MR. GREGORY: We think about Thanksgiving, we think about giving and being thankful for blessings.
MR. WARREN: Mm-hmm.
MR. GREGORY: You have talked about giving in your own life. You’ve acted on giving. You give.
MR. WARREN: Yeah.
MR. GREGORY: And you say that it’s not a sin to be rich, but it’s a sin to die rich.
MR. WARREN: I believe that. That’s a personal conviction of mine. You know, thanks and giving go together. You, you can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. You spell love G-I-V-E. Probably the most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16, “God so loved the world that he gave his son.” The Bible says every good gift comes from God. We’re most like God when we’re giving, when we’re generous, because everything we have is a gift. And I’ve gone on this journey for many years.
Read it all or if you prefer there is a link to the videos to be watched if you prefer that format.
I watched the interview this morning while getting ready for church. I generally like Pr. Warren though I think there is a bit too much law in his teaching. To me he skirts around the central concept of Christian charity and indeed vocation, that all we could possibly need has already been accomplished for us on the Cross, which frees us up to selflessly serve others.
This line of questioning could have been far far far far better answered.
[blockquote]Well, when you think about the debate about Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California, and you think about how much money, the tens of millions of dollars spent on both pro–for and against Proposition 8.
MR. WARREN: Mm-hmm.
MR. GREGORY: And as you look back at that do you say, well, maybe that money’d be better spent trying to fight AIDS and find a vaccine for AIDS rather than having that fight?
MR. WARREN: I could give you a hundred campaigns where that would be true. I mean, I think we spend…
MR. GREGORY: Is it true in this one, though?[/blockquote]
Of course the answer is “yes, it is very sad to have to spend money to defend against the promotion of evil ideas, but all of history is about spending money in defense of societies. Certainly if there were no evil to defend against, we could spend much much more money on poverty and other things. But that is the problem with evil, isn’t it? One has to spend valuable resources in defense against evil ideas.”