Rick Warren vs The Christofascists: A Purpose Driven Hoax?

Saddleback Church: Religion Meets Las Vegas...And Then Some!

I'm not really a conspiracy buff, I just talk like one when it comes to organized religion: I don't trust it. Religious leaders are too much like politicians. Do you trust them? Hence, it may sound a bit arrogant, but a religious leader has to EARN my trust. Titles and (mostly honorary) doctorates mean very little to me. The title of "Reverend" could have come from a box of Crackerjack for all I know. Even the title "New York Times Bestselling Author" means little to me, and I was in the book publishing business for 25 years.
(Left: St. Vitus Cathedral - Built for Awe and Inspiration)


The Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren, has been one of the bestselling books of all time - the sale of 20 million books confirms it. The book has been translated into dozens of different languages. Warren's "method" has been taught in thousands of churches across the country. So why don't I trust this guy?

I can honestly say I don't know. There are some things I can cite, like his biblical literacy, but that's not enough to label him a Christofascist. It may be his passion for evangelizing "the whole world":

"Jesus said, 'This Gospel shall be preached into all the world to every nation and then the end shall come.' He's not coming back until that happens...The question is will we get to be the ones who get to be in on it or not. Will we be the generation who says, "Let's make this happen!'"

Warren's PEACE Plan - to put together a network of "10 million" churches to end poverty and disease (primarily AIDS) is bold and passionate. Notice I didn't write "compassionate." I succumb to people passionate about causes or careers as easily as the next person. Warren's passion, however, goes beyond religious belief: it hints at a lust for power. I'd research his PEACE Plan a lot more and see how he envisions himself within it. Warren's theology also rests on Original Sin and man's responsibility for all the evils in the world, including natural disasters:

"The Bible teaches that since sin entered the world, way back with the first human beings, we have lived in an imperfect, broken planet, and that causes hurricanes and tornadoes."

(Right: Saddleback Church on the inside.Unfortunately.Do you feel inspired yet?)

I'm not big on Original Sin. Just because good 'ole Saint Augustine had a massive amount of guilt doesn't mean people are born sinful. Original Sin brings humanity down a notch and practically equates man with sin: born guilty until proven innocent. I don't buy that either.

Warren is also a master of "The Seeker-Sensitive Movement" - paying attention to most of the "unchurched" souls and giving them a non-traditional, laid-back form of religious expression. Hawaiian shirts and sandals are O.K., and desire of material things is O.K. too - the movement encourages the marketing of churches to attract people. Some churches give away U2 tickets and church-logo frisbees while others have free ice cream trucks and martial arts classes (Christian warriors ala Rod Parsley).

So, is The Movement really bait and switch? Is Warren merely trying to attract new souls in order to build a theocratic empire? Having Barack Obama and John McCain come together for an informal debate may look like bipartisanship (and Warren himself refuses to endorse a candidate), but is it a move toward much greater things? No matter which way you look at it, "evangelizing the entire world" will have serious casualties. People of other we-are-the-only-way religions will fight - to the death.

Just a thought.



Spirituality... with a latte! Or...

...wait til they get the skateboard park finished!

Rick Warren Redux

And Redux...And Redux...And Redux -
Until We find Out What's Going On!

O.K., I'm beating something to death (maybe myself), but notice that I placed it after the initial post so you don't have to read this if you don't want to.

A skateboard park?!! How much money was needed to build the 120-acre-rich-as Creosus-Riverside-California "campus"? A lot of ink was spent on how Saddleback was made up of tents for such a long time. So who (or what) gave Saddleback all the money? Joel Osteen? Nah, his church only rakes in $79 million a year; certainly not enough to help out Rick Warren in a pinch. I'm going to MinistryWatch right now. Wait...

Couldn't come up with anything, but I'll give Warren and his flock a chance and continue to see how much accountability and transparency there is to the ministry. Warren's ministry gives other pastors seminars and how-to books on how to enrich their ministries and truly become "fishers of men." (Maybe the books come with cost estimates on the skateboard park?)

Meanwhile, I noticed a lot of criticism and a whole world of nit-picking coming from grumbling and possibly jealous preachers: Warren doesn't fit this or that doctrine, he's so very "untraditional" and even (gasp!) secular in some sort of way. To his credit, Warren has proven that the unorthodox works just as well. But let's look at the BIG picture: 2,000 years after the birth of a religion, 30,000 denominations later, enough ideologies (and bombastic pharisees) to sink a battleship even if they were written on thin parchment - and "Christians" still can't seem to get it right. "We're the way to do it!" "No! We're the way!" "Wait! We have the truth! Don't believe those other fakes!" It's true: the United States of America leads the world in the number of Elmer Gantrys it houses.

And is all that back-biting and bickering for the "Love of God?" Would Rick Warren welcome another 120-acre "Purpose Driven" church next door? Not unless it was built according to his rules, I'll bet. From the looks of it (and I'm being judgmental here), Warren wants it all: money, fame, glory and, most of all - POWER!

HE's the one giving a party/forum for McCain and Obama, not anyone else. Rick Warren wants to hurry the coming of Christ by evangelizing the entire world. His forum today is just the beginning.

Just a thought.

OMG! She's 50!!!

Madonna's big pole
Originally uploaded by TabascoKid

Yes, Madonna was born on August 16, 1958. For someone who's reinvented herself a dozen times, she looks pretty good. I wanted to post her famous kiss with Britney, but I realized how demeaning that would be...to Madonna. Alas, Britney and brains don't quite fit together, whereas Madonna and brains...let's just say that she was able to pull off most of those reinventions. Happy 50th, Madonna!!


In honor of Saddleback Church

A Purpose Driven Campaign: Obama and McCain Square Off (Or Show Off) for Evangelicals Everywhere!

No, it's not another one of Cher's Final Tours. It's a megachurch.

This is TOO MUCH! TOO MUCH! TOO MUCH!

Sorry. I was in megachurch mode and thinking about tomorrow, when Obama and McCain duke it out at Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in California (O.C. to be sure). At first, it seems that Warren's church is the perfect place to entice evangelicals who don't quite espouse John Hagee's odd logic about Israel, Rod Parsley's militaristic prose, or Jeremiah Wright's liberation theology: Warren is called the "Jimmy Buffet of evangelical preachers." He is the author of the 20-million bestseller book "The Purpose Driven Life." He is also one helluva powerful man.

Here are some facts about Saddleback Church (as per Bob Lanham's The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right):

• Collected $7 million in cash on one Sunday.
• Bar codes are assigned to babies checked in to the nursery to avoid losing them.
• Has an estimated three thousand church-based small groups.
• Provides several service styles, including gospel, guitar-driven, and even "hula and island-style."
• Has a 120-acre campus, three hundred employees, and over sixty daughter churches.

With Warren's laid back style, this might just be the perfect venue for Obama and McCain. But as with all things religious, you have to look beneath the bright-colored Hawaiian shirt to see a little Christofascism at work: Warren preaches that only until the entire world experiences The Word will Jesus Christ come. It's the End Times with a softer touch; however, it can be very hard when it comes to matters of sin: (On natural disasters)

"The Bible teaches that since sin entered the world, way back with the very first human beings, we have lived in an imperfect, broken planet, and that causes hurricanes and tornadoes."

Warren is also something of a biblical inerrantist. That, of course, warns us that hellfire is closer to everyone than we think. He may even be a bit of a Reconstructionist. Who knows?

Just a thought.

See What I Mean (How Timely!): Fox/Murdoch Is Taking a Little Too Much Credit!

JUST IN:

Read This Article (out less than two hours ago) by ThinkProgress.com and you'll see why Fox thinks it's the greatest thing since sliced bread!

Fair and Balanced, huh?

Hearst, Kane or Rupert: Which One Has Given Us the Most Biased News Coverage?

Hint: It's Neither Hearst Nor Kane

Frederick Remington, the famous sculptor of cowboys and horses, once worked for William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. Remington was commissioned to sketch scenes of the Spanish-American War, but after several weeks in Cuba, Remington saw no war to sketch and wired Hearst with the request to return home. Hearst wired back:

"You provide the pictures. I'll provide the war."

Some people might think that George Bush provided the media with Iraq. He did. However, which media accepted his views unconditionally? Behold:

While promoting his memoir, What Happened, Scott McClellan, former White House Press Secretary (2003–2006) for President George W. Bush stated on the July 25, 2008 edition of Hardball with Chris Matthews that the Bush White House routinely gave talking points to Fox News commentators in order to influence discourse and content. Though it is not uncommon for White House officials to provide press releases to the media, McClellan stated that these talking points were not issued to provide the public with news, they were to provide Fox News commentators—not journalists—with issues and perspectives favorable to the White House and Republican Party. McClellan later noted on the O'Reilly Factor that Fox News commentator, Bill O'Reilly, was not one of the individuals receiving said talking points from the White House.

O'Reilly must have been crushed! Spurned! Insulted! Actually he was lucky, considering what's coming out about the White House today. McClellan was being very kind.

Yes, it's running joke about Fox News making things up as they go along. Who do they have as an investigative journalist? Geraldo? Although Rivera wouldn't admit it, he hasn't done much of anything as an unbiased journalist since, well, "Al Capone's Vaults." Fox News concentrates more on the salacious than the meaningful:

This is ThinkProgress.com's take on what Fox decides to report on:

Fox News has decided which story is worthy of more coverage. Today, host Gregg Jarrett interviewed PBS’s Bonnie Erbe. “We have these huge stories going on like the one you’re reporting in Georgia,” Erbe noted when asked about Edwards. Jarrett, however, completely ignored Erbe’s comment on Georgia and continued to talk about Edwards, offering praise for the National Enquirer:

JARRETT: You know, his excuse for lying is absolutely stunning. He claims he denied the affair because the reporting by the National Enquirer was “99 percent wrong.” Well, so far, they’ve been about 100 percent right.

Throughout the segment, Jarrett refused to talk about anything except for Edwards’s affair:

ERBE: The American public have told pollsters, this political season they want substance. Both these candidates have expressed support for allowing Georgia into NATO. … We could have been on the verge of nuclear war. Those are the kinds of the things that the American public wants to see discussed.

JARRETT: Right. You know, but getting back to Edwards, during the Monica Lewinsky affair, Edwards absolutely ripped into Bill Clinton.

Murdoch has certainly made his conservative point of view - and voice - more prominent. Fact: The Wall Street Journal has changed significantly since Murdoch took over.. It's edging towards politics. Then what? A tabloid format? "What Does Hostess REALLY Put In It's Twinkies? If It Sells, Who Cares?" But does he actually tell everyone what to think?

Ratings. Viewers. Readership.
Look at them. Then look at them again.
Then decide.

Just a thought.


Watch the following: a Fox reporter argues the point that a 15-year-old "maybe deserved to be tortured."

Pulpits, Pimps and Pumps: Praying at the Local Shell?

Lord Please Help Drop Those Prices Again!

From the Washington Independent

Here's a valuable use of time: A group called the Pray at the Pump Movement will congregate at a Shell gas station in DC this afternoon to -- you guessed it -- pray in celebration of falling gas prices. Seems this group launched its plight in April, encouraging motorists to pray for lower fuel prices as they filled their vehicles. Now that oil prices have dropped to roughly $114 a barrel -- the lowest tally in months -- they want to give God a shout-out of thanks.

I'll believe in the efficacy of their prayers when gas goes back to $ 1.78 per gallon.

Is Joel Osteen in on this? If God WANTS us to have the things we want, then his Lakewood Church and all the other "Word of Faith" ministries (Creflo Dollar, Ken Copeland, etc.) should have gotten together and had a National Day of Gas Prayer. Just think how low it could go!

Or...maybe Benny Hinn could lay hands on gas pumps and heal them of their inflated prices!!

Just a thought.