Don’t trust me. Sometimes I’ll believe a lie because it’s close to what I want to believe about someone. I won’t perform due diligence because it strikes me as plausible.
Today I posted something on my other blog about syncretism. Part of what prompted my post was the breathless tale told by one Paul L. Williams, Ph.D. on his website, The Last Crusade (you can find it if you want). His article, “CHRISLAM SPREADS THROUGHOUT AMERICA” (note the all caps) was picked up by a large number of other sites, and was predictably posted by one member of a mailing list which I help moderate. I didn’t check out the story because it lambasted someone I dislike (Rick Warren). I didn’t make too much of that, but did use it to launch into a related topic.
Then someone called my attention to how this article was pretty sorry journalism. So I checked, and found out this Dr. Williams is the sole source of this whole thing, stretching some facts way too far to back his wild tale. This author used an image which was almost surely fictitious, since you can get one saying anything you like. Furthermore, Rick Warren’s New Age theology is bad, but even he knows better than to say Muslims are the same as Christians. He gets awfully close at times, but hasn’t gone that far, yet.
Rather, Warren has promoted peaceful relations with Muslims, and I’m all for that. Indeed, Dr. Williams is even more wrong here, simply because he gleefully promotes a fear and hatred for Muslims, in the sense he wants us to kill them all. At least, that’s what I get from his site. Think about it: “The Last Crusade” — the graphics on his site depict a very belligerent intent, and a war-like Jesus.
Once I checked it out, I changed my post and dropped the links to Dr. Williams’ site. I didn’t put any here, either. As for Rick Warren, he’s a disciple of Schuler and several other New Age/Christian syncretists. Were he honest with himself, he would call it “The Purchase Driven Life,” since it’s all about him and his profits, and the politics of taking over churches across the US. But it would be dishonest of me to call him a devotee of Chrislam.
