From Slice of Laodicea:
"... Due to Richard’s claims of slander and libel regarding a 2005 article written by Apprising Ministries head, Ken Silva, the web hosting service,which does not check out any of these claims to see if there is any merit to them, gave Ken 48 hours to conform to Richard’s ideas of what should be on his website. The choice was this: take down your piece or lose your website. Ken correctly did not give in to this kind of threat and the site is now down."
This shouldn't surprise anyone. As I mentioned before, this IS the tactic of PDL. I'd go further and say its cultic in tactic. Let me show you how PDL and Warren deal with dissenters.
Joseph Farah of World Net Daily says:
Quote:
While mega-pastor Rick Warren has joined a group of 100 church leaders calling for interfaith dialogue and the building of "common ground" with Muslims, he has a slightly different outlook toward Christians with whom he disagrees.
In his latest missive to fellow pastors, he writes: "You've got to protect the unity of your church. If that means getting rid of troublemakers, do it."
"As pastors, as shepherds of God's people, it's our job to protect our congregations from Satan's greatest weapon – disunity," he writes. "It's not always easy, but it's what we've been called to do."
...Has it ever occurred to Rick Warren that pastors have been wrong? Has it ever occurred to Rick Warren that pastors might teach unbiblical principles? Has it ever occurred to Rick Warren no earthly pastor is the recipient of all Divine revelation? Has it ever occurred to Rick Warren that pastors have led entire flocks into grave error that may have eternal consequences?
Has it ever occurred to Rick Warren that he, too, might be capable of such mistakes? Rick Warren makes a spiritually fatal error when he proclaims, without any biblical authority, that Satan's greatest weapon is disunity. That is simply not true. The Bible reveals over and over again that even one spirit-filled believer can stand up against Satan. God is not impressed with numbers. He doesn't need numbers for victory. He doesn't care about big churches. He doesn't care about the cathedrals of men. He wants numbers only because He is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).
No, Satan's greatest weapon is hardly disunity. His greatest weapon since his fall and since the Garden of Eden has been deception. In fact, Satan loves unity – as long as those unified are knowingly or unknowingly serving him. He'd love for all of us to "go to hell in a handbasket."
Are more people led to death by debate within the body of Christ or by spiritual leaders who demand absolute obedience to themselves?
Paul warned us about this, too, in Acts 20:29-30: "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them."
For heaven's sake, nothing could be clearer from Scripture than that no man has a monopoly on truth. That is why Paul even had to correct Peter (Galatians 2:11-14). Besides worshipping God, this would seem to be one of the principal purposes of the church.
The church is warned over and over about false teachers throughout the Bible. Surely Rick Warren is familiar with those warnings. Why would he assume all pastors to be righteous and assume all lay dissenters to be unrighteous?
And, equally curious, why does Rick Warren eagerly seek to find common ground with Muslim leaders while, at the same time, so ruthlessly advocating the disfellowship of Christian believers?
End quote.
Now, I don't know Farah's theology well, and I don't agree with his interpretation of 2Peter 3, but his points about dissent from error and false teachers and shepherds are good ones.
Here's an excerpt from an excellent article from Crossroad on how Warren and the PDLers deal with dissenters. Richard Abanes has learned well. He can't stand for anyone to critize his guru Warren. If you go to his website, you will see some of these same strategies in play, change a bit for the medium of the Internet, but still, the same mentality.
The main strategy is summed up this way (read the article because there are tons of direct quotes and footnotes from the horse's mouth) (bold emphasis, mine):
Quote:
1. Identify resisters. In the Church Growth Movement, the resisters are those who question the need for systemic change (total restructuring of all facets), distrust the dialectic process, and criticize the transformational methods. What's worse, they refuse to shift their primary focus from the actual Scriptures to the positively phrased "purpose" or "vision" or "mission statement."
2. Assess resisters and determine the degree of resistance. Negative or uncompromising attitudes will be tracked using the sophisticated data systems that monitor each member.
3. Befriend, involve and persuade borderline resisters. Participation in small group dialogues may encourage borderline resisters to trade their traditional convictions for a more permissive fellowship. Some will reconsider their objections and conform to group demands. Others will quietly leave on their own.
4. Marginalize more persistent resisters. They obstruct progress and undermine the needed unity, momentum and passion for change. That's why pastors often suggest to "divisive" members that they might be happier elsewhere. When the unhappy members leave, they usually, out of obedience to their Lord, follow the pastor's request that they not speak to anyone about their reasons for leaving. The congregation will be told not to ask any questions. Thus the change leaders avoid potential conflict.
5. Vilify those who "stay and fight." At this stage, negative labels, accusations and slander are permitted, if not encouraged, to circulate. Resisters — now labeled as divisive troublemakers — are blamed for disunity, for slowing the change process, and for distracting the church body from wholehearted focus on its all-important vision, mission or purpose. Ponder the subtle suggestions and negative labels Pastor Warren attaches to individuals who question his purpose-driven management system:
"The Bible knows nothing of solitary saints or spiritual hermits isolated from other believers...."[6, page 130]
"Today's culture of independent individualism has created many spiritual orphans—'bunny believers' who hop around from one church to another without any identity, accountability or commitments. Many believe one can be a "good Christian' without joining (or even attending ) a local church, but God would strongly disagree."
"A church family moves you out of self-centered isolation."
"Isolation breeds deceitfulness."
Notice the derogatory implication in each statement. We discussed some of God's special "solitary saints" earlier. Trusting God alone, they grew strong in Spirit. Those who have searched long and hard for a Biblical church with solid teaching and edifying fellowship may identify with what Rick Warren mocks as "bunny believers." And the "isolation" of a faithful Christian who obeys God's call to separation from worldliness and unbiblical fellowship produces purity, not deceitfulness. [2 Corinthians 6:12-18]
6. Establish rules, regulations, laws and principles that silence, punish or drive out resisters. At Saddleback, every new member must sign a "Membership Covenant." It includes this innocuous promise: "I will protect the unity of my church... by following the leaders."
This covenant is backed by Scriptures such as Ephesians 4: 29 ("Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths....") and Hebrews 13:17 ("Obey your leaders and submit to their authority....")
But taking a stand on God's Word is hardly what the Bible refers to as "unwholesome talk." And, if church leaders followed the world's management system rather than God's way, the command to "obey your leader and submit...." would be overruled by other relevant Scriptures. For example, when the religious leaders in Jerusalem told John and Peter to stop teaching "in the name of Jesus," they answered,
“Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” Acts 4:19
You saw evidence of Pastor Warren's holistic views in the chapter on "Unity and Community." Some of the following rules or principles also reflect a collective ideal. Violations open the door to various disciplines:
"God blesses churches that are unified. At Saddleback Church, every member signs a covenant that includes a promise to protect the unity of our fellowship. As a result, the church has never had a conflict that split the fellowship...."
"Rick's Rules of Growth.... Third, never criticize what God is blessing, even though it may be a style of ministry that makes you feel uncomfortable."
Who determines what God is blessing? Does the growth come through the Holy Spirit or through the latest strategies in behavior modification? The assessments that measure progress toward pre-planned outcomes don't discern spiritual influences — whether from God or other forces. Like public schools, they measure personal change toward collective thinking and readiness to cooperate, but they can't test the heart or measure obedience to the promptings of the Spirit. So the question remains: are new members added because they were seeking God or because they liked the feel-good fellowship, the sense of belonging and the unconditional respect?
End quote.
I have personally experienced this treatment at a non-PDL church. My husband and I were told to either be silent on our disagreement of the direction of the church (they want to build a multi-million dollar building around the senior pastor who has a track record of church-hopping and will not give a commitment of staying for any length of time, except to say "as long as the Lord has me here"), or they would "come after" us "vehemently". I know one pastor there who has gone to Warren's website who thinks Warren's a good guy, just has a different "methodology" than they would prefer.
This pastor that counts Warren as a brother, was in the business world for thirty years and so I know he's been exposed to all the New Age /business growth garbage (the same article from Crossroad above talks about this very thing in heavy documentation--there IS a bridge here), not the least of which is Mormon Steve Covey, the business growth guru. Yep, ol' Steve was quoted to me and my husband in a meeting with this pastor about our concerns regarding the use of Warren website.
My point is that they are using the same tactics as PDL and the Church/Business growth methods. I'd hate to see how bad it gets with a "church" that uses PDL!
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