Church, suggested Warren’s call for political moderation among American Christians has become antiquated and effectively impossible given what much of the Left supports today.

“How would one be ‘in the middle’ on abortion, mutilating kid’s genitals, homosexuality, open borders, DEI, CRT, etc? There’s no middle ground between evil and righteousness. You’re wrong, Pastor Rick. Your approach made sense in 1990, but not today,” he wrote.

Author and podcast host Eric Metaxas echoed Visconti’s sentiment, calling Warren’s tweet “misleading posturing.”

“What does it even mean? Shall we be ‘in the middle’ when it comes to standing against killing babies or mutilating kids or corruption in our own govt? There is a time to be bold as lions against evil! That’s not ‘partisan.’ It’s the Lord’s will,” he wrote.

Attorney Jenna Ellis tweeted that Warren should “be embarrassed to call yourself a pastor.”

“Jesus is not a moderate or ‘in the middle’ when it comes to truth. To characterize him as such simply because of the placement of his cross is perverting an historical fact into a symbolic meaning to serve your own ideological agenda,” she added.

“It’s so bad my jaw is on floor,” author and Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham wrote in response to Ellis’ tweet.

Basham, who has written extensively about the infiltration of left-wing financial interests in the American church, also suggested that Warren’s widespread influence in the Evangelical world might have contributed to its present theological weakness.

“The fact that this is the pastor from whom millions of Americans found spiritual guidance for years explains a lot about the state of our theology,” she wrote.

“With every post, Rick Warren proves the wisdom of Southern Baptists in kicking him out,” wrote William Wolfe, who serves as executive director at the Center for Baptist Leadership.

In 2023, the Southern Baptist Convention upheld the removal of Saddleback Church from the denomination for permitting a woman to serve in the office of teaching pastor, despite an impassioned plea from Warren.

A website devoted to Warren’s bestselling book touts him as “America’s most influential spiritual leader,” and notes how he “is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pacific Council on International Policy,” and has delivered addresses to international bodies such as the World Economic Forum.

Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to [email protected]

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