Master Of Doublespeak, pt. 1

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“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind” – George Orwell

I remember reading George Orwell’s 1984 in high school. It’s a great novel worth reading just to get a glimpse of his 1949 vision of a future totalitarian state. One of the terms Orwell introduced was doublethink, which inspired the Party’s slogan: War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. You get the idea.

Doublespeak is a close derivative and entered the popular vernacular soon afterward. To me, doublespeak has come to mean talking out of both sides of your mouth and managing to convince everyone that each side is saying the same thing.

Well, almost everyone.

Pastor Rick Warren is undoubtedly a master of doublespeak. Take his latest comments about same-sex marriage: “I’m not opposed to gays having their partnership. I’m opposed to gays using the term marriage for their relationship.”

Let’s analyze the logic of Warren’s statement in the light of God’s Word:

• Warren agrees that God defines marriage as only between a man and a woman.

• The word “gay” is synonymous with homosexual.

• A “gay marriage” is by definition a sexual relationship outside of marriage.

• A “gay partnership” is by definition a sexual relationship outside of marriage.

• God says any sexual relationship outside of marriage, in thought or in deed, either hetero or homo, is adultery.

• So in essence Warren is saying  that he’s opposed to adultery (gay marriage), but not opposed to adultery (gay partnerships).

You see, the logic of Warren’s statement breaks down under closer scrutiny. Even gays can see that. But it sure sounds good to 21st century post modern ears.

Warren’s stand reminds me of those courageous politicians who say, “I’m personally opposed to abortion but I support a woman’s right to choose abortion.” (Actually a politician would never utter the word abortion- they would stop at the word choose. They dare not even mention the actual choice.)

A politician who tries to please everyone feels he must do so in order to get elected.
But what office is Rick Warren running for? He is supposedly a minister of the Lord, bound by His Word and accountable to Him. Therefore, isn’t he supposed to uphold God’s absolute moral standard no matter how unpopular?

He later tried to explain himself by making a  silly comment about “people being free to make choices”. But a pastor is not in the position of denying anyone their right to those choices. That power belongs exclusively to the government through its use of coercive force. A pastor is in the position, though, of expounding God’s standards at all times and not offering even a hint of the sanctioning of the immoral.

But if Warren took an uncompromising stand on biblical truth, that would defeat his purpose (pun intended). You see, one of his three life goals is to restore civility to civilization.

I will explore this statement further in part 2.

Links To Background Material:

• Yahoo! News: Rick Warren: Not anti-gay to oppose gay marriage

*Note: Links to content outside ChristianEar.com usually are broken over time.