News Snippets From All Beats

In determining conferences to skip in the upcoming seminar season, examining the list of Celebrity Christian Globetrotters scheduled to share their wisdom at Crystal Cathedral’s Rethink conference in January 2008 may be helpful. The following are a few Bio-observations for some of these influential icons:

Lee Strobel - is a best selling author and former teaching pastor of Willow Creek Community Church (under Bill Hybels) and Saddleback Church (under Rick Warren). It was Strobel who thought that the case for Christ was yet to be presented and, ignoring the fact that the task had already been completed and complied in the New Testament by Apostles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, produced an effort that contributed only to distracting from the authorized version; and showed, as does his enlistment with this conference, that he is also unable to fathom the case for discernment.

Jay Sekulow - is the Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). Sekulow’s appearance at Rethink is difficult to explain, unless it is the product of too much arguing. One of the identifying characteristics of a good attorney is his ability to argue a case from both sides, and one of the biggest liabilities of an attorney is an inability to remain on the side he has chosen. Is this conference appearance the result of too much ideological plea bargaining?

John Ortberg - is the teaching pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. His appearance at Rethink is easier to understand. This is the same Presbyterian USA denomination that sided with Palestinian homicide bombers and against Israel when the later began building a wall to protect themselves. PCUSA enacted their own brand of economic sanctions by calling for financial divestment from companies doing business in Israel.

It is also the same PCUSA that allows the local presbytery to ordain homosexuals, and denies “the singular saving lordship of Jesus Christ,”¹ and from which thousands of lesser luminaries have been able to flee, with their congregations. Not so with the Ortberg, under whose leadership, and despite its prestige and wealth, or perhaps due to it, his church remains affiliated with PCUSA to this day. So much for the “teaching” pastor.

Notes:

1. Lillian Kwon, “Dissident Presbyterians Offered New Home in EPC,” Christian Post, Jun 26, 2007. http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070626/28167_Dissident

_Presbyterians_Offered_New_Home_in_EPC.htm.

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