I had originally intended to go through this interview a lot quicker, and using less space; but the more I look at it, the more I see just how man-centered Rick Warren’s message is, and how absent the Gospel is from his mission, I become overwhelmed by it all. I hate to tackle another segment, because it is all so ugly. I will probably abandon my original plan of addressing every point, and just hit on a couple of the more salient issues.

As promised in the previous installment, we are going to learn what a fundamentalist is. We will skip Warren’s explanation of God's sovereignty, which is basic Arminian, stopping just short of Open Theism.

KING: Before we talk about Rick Warren's peace plan are you a fundamentalist?

WARREN: No. Actually, many journalists misunderstand the religious right is not a fundamentalist and a fundamentalist is not an evangelical. There are all kinds of fundamentalists, Larry, and they're all based on fear. There are Christian fundamentalists. There are Muslim...

KING: Watch out or I'll get you.

WARREN: Yes. There are Muslim fundamentalists. I've met some Jewish fundamentalists.

KING: You bet.

WARREN: You know what there are secular fundamentalists. Secular fundamentalists they're all -- all kinds of fundamentalists are based on fear and secular fundamentalists are afraid of God, like this recent thing about turning the Christmas tree into the holiday tree.

It's like, oh come on, get a life. Does anybody think anybody is ever going to convert to anything because we call it the Christmas tree? I mean it's like does anybody -- is anybody going to convert because we put "In God We Trust" on our money or "Under God"? That's -- those are such silly issues.

When I go to Thailand, it doesn't bother me when I see Buddhas out in front of their capital. It was founded by a bunch of Buddhists. When I go to Saudi Arabia, it doesn't bother me when I see a crescent on their (INAUDIBLE).

KING: So, what are you? You're not a fundamentalist. You're an evangelical.

WARREN: I'm an evangelical, yes.

KING: Meaning you preach the gospel.

WARREN: Evangelicals would say three things. Evangelical comes from the Greek word which means good news. Evangel means good news. And, I believe that the Bible is the word of God. I believe that Jesus is who he said he was and I believe I should share the good news with other people. I do not believe in coercion. I believe in conversion. If you have to force it, it's not conversion.

Rick Warren is not a fundamentalist. I think we knew that. But does he even know what fundamentalism is? The term “fundamentalist” comes from a doctrinal work edited by R. A. Torrey. You can read it here. Logos Bible Software says this about it:

This classic four-volume set, edited by R. A. Torrey, is a defense of historic Christianity that helped define conservative Protestant Christianity throughout the last century. 90 articles by leading Christian scholars outline classic doctrines contra the rising liberalism and skepticism of their day. Authors include: B. B. Warfield, C. I. Scofield, G. Campbell Morgan, Bishop Ryle, R. A. Torrey, H. C. G. Moule, James Orr, and others.

This series of essays was originally published and distributed to thousands of Christian workers free of charge through the generosity of two donors. Essays address important topics such as biblical inspiration and inerrancy, higher criticism, mosaic authorship of the pentateuch, the virgin birth and deity of Christ, Mormonism, evolutionism, and basic doctrines such as sin, atonement, justification, and grace. These topics and doctrines are just as important today as they were in 1915! – Logos Bible Software

If fear is a concern for Biblical doctrine, then yes, fundamentalism is based on fear. But if fear is, as we learned in part 2 of this series, “False Evidence Appearing Real”, or even “an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger”, as it is defined in the dictionary, then he is way off.

It is true that the term “fundamentalist” has been used by the media to describe everything from true fundamentalism to pseudo-Christian cults, and it is true that not all fundamentalists are faithful to the Gospel in their practice. However, to define fundamentalism as Warren does, and to lump fundamentalists in with Muslim terrorists is, at best, grossly ignorant. Since a man in Warren’s position cannot be excused for such ignorance, I will call it malicious slander.

Next, let’s look at Rick Warren’s Global Peace Plan.

KING: Now you have a peace plan. You're wearing a band for it.

WARREN: Yes.

KING: For five global goliaths.

WARREN: Yes.

KING: They are spiritual emptiness, egocentric leadership, extreme poverty, pandemic diseases and illiteracy and education. Now, how does it work? What do you do?

WARREN: I was actually in Africa one time, actually it was a number of years ago and I began thinking what are the biggest problems in the world that everybody has failed to solve?

The U.N. has failed. The United Nations has failed. Multi corporations have failed. And, having trained so many thousands of pastors in about 162 countries, traveled a lot, I kept seeing these same five things come up, spiritual emptiness, people don't know they have a purpose; lack of leadership; egocentric leadership, who think that the...

KING: I'm right and you're wrong.

WARREN: Yes, I'm right, you're wrong. There are little Saddams everywhere, particularly in homeowners associations. You give a guy a little bit of power and they turn into Stalin.

KING: Or meter maids.

WARREN: Or meter maids. The less important the job the more power they think they have and poverty, half the world lives on less than $2 a day, disease and the thing that most of the diseases we know about we solved in the 19th and 20th Centuries we found the cure or at least how to prevent, and this is the 21st Century.

For instance this year, Larry, 300 million people will get malaria. Well, good night. That was the problem we figured out in Teddy Roosevelt's administration, you know, in the Panama Canal.

It takes quinine water and a little DDT and a bed net and remove the water. It's not rocket science. We don't have the leaders who have the courage and the conviction and the compassion to say (INAUDIBLE).

KING: And what does your organization do?

WARREN: Well, what we're doing is we're saying, and I recently spoke at the Global Health Summit sponsored by "Time," and I told them, I said the reason why it's not working, the solution is, is we only have two to three sectors mobilized.

There's the public sector, government. There's a private sector, business. And there's the faith sector, churches. Each of these are needed to handle these five giant problems and each of them has something the other doesn't.

Government has the ability to set agendas and to give permission and there are some countries I can go into they're easy to work in and others are very difficult to work in. They can make it hard or easy for you. Business has capital and has expertise. But, churches have two things the neither government nor business will ever have.

Number one, we have universal distribution. There's a church in every village of the world. I mean the church was global 200 years before anybody started thinking of globalization. I can take you to millions of places that don't have anything but a church. They're the only civil service society there.

And, the second thing churches have is this enormous pool of volunteers, 2.1 billion people, if you just mobilized a few of them that would be a lot. So, I began to say we need to figure out a way to work together and I have two goals in my life.

One is a reformation of the church in America and the other is a return of civility to society when people who disagree can still get along and like each other even if they disagree.

KING: You sound like a Mormon.

WARREN: I'm not a Mormon.

KING: But that's what the Mormons preach about.

WARREN: Really?

KING: They help each other. They have evangelicals. They send their...

WARREN: Send people out.

KING: ...young people out around the world.

WARREN: Yes.

KING: And they preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

WARREN: Well, the Catholics, of course, have been doing it for 2,000 years and the Protestants have been doing it for 500.

There are few things as grievous as hearing a pastor describe the greatest problems facing humanity without coming anywhere near sin and the need for a savior. The closest he comes is “spiritual emptiness, people don't know they have a purpose.” Who is the only one to mention the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Why, it’s Larry King, praising the Mormons. What is Warren’s response? Well, we (the Catholics and Protestants) do that, too! Is there any difference between Mormons, Catholics, and Protestants? Not that we’re going to hear about.

Well, that’s all for today. Reviewing this interview leaves me with a sick feeling, and I am not kidding. I am debating whether or not to continue with it. I think the point has been made. Stay tuned.