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More Bad Reporting on Rick Warren… Let’s Get this Right, People
Orginally published on Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 5:16 AM
by Todd Rhoades
Last week, I saw all kinds of reports on how Rick Warren was going to become rich(er) by hosting the presidential forum at Saddleback. I saw one report that said Rick would make up to 10 million dollars, which is just ludicrous. One suggested that Rick would probably get a significant position in a Barack Obama administration because of the forum. All this flies in the face of what Rick has said. According to Warren, 95% of the seats were actually given away to Saddleback members.
According to an email to the Saddleback congregation, Rick Warren explained it this way... "The moment McCain & Obama were announced as this month's Civil Forum guests we were overwhelmed with thousands of requests from partisans who wanted to fill our auditorium with their troops. To prevent them from taking all the seats we did two things: First, we reserved 95% of the 5000+ tickets as FREE to our Saddleback volunteers who faithfully serve our family. We then sold 5% - less than 250 seats - to other members & outsiders in order to defray the expenses of this (now) national event. I didn't want our tithes and offerings paying for this event"...
Rick said that one untold story is that we invited the principals of schools in the Santa Ana district to select some worthy students to attend for free in order to experience the American election system. 22 students and 2 chaperones had been awarded seats.
I’ve neither seen a retraction, or a commendation from any of the sites that have printed these misleading things. In fact, they’ll probably post something today saying that Rick Warren is now cramming his purpose-driven drivel down the throats of innocent fifth graders.
Regardless, blogs are unbelievable believeable things. I can write anything I want here, and many people will believe it. (I know that YOU are a pretty discerning person of everything you read, but many people reading this are not as wise or as discerning (that’s a bad word to use here) than you). I try to fact-check as much as I can before I write here. Sometimes it’s tough, but it’s necessary.
Any thoughts?
Todd
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There are 15 Comments:
Hi... I'm Todd Rhoades. I'm a Christ-follower, husband, father and I love to connect leaders with other leaders. Hopefully you'll find something here at MMI you like and will return often. If you want, you can find out more about me or follow my every step on Twitter.
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Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 6:30 AM
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Monday, August 25, 2008 at 9:10 AM
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Monday, September 01, 2008 at 11:33 PM
Post Your Comments:There are some who seem far more interested in tearing things down than reporting what is actually the truth. Therein lies the root of the problem.
Todd, thank you for trying.
I don’t think many people who post lies, rumors, misquotes and other untruths on their blogs and other types of websites care that they are not true as long as they further their agenda. Some people on the net are conscientious and try to maintain their integrity and fact check, etc. but many are not. Many purveyors of so-called “truths” lack integrity and are only concerned with their particular agenda. This is where we really need to exercise discernment (there’s that word again).
I don’t even think they care that many/most people may recognize what they write as lies, as long as they can fool some of the people some of the time it furthers their agenda. Look at how many websites have been set up to report the “truth” about Obama secretly being a Muslim and being part of a secret Islamic conspiracy to take over the world(over 400 websites by one count I’ve seen). Do most people believe this? I don’t think so, but from one recent comment on this blog and comments on many other blogs I’ve seen it’s obvious some people are believing what they’ve read.
Truth is not relative but people’s understanding and discernment is; relative to what’s already in their hearts and to whether they are listening to the Holy Spirit or to someone else.
There are many bloggers who avoid what it true by calling it their opinion. Saying I believe, or I heard someone say…
The “sensational” for many runs the truth right out of town, I think this is a common tool for Journalism today and not to stir up the next but it is exactly how some Discernment ministries have operated for years now.
I think people are jealous of what God is doing in Rick’s ministry. Plain and simple people have nothing better to do then to find fault. I’ve said it before and I will say it again-I praise God for what He is doing through the ministry of Rick Warren, he has helped me immensely and I’m grateful.
I just don’t get it. I keep asking what Rick Warren has done, other than communicate the gospel both biblically and relevantly. I guess there will always be people who presume their role is to attack (even in the name of “discernment"), while offering nothing meaningful or true to take its place.
Boy do I agree with you. all this blogging about Rick Warren is really un called for. I do believe he is a preacher and we need to be careful how we address a person who I believe has been called by God to preach and be a shepherd of the flock.
We don’t have to always agree with all he does, but we need to be careful how we talk about him.
There was a time when I wanted world-wide acclaim - in the sense that many people would find Christ through my ministry. I wanted “Billy Graham” acclaim, not Benny, Todd B., Ken type of acclaim.
Thank God that He humbled me.
I thank God that He has allowed me to pastor a small but growing church in northeast South Dakota, and I pray that God would allow our church to have a huge impact in our area, with many people coming to Christ.
Other than finding joy in my present situation, I’m also thankful that I don’t wear a big target for other Christians to shoot at.
I thank God for Rick Warren - he didn’t seek this influence and acclaim. It was thrust upon him as he sought to help churches influence others for Christ. And I believe that he is doing a great job being a steward of the influence God has given him.
He’s not perfect - he’s going to stumble at times, miss an opportunity to make certain people happy with him (as if they’d be happy with anything he does or says anyway...), misspeak on occasion, etc.
But I love him as the brother and minister he is.
The accusations others make of him sadden me a great deal.
What is most amazing about this whole story is that Todd actually found a picture of Rick wearing a necktie!! (or maybe that was photoshopped to serve one’s own purpose)
Perhaps this is the report Todd is referring to. I don’t know because he had no links in his post.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/church-tickets-saddleback-2122308-members-ross
Perhaps this is the portion of the article Todd is referring to, I don’t know because he didn’t link it in his post.
“With prices for tickets ranging from $500 to $2,000, the church could take in between $2.5 million and $10 million, based on 5,000 tickets being available”
This is what Todd said,
“ I saw one report that said Rick would make up to 10 million dollars, which is just ludicrous”
There is big difference between “could” and “would”.
Todd said,
“Regardless, blogs are unbelievable believeable things.”
The orange county register is a newspaper, not a blog. But I agree some blogs are unbelievable.
I think it’s great that he did the forum.
People love to tear down good things.
Simply...thanks for being honest and not letting this kind of stuff slip by.
Give the guy a break.
I personally did not like his “Purpose Driven” Book and find some of the stuff he does a bit ify but you look at the world wide impact he has had and that he is a man of God, chosen by God, for God and loves God with all he is.
How can we try and pull him through the mud? Is it because we are jelouse? Is it because God has used him more in one day than he can use us in our whole lifetime?
I thought it was a good idea to have 95% of the seats for his church and then have some for the others and make them pay for it. Good on ya
Sigh. I don’t get it either.
I haven’t watched the videos yet, but the whole concept of the thing is pretty incredible.
If the people in the church cannot love one another I believe Jesus says that others will NOT know that we are His.
John says if we don’t love our brothers then we are liars and the truth is not in us.
Why does this happen, questioning a man’s integrity when we know not anything about him personally? Jealousy, bitterness, self-righteousness.
Critiquing a statement or practice of a public figure seems legit (we ought to know our own hearts as to our motivations) but lambasting his integrity and heart when we cannot know its true condition (only Jesus does) seems sinful.
People don’t blog to tell the truth, they blog to get hits which in their mind equals fame. How do you get peopel to your blog? Report something no one else does…
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