Chris Rosebrough, director of CAN and author of the ExtremeTheology.com blog, issued a statement late last week calling on Murdoch to repent for the sin of profiting from pornographic channels like “Sport XXX Babes” and “XXX Housewives,” owned and operated by BSkyB, a subsidiary of Murdoch’s News Corp.
Rosebrough also placed the onus on Murdoch’s famous pastor, Rick Warren, to threaten Murdoch with expulsion from the church, should Murdoch fail to repent.
“Rupert Murdoch is a born-again Christian and Rick Warren claims to be his pastor,” said Rosebrough. “As a Christian, Murdoch is committing an egregious sin by owning, expanding and profiting from pornographic channels and Rick Warren, as his pastor, has a Biblical duty to call Murdoch to repentance and/or put him out of the church.”
Rosebrough added that Murdoch’s actions in offering adult programming “have already damaged his credibility as a Christian,” and argued that if Warren doesn’t act soon, the entire Christian message spread by Warren will suffer, as well.
“If Pastor Warren does not act swiftly and call on Murdoch to dismantle his porn distribution network, then the credibility of the Christian message will be compromised around the globe,” Rosebrough said.
Since Murdoch’s involvement in the distribution of adult content via BSkyB was first reported by TheBusinessOnline.com in December of last year, some Christian critics have speculated that Warren could be hesitant to chastise Murdoch because News Corp also owns Zondervan, the company that published Warren’s best seller book, “The Purpose Driven Life.”
Noting that Warren and Zondervan currently are working on an revised edition of the “Purpose Driven Church,” scheduled for release later this year, Rosebrough said he hopes that Warren has his priorities straight as a pastor.
“We hope that Warren’s business ties to Murdoch’s company haven’t clouded his judgement and impacted his resolve to carry out his Biblical duty as Murdoch’s Pastor,” Rosebrough said.