Pastor Rick Warren, the author of “A Purpose-Driven Life,” has invited unintentional humor once again, this time over his practice of tweeting religious wisdom for the masses. According to Twitaholic, Warren is one of the 2,000 most popular tweeters. He has almost 850,000 followers, and he is ranked 1st in his state (the state of Grace).
@RickWarren tweets regularly, sometimes with status updates, but often with encouraging tidbits such as:
- “Greek without grace is godless interpretation;”
- “In a culture where anything goes, the culture goes down the toilet;” and
- “It’s human nature not to trust god until you have to.“
All but the most fervent Warren fans probably recognize that his Twitter account is fertile ground for parody, awaiting only the right seed with which to take root. That seed arrived recently, with an arcane exhortation from Warren to new gatherings of believers.
The zenlike mystery was just too much for some poor souls in the Emergent Church crowd, whose good-natured humor manifested itself in response tweets:
Soon the hashtag #rickwarrentips appeared, and the responses continued…
“Call your mother. In the middle of the conversation scream “Oh God!” and hang up. Can’t explain all the reasons here. #rickwarrentips“
And then the screen name @cantexplain cropped up to keep the meme going.
Before long, there had been hundreds of tweets, with numerous names from the more liberal end of the theological spectrum taking part.
“Pyrotheologist” and transformance artist Peter Rollins offered this contribution:
“Higgs boson: quantum excitation with2neutral&2charged parts forming isospinSU(2)symmetry. Can’t explain all the reasons here #rickwarrentips”
Someone purporting to be Jay Bakker, the son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, tweeted:
“You have to purify yourself in Lake Minnetonka… Can’t explain all the reasons here.”
For his part, Rick Warren has demonstrated that he has a sense of humor about all this. He tweeted:
“If you ever see me without a shirt on, do not look directly. Can’t explain all the reasons why. #RickWarrenTip“
And…
“I’ve learned if your stomach feels explosive, do NOT kneel to pray, Can’t explain all the reasons here. #RickWarrenTips”
For various reasons, this Skepticism Examiner is not a fan of Rick Warren, and the embedded video from vlogger Steve Shives provides important input on Warren’s most popular book. Nevertheless, it is admirable that even Pastor Warren can find humor in his own ironies.
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