Retired pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, Rick Warren is taking heat for a social media post that paints Jesus as a political centrist.
Warren took to X to post a picture of Jesus hanging on the cross between the two thieves, and quoted John 19:18. "They crucified Jesus with two others -- one on each side & Jesus in the middle."
The guys on both sides, he continued, were thieves. If you're looking for the real Jesus, not a caricature disfigured by partisan motivations, you'll find him in the middle, not on either side.
Ryan Helfenbein of Liberty University said on American Family Radio Thursday that Warren has painted Jesus as in the political mushy middle. Ultimately, it’s about trying to take some heat of the Left from the church. “It reads like this; if you're with Jesus, you need to say absolutely nothing when it comes to the Left and the Right. Be silent because neither side is ultimately correct,” Helfenbein told show host Jenna Ellis. “What this really is meant to do, I think, is to try to make room for a leftist movement in Christianity that would be unabated, not be confronted.”
The pushback was swift and unrelenting. That take is reading into the Bible something that God never said nor intended. Helfenbein says political conservatives might not be right on all the issues, but they are a world away from the Left. “When you think about the culture of life, when you think about abortion, when you think about marriage, when you think about the predation of innocent children that are being groomed for the sexual revolution and being treated as pawns, the Right and the Left are by no means equal,” Helfenbein said.[/quote[]
