Saddleback Church pastor, 'The Purpose-Driven Life' author Rick Warren, begs parishioners for $900K

[Christa]

Evangelical pastor Rick Warren's got a new purpose in life: to raise $900K by the first of the year for his struggling church.

Warren, the author of the best-selling book 'The Purpose-Driven Life' and pastor at Saddleback Church, needs the money to fill a giant hole in the church's budget resulting from significantly lower donations, the Associated Press reported.

Warren wrote an urgent letter to his parishioners asking for the money.

"Dear Saddleback Family, THIS IS AN URGENT LETTER," he wrote. "With 10 percent of our church family out of work due to the recession, our expenses in caring for our community in 2009 rose dramatically while our income stagnated."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/12/31/2009-12-31_evangelical_pastor_rick_warren.html#ixzz0bMnzwmL2

[Kolesar]

1. The gold plate on their palace gate comes from the teeth of pensioners

--Elvis Costello

[HowHasItComeToThis]

13. WHO DO YOU NEED TOPAY OFF, RICKY???

[hobbit709]

2. Maybe God is telling him he needs to tighten his belt.

[peace frog]

3. These celeb/evangelicals

make me want to hurl. Your Saddleback vanity project needs money, Rick? Take it out of your own book sales, sell one of your vacay properties, sell a little-used piece of jewelry but for gawd's sake stop pumping the parishioners who can ill afford to send you one dime. Fucking PUSSY.

[peacebird]

5. +1000 - exactly, i bet HIS bottom line is perfectly fine, how much of that mil is his salary?

[vi5]

4. Isn't he a multi-millionaire from speaking/books/etc?

And he's begging for money? What a fucking charlatan (not like that wasn't know already but it's always nice to have undeniable proof.

It says a lot about how far we've regressed that when Oral Roberts pulled some variation of this same scam (albeit with a little more flair and drama) it was widely ridiculed everywhere. And now a guy pulling the same bullshit is someone who is hailed as a religious hero rather than a goddamned snake oil salesman.

[Christa]

12. From one of the comments in the OP

This guy is worth well over 500 million dollars, how come he can't give up a million out of his own pockets? The money was given to him by the idiots who actually donate to this sham.

[Joanne98]

6. Purpose driven gluttony

[Captain Hilts]

7. To think this sexist, homophobic, and greedy charleton spoke at the inauguration makes me ill. nt

[vi5]

16. Well, look at what good it did....

I mean now all these evangelicals support Obama, right? I mean he "extended a hand" and they reached out and they hugged and now we're all one big happy family. Common ground and all that. I mean that's what happened, right? I mean gays/lesbians and women got slapped in the face by him being there for a greater cause, right?

What's that? None of that fucking happened? Now how could that be?

[Ian David]

8. For someone who's broke, Rick Warren seems to be eating well. n/t

[doc03]

9. Is the Lord going to take him home if

he doesn't get the cash? All he has to do is sell around 50000 prayer cloths at $19.99 each (I am allowing for the cost of the Chinese prayer cloths).

[MineralMan]

10. This crisis is proof that God doesn't like Warren.

Sometimes, that Calvinism works out OK, I guess.

[54anickel]

11. The guy's got connections - this is hitting some major news outlets. Talk about free

advertising of his plea! :puke:

Wonder how many $$$ will be floating in from non-members and "fans" of his books and ministry?

[caitxrawks]

14. lawl, my mom loves that douche.

I should totally e-mail her this thread. She's been just beeeegging me to read that book for years (I'm an atheist, Mom. Dur.) I despise evangelicals.

[DeSwiss]

15. “Rick Warren iz outta teh munniez”

- LULZ

K&R

[Shallah Kali]

17. Rick Warren Cites Hitler Youth as Model For Christian Dedication - video

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2009/1/15/183634/970

or direct link to the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRctKSeyQ-s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fzwljL2LTQ

Towards the close of his nearly one hour speech, Pastor Warren asked his followers to be as committed to Jesus as the young Nazi men and women who spelled out in mass formation with their bodies the words "Hitler, we are yours," in 1939 at the Munich Stadium, were committed to the Führer of the Third Reich, a major instigator of a World War that claimed 55 million lives. Rick Warren has exhorted Christians towards Nazi-like dedication in at least several public speeches and also during a one hour video recording of a talk by Warren, explaining his P.E.A.C.E. Plan, that is currently hosted on the official P.E.A.C.E. Plan website (see 'video page', "The Global P.E.A.C.E. Plan"). A version of the anecdote can also be found on page 357 of Rick Warren's 1995 book The Purpose Driven Church, which sold over one million copies.

During his Anaheim stadium speech Warren, sometimes called 'pastor Rick' talked about a number of visions and communications he had received from God. By calling on his church members to follow Jesus with the fanatical dedication with which the Nazis, or Hitler Youth, gave to Adolf Hitler, Rick Warren appeared to be in effect asking his Saddleback members to be fanatically dedicated to Warren's own leadership, given his role in divining God's intent for the Saddleback church flock. During his speech, Rick Warren also explained that God had personally instructed him to seek, for the good of the world, more influence, power and fame.

Warren moved on, from his celebration of Nazi dedication to purpose, and held up Lenin, and Chinese Red Guard efforts during the Cultural Revolution, as behavioral examples for his Saddleback flock, whom Warren called on to carry out a "revolution".

Concluding his motivational speech, the Saddleback Church founder instructed his ranks in the stadium to hold up signs, from their official programs, with the preprinted message "whatever it takes". Warren then introduced, as leader of the first nation on Earth in which the P.E.A.C.E. Plan would be implemented, Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

In 1998 under Kagame's leadership Rwanda, along with the now officially "Purpose Driven" nation of Uganda, invaded the Democratic Republic of The Congo, touching off a conflict that has claimed more civilian lives than any since World War Two. On December 12, 2008, the United Nations accused Rwanda of aiding Congolese warlord Laurent Nkunda, accused of massacres and human rights violations and whose recent offensive has created several hundred thousand Congolese refugees.

In March 2008, Rick Warren's Saddleback launched an official national "Purpose Driven Living" program in Uganda, a country which was indicted in 2005 by the International Criminal Court for perpetrating "massive" human rights violations by invading and looting the natural riches of the Congo. Uganda is know for brutalizing its own population too. In the late 1990's under president Yowerie Museveni, whose wife Janet Museveni has spoken at Saddleback Church conferences, the Ugandan military drove upwards of two million Acholi tribe members in Northern Uganda, through a terror campaign of massacres and bombing, into crowded concentration camps on the Congo-Uganda border where many languish to this day, in what one Former Undersecretary for the UN has described as an ongoing, slow genocide.

RightWingWatch - all things tagged with Rick Warren http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/individuals/rick-warren

[davidwparker]

18. This is the ironic part. He supports (R)'s. But, (R's) take from his

congregants 401k's, jobs, and with no pay raises, inflation is chewing up what those with jobs do make.

It is sad.

I've not given much to a church in a while. I support a Christian radio network called K-LOVE and give to Compassion International to help a child in Africa. I have nothing else to give.

Perhaps the wealthy preacher should support the party -- as bad as it is -- who supports the middle class and working poor. Then, his congregants may have money to give.

[RLBaty]

19. He made it, and more!

Reports now indicate that Warren raised the $900,000.00 plus a lot more.

Typical!

[54anickel]

21. A cool 2.4 million, and as I stated earlier the free publicity of the major new outlets certainly

didn't harm his efforts. Although he's claiming the 2.4m is only from parishoners...


A thread over in GD on the latest winnings tally
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7382825#7383324



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_rick_warren_donations

snip>
Warren said the amount raised after the appeal was posted online Wednesday included only money parishioners brought in person to Saddleback Church by New Year's Eve. More was arriving by hand and by mail, he said.

snip>

The pastor said he planned to talk about what he called his church's "radical generosity" in the rest of the weekend's sermons. He said the total came from members, and the donations were all under $100.

[onager]

20. Fun cross-cultural reference to this asshat...

The other day I was scanning the TV channels. Suddenly I was hit in the face by a full-screen quote from Rick Warren's "Porpoise-Driven Life."

Thinks me: "Oh shit, is that idiot coming on my TV to beg?"

Why, no. That was the beginning of a Lifetime movie entitled Amber Frey: Witness for the Prosecution.

I immediately dropped everything I was doing, and settled down on the couch for 2 hours of pure comedy gold.

You may remember Frey's 15 minutes of fame. She was canoodling with Scott Peterson shortly before he murdered his wife and unborn son.

Frey was a big fan of Rick Warren, and in one touching scene she sent Scott some of Warren's books. Along with a letter urging him to read Pastor Rick's glurge and apply it to his life. On Death Row.

Irrelevant trivia, because I got severely chastised over in the Entertainment forum for admitting my Lifetime movie addiction:

Yes, I love me some Lifetime movies, at least the ones about idiots dating killers and wives whacking their husbands for insurance money.

I am a geezer with a Y chromosome and a former Marine drill instructor. You got a problem with that?