Pastor Rick Warren urgently asks faithful for $900,000

[ruggerson]

"It’s been a heck of a year for mega-pastor/bestselling author/power broker Rick Warren of the enormous Saddleback Church. It started out with Warren’s invocation at the historic inauguration of one President Barack Obama - and it concludes with Warren asking his flock to cough up nearly $1 million in just two days to keep the church out of the red.

“Dear Saddleback Family,” begins today’s missive from Warren. “THIS IS AN URGENT LETTER unlike any I’ve written in 30 years. Please read all of it and get back to me in the next 48 hours. I have thrilling news to share with you below but first some seriously bad news: 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.”

The church does not make its financial information public, so it’s impossible to tell just how big of a hole in the boat this $900,000 represents. A spokeswoman for Warren said the church does not release detail on its finances, so it’s hard to put the shortfall in context. (Suffice to say it may not represent a terribly significant portion of Saddleback’s annual budget, and that his personal appeal may well close the hole, and then some."

http://taxdollars.freedomblogging.com/2009/12/30/pastor-rick-warren-urgently-asks-faithful-for-900000/48235/

[AndyA]

1. Warren can fester in his hatred for all I care.

Obama should have never embraced the hateful bigot.

[Lint Head]

2. No bail out for you BIGOT!

[randr]

3. Who does he think he is--Oral Roberts?

[yellowcanine]

8. Did he say that God will off him if he doesn't get the money?

[LiberalAndProud]

4. So, in a good year they take in $1.8 million on Christmas weekend?

That's some impressive numbers. I wonder if some folks stopped giving because of his inauguration invocation. That would be ironic, wouldn't it?

[flakey_foont]

5. do what other churches do

have a bake sale

[louis-t]

6. "Sorry, we don't make our info public so......

just trust us, we're broke."

[bigwillq]

7. That pic disgusts me

Fierce advocate. :puke:

[ruggerson]

9. The pic is attached to the article - see the link

[maseman]

10. Bullshit

This is utter BS. My wife has been a choir director/music director in churches for years and I've been a church organist. (Nothing like an atheist playing hymns.)

Anyway, I've seen the weekly tithing reports at churches for years. It goes up and down slightly but it remains pretty constant. Of course the E-C holidays more people attend so they project and get more revenue. There is no way in Hades that the Saddleback church missed their tithing budget by 50% last week. No way. Rick Warren is lying through his teeth.

I'll send him an Irish blessing and that's it.

[Tailormyst]

11. Rick should realize his God just doesn't love him any more

[supernova]

12. Why was it necessary to bring the church

into that much debt in the first place?

Most mainline churches operate on a shoestring. Can barely afford to pay the minister's salary and bennies, not to mention a pension. Maybe every 50 years or so, they can afford a new building or a new classroom building.

Case in point, My former Presby church, just sent around their monthly newsletter. They own a camp for kids that also doubles as a conference center for adults. This camp was founded in the early 1950s with land and money from members of that church. They wanted a place for kids to be able to stay, learn about nature and enjoy each other. Now, they are looking for $60,000 to remodel the outdated and closed commercial kitchen. Remodeling the kitchen and bringing it up to code would enable them to resume sleepaway camp for kids in the summer and offer catering services to groups that use the meeting facilities throughout the year.

edit: $900K for what? vs. 60k for something the whole community would benefit from.. Screwed priorties indeed.

edit: 1950s, not 1050s. :P No, they weren't training kids for the Norman Invasion. :P

[trotsky]

13. Why doesn't he take some of the uber-millions he's made with his books

and cover it himself?

F'ing bigot.

[supernova]

14. That would be a start.

[bigwillq]

15. Maybe he can get the money from his good friend, Obama

:mad: :puke:

[Walk away]

16. Notice he didn't have the nerve to ask for a million.

What kind of jerk tells his followers that, since so many of them have lost everything, the christians who still have jobs should send more money to him. Why doesn't he just ask them to help their neighbors in trouble?

[bridgit]

17. Evangelicals believe they are enriched first because of their faith in & allegiance to God...

If God has cut Rick & his wife's allowance off - this cannot bode well for the true level of ministry Rick Warren is perpetrating upon his parishioners and everyone else by extension

[supernova]

18. How long do you think

it will take before his audience, er *market*, starts to melt away?

[earth mom]

19. How's that prosperity gospel working for ya Rick?

Not so good from the sound of it. :nopity:

[ruggerson]

24. apparently God wasn't "too big to fail"

[earth mom]

26. ...

:spray:

[Starry Messenger]

20. That's just an obscene amount of money.

What a scammer he is.

[Pab Sungenis]

21. Better yet, why doesn't anyone who wants to see him fall on his face

go to the New Adventures of Queen Victoria site and donate love offerings to me instead? Then donate to DU. Then donate to PFLAG in his name.

http://community.pflag.org/Page.aspx?pid=459

(eta PFLAG donate link)

[DebbieCDC]

22. Go out on the street and beg for it

Fucking sleazeball "minister".

[amborin]

23. LOL +1

[Amerigo Vespucci]

25. He should just sell more "40 Days of Purpose" tchotchkes.

He's got the meditation cards, the music for meditation, the journal...

...he should just slap "40 Days of Purpose" on another $900,000 worth of shit and sell it to his "flock."

[AzDar]

27. WHY does the Baby Jeezus hate Rick Warren's bank account??!1?

:cry:


Why?