Bruce Wilkinson’s “morality lite”
The American evangelical press never embarked upon a thorough examination of precisely how Bruce Wilkinson (and Rick Warren his partner) intended to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa. The photo ops and carefully staged press events portray the men giving quasi-spiritual sounding messages that could be best defined as “morality lite.” Given…
Warren & Wilkinson in Africa: addendum to today’s post
Since posting a few hours ago, the Discernment Research Group has had time to cull back through old files pertaining to the extensive interconnections between Bruce Wilkinson and Rick Warren in Africa. Not all Internet records have been scoured and expunged. For those Herescope readers who are interested in this…
Mr. Jabez and the namby-pamby evangelical press
Namby-pamby (from Webster’s New World Dictionary): [orig. satirical nickname of Ambrose Philips, 18th-c. Eng. poet: in ridicule of his sentimental pastorals] weakly sentimental; wish-washy; without vigor; insipidly pretty or nice. On December 19, 2005 The Wall Street Journal ran an article on the front page about Bruce Wilkinson’s failed venture…
The Reinvention of Rick Warren
The laid-back, Hawaiian shirt and loafers Rick Warren is in the process of being spiffed up in time for a global summit of the World Economic Forum. Check out the recent makeover at http://www.purposedrivenlife.com/rickwarren.aspx. The photo is still the same California casual, but the text is very different. Discernment Research…
Christian Imperialism: Update #6 “Business As Mission” Movement
The merger of corporate business operations with church mission movements is going full-swing. This Corporate-Church marketplace mission plan was documented in the article posted at the Discernment Ministries website entitled “Dominionism and the Rise of Christian Imperialism” http://www.discernment-ministries.org. This article is currently being printed into booklet form and will be…
How Spiritual Formation became popularized
Bob DeWaay has written an excellent critique of the popular new doctrine of spiritual formation and revival of the spiritual disciplines at his website. We highly recommend that Herescope readers go to http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue91.htm to read his excellent piece entitled “The Dangers of Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Disciplines.” Recently some tidbits…
How to Avoid Heresy
Neo-evangelicalism relies upon marketing strategies to spread its leaven. For over a century American consumers have been trained by advertising to buy anything new – a new detergent, a new vacuum cleaner, a new style of dress, a new car, a new computer. In the same way, New Evangelicalism has…
History of the “Group Conversion” doctrine
Yesterday’s Herescope post contained a recent example of the neoevangelical doctrine that claims that GROUPS can be converted, not just individuals. Today’s post tells some interesting history behind this doctrine. This excerpt below comes from John E. Ashbrook’s excellent history and critique of neoevangelicalism entitled New Neutralism II: Exposing the…
Christian Imperialism: Update #5 Group Salvation
The new gospel of dominionism is part and parcel of Rick Warren’s purpose-driven movement, and is particularly manifesting itself in the emphasis on small groups. Not only are these small groups (i.e., cells) for the purpose of peer pressure, but they are also training grounds for the new doctrines. This…