Warren, hailed as a someone who rejects Falwell's approach, seems to see a template.
The passing of one of America's most prominent Southern Baptist pastors is prompting many comparisons to another, Rick Warren. A Dallas Morning News editorial is one example:
[By 9/11/01,] Mr. Falwell's brand of political Christianity was beginning to lose its luster within evangelicalism. New leaders were rising, pushing issues like care for the environment and compassion for Africans suffering from AIDS. Younger pastors like Rick Warren ... have become voices of a less partisan movement that engages the wider world but is not as closely tied to the Republican Party. Mr. Falwell's death marks not only the passing of a man, but the passing of an era.
(Warren's response after the jump.)
The Washington Post's Hanna Rosin similarly writes:
The new breed of evangelical leader does not have the temperament of a protester. He is a consummate professional who speaks in modulated terms and knows his way around Washington. ... If they took a political poll on the usual culture war issues, Falwell and Warren would end up in exactly the same place -- antiabortion, against gay rights. Both have written books saying that Jesus is the only way to salvation. But Warren's public style is entirely different.
For the most part, Warren keeps a low political profile. When asked which presidential candidate he supports, he praises both Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, a Democrat, and Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, a Republican and religious conservative. Warren donated the proceeds from his book to help combat AIDS in Africa. He associates himself with "creation care," a movement of evangelical environmentalists. To ensure wide distribution, Warren makes sure he goes down easy: "You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense," reads a quote from him printed on millions of Starbucks cups. ... Warren is an obvious leader but he shuns the political spotlight.
Rosin calls evangelicalism's "Falwell generation" -- she names James Dobson as a cohort -- as "a little too extreme for mainstream politics." Wake Forest's Bill Leonard made a similar comment to CT's reporter: "With some exceptions, the new generation of megachurch pastors are just not as interested in politicizing their ministries as Falwell did." But when one thinks of his other evangelical leaders born in the 1920s and 1930s, the names that spring to my mind at least are either anything but too extreme for mainstream politics (Jimmy Carter, Mark Hatfield, Chuck Colson, Rep. Frank Wolf, Millard Fuller, Tony Campolo, Al Quie, John Perkins) or those hardly associated with politics (Chuck Swindoll, Bill Bright, R.C. Sproul, Robert Schuller, Lew Smedes, John Wimber, David Wilkerson, Adrian Rogers, Tom Oden, Stan Mooneyham, Stephen V. Monsma, Josh McDowell, Haddon Robinson, Eugene Peterson, Clayton Bell). Want to note that Robertson is of the same "generation"? Sure, but he can do AIDS, environment, and folksy inspiration as well as anyone.
Time's Nancy Gibbs gets it: "It will be tempting to call Falwell's passing the end of an era, but that risks missing the larger point. The movement he helped lead was never monolithic, or as tidy as its critics imagine - or obedient to earthly powers."
Anyway, back to Warren. His press release on Falwell's death is revealing for what it says about both men:
"Jerry Falwell was one of the giant figures who towered over the 20th Century American church. While most people knew him as the founder of the Moral Majority, the face of the Religious Right, and by some of his more controversial statements, many saw only his opponent's caricature of the real man.
The story was never told about his compassionate heart, his gentle spirit, his enormous sense of humor, and the millions he invested in helping the underprivileged. Jerry founded the Elim Home for alcoholics, the Center for tutoring inner city children, the Hope Aglow ministry to prisoners, Liberty Godparent Home for unwed mothers, and literally dozens of other compassion projects to help the poor, the sick, and others in desperate need.
I believe Jerry Falwell's primary legacy will not be his political leadership, but the church he pastored for 50 years; the university he founded that has produced two generations of leaders; the millions who heard him preach the Good News; the innovations in ministry he introduced; and the thousands of young pastors, like myself, whom he constantly encouraged, even when we did it differently."
A focus on his church, encouraging other pastors, and dozens of compassion projects. That's what Warren thinks Falwell's legacy is. The headline on Rosin's article says Falwell was "old news" to evangelical leaders like Warren. Sounds like Warren disagrees. (Update: The Ocala Star-Banner reports that Falwell liked Warren, too.)
Posted by Ted Olsen on May 16, 2007 2:01PM
Comments
Interesting how the general news media of the US concentrated mainly on Falwells idea of Church/State, abortion, Pledge of Allegiance, etc. And not the works of Prisons, Education, health care, and raising up the disadvantaged. I presume the answer may be that it conflicted with government programs by showing you would be able todo the same services for 1/4 the cost and arrive at the same benefit for the individual being assisted. It is a tradegy for America, and a huge mistake that we Christians allowed a government to take over the responsibility we should have never relinquished. NOW we are paying for it not only in dollars, but the deterioation of a society that used to be "Love your neighbor as yourself" If you don't know who your neighbor is, I would recommend that you look in the Scriptures to see who Jesus points out as your neighbor. By the way, this trend will continue until I get off my butt and become involved.
Posted by: David Price at May 16, 2007
Ted, thank you so much for this piece. I always enjoy your research and writing. My brother was a student in college the same time as you and has spoken highly of you for years.
Having been in Lynchburg now for 15 years as both as student and staff member at Liberty I have seen the side of Jerry that few have. Yes he had his faults. He would openly admit that his sin nature got the best of his tongue at times. However, the man was about action in the community. Whenever Jim Wallis would call him out for what conservatives were doing socially I would wonder if he had ever been to Lynchburg? If there was a social need that was not being met by the church he would start a program to meet that need. If there was a need in the greater conservative evangelical community that wasn't being met at the university level he would work with us to start a degree program that would meet that need. His seminary was not designed to produce ivory tower theologians, but leaders who had professors in the church every weekend seeing the needs, and then training pastors to meet those needs.
I want to add that I am leaving Liberty in a few weeks on a planned move. While I am greatly saddened by Jerry's passing I am selfishly happy I got to experience it as a part of the LU family.
To see the mantle passed on to two VERY able sons, and watching the Liberty community throw their support behind them has been great. I know it is early, but the true legacy of Jerry will be seen through his children and Liberty University.
Posted by: Keith Miraldi at May 17, 2007
Despite the shared similarities between Warren and Falwell, Falwell's passing may signal the close of an era. Throughout much of the 20th century, populist fundamentalism set much of the tone for conservative Protestantism. Over time, the movement became less separatist -- initially with the new evangelicalism of the 40s and then with its political resurgence in the 80s. But it never lost its commitment to populist revivalism, social pietism, and theological simplicity. In that sense, the movement provided a narrative that answered the higher critics.
But with the death of higher criticism, it would seem that fundamentalism must pass as well. As a younger evangelical, I can't help but think that guys like Falwell and Dobson are fighting opponents who have already been slain (not by us but by the postmodernists). Warren does seem to recognize the disutility of the fundamentalist narrative in a way that Falwell did not. Bob Webber understood that all the more. Perhaps it would be more fitting to contrast Falwell with Webber.
Posted by: R. Dailey at May 20, 2007
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