Update (April 11): With American lawmakers on the verge of turning the nationaldebate on gun control into new legislation, Rick Warren announced via Twitter today that his son Matthew committed suicide using an unregistered gun bought over the internet.
Someone on the internet sold Matthew an unregistered gun.I pray he seeks God’s forgiveness. I forgive him. #MATTHEW 6:15– Rick Warren (@RickWarren) April 11, 2013
The Associated Press and CNN, among other outlets, have more details.
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Protestant pastors aren’t as concerned about religious liberty as they were just a few years ago, amid high-profile cases challenging Christian convictions on abortion and marriage, but they increasingly feel the tension around whether and how to address hot-button moral and social issues.
According to a comprehensive new religious freedom and pluralism report released by the Barna Group this year, 9 out of 10 Christian pastors say helping Christians have biblical beliefs about specific issues is a major part of their role as clergy.
But they sense the pressure from all sides: Many express being subject to scrutiny from outside their congregations as well as within them. “The stakes are high in the public square,” the researchers wrote. “The issues pastors feel most pressured to speak out on are the same ones they feel limited to speak on,” with LGBT issues and same-sex marriage at the top.
Half of Christian pastors feel occasionally or frequently limited in their ability to speak out by concerns they will offend people, Barna reported.
Pastors also recognize how shifting views on sexuality will continue to impact the religious liberty landscape. Barna found that three-quarters (76%) of US clergy believe religious freedom is becoming less valued, and just under half (44%) predict that other freedoms will be at risk in the coming decade.
Religious Freedom Fears
Pastors from non-mainline Protestant traditions—generally evangelical groups like Southern Baptists, Pentecostals and charismatics, non-denominational Christians, and those from Wesleyan-Holiness backgrounds—are more likely than leaders from other traditions to believe that clergy play a unique role in defending religious freedom (72%). They are also the wariest about its future.
While a majority of religious leaders across faiths expressed concern about threats to religious freedom, 85 percent of non-mainline leaders said religious freedoms were becoming less valued. By comparison, 71 percent of Catholic and 54 percent of mainline leaders agreed.
Interestingly, fears about the fate of religious freedom have fallen since 2014. Since that time, a number of landmark religious liberty stories made headlines, including Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which then-governor Mike Pence stated would protect businesses from being forced to act contrary to their faith; the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court victory; and the game-changing Obergefell ruling that legalized gay marriage.
Barna points out that a decline in concern among clergy, despite these landmark cases, may indicate a decrease in “headline sensitivity” among Protestant pastors. While pastors expressing high concern about religious freedom restrictions in the next five years dropped from 55 percent in 2014 to 37 percent in 2017, the percentage of those “somewhat concerned” rose from a quarter to 39 percent in the same period.
Christian leaders still have significant concerns around religious hospitals being compelled to perform abortions, religious organizations being required hire without consideration of sexual orientation, and greater restrictions or bans on religious organizations on college campuses. Perceptions about the degree of threat for these issues and others varied across Christian denominations, but a majority of pastors in all segments perceived them as “extreme” or “major” threats.
Preaching Pressures
Homosexuality is the issue pastors feel most pressured by their congregants to talk about and the most limited.
Close to half (44%) of Christian clergy say they feel limited in their ability to speak about homosexuality by people within their own churches. At the same time, 37 percent say they feel pressured by their congregations to speak on the matter.
Far fewer pastors feel these limitations or pressures on issues like abortion, sex before marriage, or immigration.
The Barna report tracked faith leaders’ responses in surveys spanning from 2014 to 2017. Among non-mainline pastors, 46 percent said it has become harder to speak out about biblical beliefs related to social issues than it was five years ago, while 49 percent said it is the same. Only 6 percent said it has become easier.
Barna Group president David Kinnaman told CBN News that a large majority of pastors feel constrained in what they can teach. “They actually feel pressured to not preach on certain topics or pressured to speak on topics that they are not ready to talk about,” he said.
Non-mainline Protestant pastors are the least likely to say this shift has led them to change their message. While 11 percent of all Christian pastors feel “frequently” constrained by concerns of causing offense, just 7 percent of non-mainline pastors, 6 percent of Southern Baptists, and 8 percent of African American Protestants feel constrained that often.
The researchers noted that over just a few years, Protestant pastors became less likely to say they “never” felt limited by causing offense and more likely to say they “occasionally” felt that way.
“The likeliest explanation for this shift is that between 2014 and 2015–16, a number of pastors found that political remarks, which in previous years went mostly unnoticed, were rather suddenly received with some hostility,” the researchers wrote.
“It is also possible that during that window more clergy had a bad experience on Facebook or Twitter after posting a link or video that might have been seen as unobjectionable in previous years but elicited a stronger response in the current context. As a result, clergy who once felt completely at liberty to speak about political questions felt the need to be more cautious.”
Most pastors (64%) worry more about how their own congregants will respond than the outside world, though they say most of the pressure they feel comes from outside the church.In 2017, CT asked whether pastors should address current events in sermons. “The church needs to become part of the voice on hot news stories,” Tulsa pastor Alex Himaya responded. “I think any time we can reference the gospel and insert biblical truth into a hot topic, we should consider it.”Plenty of other pastors encouraged preachers to bring Scripture to bear on the issues of the day.“As long as it promotes the gospel and equips the saints to live more faithfully, I would not avoid carefully applying God’s Word to current events,” Mika Edmondson, a pastor in Grand Rapids, told CT. “However, it takes wisdom and care to broach current issues in a way that serves—and does not detract from—the Bible’s eternal message.”“If we were to address issues more regularly, while still doing so biblically and respectfully, our congregations would be far less scandalized when we do,” said Seattle-based pastor Peter Chin.LGBT Rights and Religious RightsOverall, more than 9 in 10 US clergy across faiths (92%) assert that religious communities must remain free to teach a traditional definition of marriage, and 79 percent of American adults agree, according to Barna surveys. In 2015, the same percentage of Americans overall said religious institutions should not be legally compelled to perform same-sex weddings.Despite that consensus, pastors continue to worry about how LGBT protections will challenge Christian convictions in schools, workplaces, and the public square.Just as evangelicals debated “Fairness for All” legislation as a model for safeguarding the rights of both groups, a 2017 Barna survey found Protestant pastors were fairly split: 53 percent favored federal legislation to protect LGBT rights and religious freedom and 47 percent opposed.
Update (April 9): Saddleback Church has announced that it will hold only a private memorial for pastor Rick Warren’s son, Matthew Warren. However, the Warrens have set up a public fund through the church, The Matthew Warren Fund, to help fight mental illness.
In addition, LifeWay Research president Ed Stetzer has posted a second roundup of Christian leaders discussing depression.
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Update (April 8): The suicide of Rick Warren’s youngest son has prompted much discussion of how churches respond to depression and other mental illnesses.
Ed Stetzer offers CNN his thoughts on four things Christians can do, including “not be afraid of medicine” and “end the shame.” (He expands his ideas on his own blog.) Justin Taylor offers a sizable roundup of sermons and resources related to suicide and depression. And C. Michael Patton, one of CT’s Who’s Next profiles who has publicly blogged his struggle with depression in the wake of his sister’s suicide, offers his thoughts on the “asphyxiation of hope.”
Southern Baptist leader Frank Page, who has written a forthcoming book on his daughter Melissa’s suicide, tells Ed Stetzer, “It is my prayer that [the book] will touch the lives of many people, helping those who have gone through this experience.”
CT offers special sections on depression and mental health, including a 2009 cover package on “why we’re more down than ever,–and the crucial role churches play in healing.”
Also, recent public comments from Kay Warren on her family’s struggles have been added to the bottom of this post. Meanwhile, Rick Warren tweeted this to his nearly 1 million followers:
Kay and I are overwhelmed by your love, prayers, and kind words. You are all encouraging our #brokenhearts.– Rick Warren (@RickWarren) April 7, 2013
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According to the Orange County Register and media reports, Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren released a statement to church members informing them that the youngest of his three children, Matthew Warren, 27, died on Friday–apparently due to suicide. Official sources indicate a self-inflicted gunshot wound Friday morning was the cause of death. (See full statement below.)
Few details are available at this point. The Register reported:
Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church sent out an email Saturday morning to church members addressing the death of his youngest son. Matthew Warren, 27, of Mission Viejo, died Friday around 10 a.m. from what appears to be suicide, Supervising Deputy Coroner Daniel Aikin said.
Warren in his statement said:
“In spite of America’s best doctors, meds, counselors, and prayers for healing, the torture of mental illness never subsided… after a fun evening together with Kay and me, in a momentary wave of despair at his home, he took his own life.”
The CT news staff is developing more information on this tragedy and will update this article as events unfold.
Here is the full statement sent by Warren:
Subject: Needing your prayers
To my dear staff,
Over the past 33 years we’ve been together through every kind of crisis. Kay and I’ve been privileged to hold your hands as you faced a crisis or loss, stand with you at gravesides, and prayed for you when ill. Today, we need your prayer for us.
No words can express the anguished grief we feel right now. Our youngest son, Matthew, age 27, and a lifelong member of Saddleback, died today.
You who watched Matthew grow up knew he was an incredibly kind, gentle, and compassionate man. He had a brilliant intellect and a gift for sensing who was most in pain or most uncomfortable in a room. He’d then make a bee-line to that person to engage and encourage them.
But only those closest knew that he struggled from birth with mental illness, dark holes of depression, and even suicidal thoughts. In spite of America’s best doctors, meds, counselors, and prayers for healing, the torture of mental illness never subsided. Today, after a fun evening together with Kay and me, in a momentary wave of despair at his home, he took his life.
Kay and I often marveled at his courage to keep moving in spite of relentless pain. I’ll never forget how, many years ago, after another approach had failed to give relief, Matthew said ” Dad, I know I’m going to heaven. Why can’t I just die and end this pain?” but he kept going for another decade.
Thank you for your love and prayers. We love you back.
Pastor Rick
The Warren family’s recent struggles did not often receive extensive public comment from the couple. But in February 2011, Kay Warren spoke at the Winter Conference of a group of conservative Anglicans. David Virtue of VirtueOnline reported:
Speaking to some 1200 participants at the annual winter conference of the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA) in Greensboro this week, Kay Warren told her own story of suffering…. “In the last two and a half years, our fourth grandchild nearly died at birth during an emergency C section. Seven weeks later, our daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had to undergo 26 hours of brain surgery with a long recovery. Our daughter had severe auto immune disease, my mother slid mentally into dementia which made me the primary caretaker. On top of all this, our youngest child struggles with bipolar disease and has found it difficult to keep going. We have hung on by a thread of a finger nail,” she told a stunned audience. Warren said there have been struggles in her marriage to Rick, and stress in her walk with God. Through it all she says her walk with God has become stronger, deeper, richer and more intimate. “I have great family and friends. I am embarrassed to be in need. There is no big girl pill nor can I simply chill out.” She added, “When I realize because of God’s extravagant lavish love for me, and that I am his beloved, I can survive the painful circumstances that come into our lives. “We need to tell people that they are the beloved of God. In doing so we remove the shame, it removes the guilt over sins I can’t conquer. We are called to be messy with people and be with people in tremendous need. When you know you are His beloved and not God’s bother you risk it all for Him. People may persecute you and hate you but you know also how much God loves you.”
Also, in a 2012 interview with Her.meneutics, Kay Warren commented:
“In every moment of our lives, there is beauty, truth, honor, love. And at the same moment, there is an ache in our hearts for something else. People are dying. Relationships are ending.” On the day of President Obama’s inauguration, Warren was present as Rick gave the invocation: a real “high” for the Warrens. “But at the same time,” Warren says, “a loved one was struggling with a mental illness. On the same day!”
