Friday, December 12, 2008

Iranian Agents May Assassinate Rick Warren According to the Bible

Steve Scott has a great series on Romans 13. In the latest installment (http://fromthepew.blogspot.com/2008/12/re-thinking-romans-13-part-17-punishing.html), he addresses Rick Warren's endorsement of state sponsored murder because governments are established to punsih evildoers. Isn't everyone an evildoer in some sense? Haven't we all fallen short? What if a government wanted to punish Rick Warren for fomenting violence against a sitting head of state? Under Rick's interpretation, Iranian agents could legitimately come to his house and murder him as long as they reckon he is an evildoer.

Imagine the guard in a Nazi concentration camp who, thanks to Romans 13, could feel no guilt whatsoever about murdering Jews by the trainload. After all, the state had declared Jews to be evildoers. And Nero, about whom Paul appeared to be writing in Romans 13, had declared Christians to be evildoers, so it was perfectly right for him to use them as torches or as lion food.

What I wonder is this. Is Rick Warren stupid, evil, or does he have some other defect?

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