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Does Rick Warren think that abolishing slavery "weakened the church"?



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Like most bigots, Rick Warren makes some awfully broad pronouncements that not only don't hold up under scrutiny, but are so extreme that they could be used to justify slavery, among other things.  Just yesterday, on Easter no less, Warren warned against the evils of gay marriage.  From ABC via New Civil Rights Movement:

TAPPER: And I’m wondering if you think the church, in order to continue to thrive, might have to adjust its policy on same sex marriage?

WARREN: Actually, history shows that when the church accommodates culture, it weakens it. This is why there is a very weak church in Europe today. It’s almost non-existent in many areas.
That's interesting, because didn't the Baptists apologize a few years ago for embracing slavery? Wasn't that accommodating the culture? Why yes, they did and yes it was. From NPR:
The Southern Baptist Convention issued an apology for its earlier stance on slavery. The issue had split the Baptist church between north and south in 1845. But a century and a half later, in 1995, Southern Baptist officials formally renounced the church's support of slavery and segregation. Richard Land, former head of the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission, gives more information on the historic apology.
Putting aside for a moment the fact that the Baptists didn't even get around to opposing slaving until 1955, how is it that they changed their position at all? After all, as Rick Warren says in his interview with ABC's Jake Tapper yesterday, "I just know what the Bible says."

No you don't, Rick.

Warren's fellow Baptists "knew" that the Bible "said" slavery was a good thing. But now they say slavery is a bad thing. When did the Bible change? Or did Warren's Baptist brethren not know what the Bible said, and did they change their beliefs based on the culture around them, a culture that was no longer as racist as it was before? Bingo.

Bigots like Warren, and those bigots include Colin Powell, get confused when you talk about racism and slavery. Rather than explain the contradiction implicit in their comments, they like to simply dismiss the comparison with a "race isn't the same thing as sexual orientation." Fine, then leave sexual orientation out of it. Why was it okay for the Baptist church to accomodate the culture on slavery and racism?  And along those same lines, if the Pope is so infallible, why did he get Galileo wrong?

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