Rick Warren's mega church in the red. Begs for $1 million by tomorrow

[Liberal_in_LA]

Mega-pastor Warren's megachurch begs mega-bucks

Rick Warren may have gotten top votes from many directions as religion newsmaker of the year (not me: I picked President Obama) but that hasn't translated to mega-bucks for his home megachurch.


Now, Warren put out an "urgent" plea to the nation's sixth largest congregation, Saddleback in Lake Forest, south of Los Angeles, for nearly $1 million -- by Jan.1, no less -- to support and continue a banner year of ministry efforts from Southern California to Africa.

With 10% 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. Still, with wise management, we've stayed close to our budget all year. Then... this last weekend the bottom dropped out.

On the last weekend of 2009, our total offerings were less than half of what we normally receive - leaving us $900,000 in the red for the year, unless you help make up the difference today and tomorrow.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2009/12/rick-warren-newsmaker-evangelicals-saddleback/1

[Deep13]

1. Guess God doesn't love him anymore. nt

[roguevalley]

28. I think God does. He loves us all. He just doesn't like some of us very

much. :)

[Deep13]

30. The condition of the world suggests otherwise. nt

[Bolo Boffin]

2. Royalties from Purpose-Filled Life not panning out? n/t

[DavidDvorkin]

10. I assume he gets those, personally

Surely the book is copyright in his name, and he gets the royalties, not the church.

[geek_sabre]

15. 90% of the royalties go to the church

He keeps 10%.

[DavidDvorkin]

21. Interesting

I didn't know that.

Then it's surprising the church still needs money. I thought that book had sold scadzillions of copies. Even if those were bulk orders, the royalties should have been humongous. Scanzungous.

[SoCalDem]

3. Id he going to lock himself in a tower until God sends him money

Didn't Oral Roberts pull a stunt like that once?

[johnaries]

4. Will God "take him" if he doesn't raise it? nt

[MrScorpio]

5. He should do it while crying and insisting that God will call him home if he comes up short

Go Swaggart or go home!

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. I take it no one in DU is reaching for their wallet

[lisa58]

8. lol...

...there was a poster on Huffington Post that responded to this story with:

"Why doesn't he just write himself a 'purpose driven' check".

Both this comment and yours make me laught and it's why I visit DU!

[mascarax]

27. ...only to make sure it's still there! (n/t)

[Liberal_in_LA]

35. lol. Good one! n/t

[piratefish08]

7. Pray, Ricky, Pray!! Begging is just so beneath you.

[valerief]

9. Congress will bail him out. He's too big to fail. nt

[DavidDvorkin]

11. Unfortunately, the sheep

will fleece themselves and send him what he's asking for.

[blondeatlast]

12. Will he rip out the fixtures of his "God's house" before they foreclose? nt

[Fuzz]

13. Did he see a 900 ft. Jesus?

[geek_sabre]

14. He'll get every penny

probably more.

I don't agree with him on many (MANY) issues, and believe he teaches a somewhat flawed gospel, but I would not put him in the same category as Osteen, Roberts, Falwell, Roberts, etc. His book was an unexpected best seller, and while he easily could have become a multimillionaire, big house and all, he chose to give 90% of the proceeds to the church. He also does not take a salary from the church. For whatever its worth, he believes what he preaches, and people sense that, and they follow him because he sets a good example.

So yeah, he'll get the money.

[DebbieCDC]

16. Let pastor saddlebags cough it up out of what he's skimmed for himself

Sickening excuse for a "minister"

[LostInAnomie]

17. He's probably gave to much to the Anti- Gay Ugandan Government.

[walldude]

18. Is god going to take him away if he doesn't get the money?

LMAO Hey Rick, aren't you glad your republican buddies spent 8 years dismantling the economy? I'll bet they are really sorry about your church, they didn't mean for you billionaire hucksters to lose any donations, they forgot that you hadn't finished tricking grannies out of their social security checks.

[NMMNG]

19. Nothing like fleecing the underemployed and unemployed

so he can peddle and export hate. :puke:

[Judi Lynn]

20. Surely someone who makes his living from the fear and ignorance of some people

can also put one over on his creditors, if necessary.

If that doesn't work, he should scale back on his pomposity and self-promotion.

http://revright.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2008/12/rickwarren.jpg http://arlie3.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2008/08/mccainobama_wideweb__470x3220.jpg

[saltpoint]

34. Yes. The Man-in-Black parting-of-the-sea picture is really something.

I think it would be interesting for Warren to agree to debate a liberal Christian scholar on the tenets of Jesus' ministry as applied to current life and times, with a view toward exposing the bigotry and greed that seem to define Warren's career.

A purpose-drive debate might be very enlightening.

[stopbush]

22. Scare tactics. Are people to believe that Warren didn't see this coming

a few weeks or months ago? Are they really $1MM in the hole because donations dipped for a single Sunday? If so, I'd say they don't know how to manage money. Most offensive is the desperate appeal to the poor fools who buy Rick's myth peddling. It's near extortion when you realize who he's asking for the money.

And, of course, there's no other way, right? Like Pastor Mega-bucks himself couldn't loan the church the money to get over the hurdle and then initiate a campaign to pay him back. No, he sees the marketing values in making it an emergency...and an emergency perfectly timed for those people who might benefit from making a few charitable contributions before the clock strikes midnight and the 2009 tax year ends.

What a manipulative POS he is.

[femrap]

23. Gee....he's no longer

prosperous. God hates him. buh bye!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

24. "Yo, Rick. This is God.

"What the HELL is the matter with you? What part of "Shut it down" don't you understand? Quit the pathetic stuff you've been peddling in my name and give it a rest. Seriously. I mean it."

Sincerely,


Your Lord, the Almighty, the Creator, the Maker, the Godhead;
Allah, Jehovah, Yahweh; the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit
the Great Spirit; and,
Gitchi Manitou;

[HughMoran]

25. Any way to give negative money?

Scum sucking pig.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

26. With all that parking it has to be good for something,

[Incitatus]

29. I wonder how much his house is worth

[Orsino]

31. We should all write him, and recommend he contact PFLAG for donations. n/t

[cbdo2007]

32. Shouldn't they be praying for help rather than sending out press releases?

[saltpoint]

33. I'd be less than honest, boys and girls, if I told you I'd feel bad if Rick's

church went under.

And as long as we're on the general subject, I never liked his shirts either.

[Initech]

36. We really need to come up with a dictionary definition for saddleback.

Like the way they did with Santorum.

[Starry Messenger]

37. They did. :)

http://www.saddlebacking.com/

Enjoy. :hi:

[Initech]

38. ROFL!!!!!

:rofl:

[Homer Wells]

39. "Let it crawl, Rev!! Let it Crawl" nt

:evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: