An evangelical ministry that has worked for over 20 years to share the Gospel with Roman Catholics is expressing concern over a ecumenical Tweet that author and megachurch pastor Rick Warren posted early this morning.
At 2:57 a.m., Warren sent out the following call to his over 900,000 followers on Twitter: “Join me today in fasting and prayer for the 115 Cardinals seeking God’s Will in a new leader.”
Since posting the Tweet, which was re-Tweeted over 170 times as of press time and favorited over 80 times, and is being shared widely in a screen shot photograph on Facebook, his comment has received response from both sides of the issue.
“Thanks for your prayers!” wrote Matt Swain, producer of the Son Rise Morning Show on EWTN and author of The Eucharist and the Rosary and Prayer in the Digital Age. “This ain’t like picking Matthias!”
“Mr. Warren, what would the point be?” asked an African follower on Twitter. “Let’s pray for the heretics [to] tone down on their heresy?”
Mike Gendron of Proclaiming the Gospel Ministries of Dallas, Texas told Christian News Network that he was particularly disappointed in Warren’s comments.
“I’m very concerned because what this does is it confuses the average evangelical,” he said. “Right now, the Body of Christ doesn’t know whether to evangelize Roman Catholics or to join hands with them to go out and evangelize the world, [and] it’s because of people like Rick Warrren who either don’t know how exclusive the Gospel of grace is, or he’s not aware of the false and fatal Gospel of the Roman Catholic religion.”
Gendron, a former Roman Catholic, stated that Warren’s Tweet is harmful in two ways.
“Rick Warren is doing a disservice to the Roman Catholic Church because he is putting the Gospel off limits to the the Body of Christ for evangelizing Roman Catholics,” he explained. “And so, if they don’t hear the Gospel, they have no hope in ever being saved.”
“Ultimately, it’s a real tragedy,” he said before delving into his second point. “It’s unfortunate because we have a ministry that is dedicated to equipping and encouraging the Body of Christ to reach out to Roman Catholics, and it’s because of people like Rick Warren and other highly visible evangelicals that are signing unity accords with Roman Catholics … that we are getting friendly fire from the evangelical Church.”
Christian News
I sincerely wasn't aware that so many (or certain) evangelicals held the Catholic Church in such low regard. Where can I find out more about the nature of the doctrinal differences?
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