Rick Warren's absurd call for Al Mohler to apologize by Peter Lumpkins

Al Mohler's recent post entitled "Is the Megachurch the New Liberalism?" raised questions not only concerning megachurch pastor, Andy Stanley, and his all-but implicit acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle, but Mohler also drew fire from unsuspecting critics¹  >>>

Legendary Saddleback pastor, Rick Warren, did not just take issue with Al Mohler's piece; rather the father of the purpose-driven movement called for the seminary president to apologize for unduly offending thousands of churches for the lone reason the church happened to be big. Reportedly, Warren tweeted to Mohler:

@albertmohler Would a sensational blog title 'Are THE Seminaries the New Liberals?' be fair if 1 seminary pres. messed up?

Further messaging so his over half-million followers could read, Warren said: "A TITLE questioning1000s of churches' orthodoxy due to size is unChristlike.U need to apologize to pastors Al  (//link)

Mohler apparently took Warren's criticism jovially since he quipped back: "@RickWarren Glad to hear from you, Rick. I would certainly not be offended by that title ... In fact, I might use it. Megathanks."

While I have my own critical potatoes to fry in Al Mohler's pan, for Warren to suggest Dr. Mohler needs to apologize because his blogpost title apparently came across as offensive to Warren remains undeniably absurd. The fact is, Mohler's title is innocuously written in an interrogatory format which implies not that something is the case but queries whether something is the case. Hence, Mohler's title raised a question he commenced to address, hoping perhaps (as do most critics), others may get in on the conversational action.

What is more, no indication exists in the title Mohler penned implicating the entire megachurch movement or even "1000s of churches' orthodoxy" Warren cites.  In fact, the content of Mohler's piece categorically denies such a reading. And, for Warren to ignore Mohler's denial in the body of his essay perhaps speaks more about Warren's deficient critical skills than Mohler's allegedly derogatory title.

Truth be told, Warren should have instead thanked Mohler for "outing" Stanley's conciliatory posture he apparently now takes toward homosexual unions so the wider evangelical audience may appraise Stanley's position for themselves, while encouraging Dr. Mohler to continue clarifying--the same clarity Mohler definitively expressed in the body of his post--that he did not have all megachurches in mind when he raised the question he did. 

We've just got to do better when it comes to our critical evaluations. Warren had every right to disagree with Mohler's analysis. I most certainly disagreed with some of the key components Mohler's piece presumed.¹ Nonetheless we simply cannot base our chief criticisms upon innocuous titles all the while ignoring the substantive content producing and/or explaining the title. That is, we cannot base our criticisms upon titles while ignoring substantive content and expect to be taken seriously amongst the thinking public.

In a word, Warren swatted a gnat but swallowed a bee.  Hence, to call on Mohler to apologize to thousands of orthodox churches he neither mentioned nor implicated remains decidedly absurd. 

¹my criticism concerning Dr. Mohler's analysis in his most recent post began with my piece entitled, "Al Mohler, homosexuality, and the New Liberalsim" but is teased out well while conversing with James Snapp, Jr in the comment thread