LTRP Note: In a comment at the bottom of the OC Register article, Rick Warren left a comment: “I deeply love my Muslim neighbors but this article contains multiple errors – factually and theologically that neither our dear friends in the Muslim Community nor the Christians at Saddleback Church would agree with.” His comment did not say what “errors” the article contained. This echoes other rebuttals Rick Warren has made over the past decade, such as when he wrote a public letter to Lighthouse Trails after we posted an article titled “Rick Warren Teams Up With New Age Sympathizer Ken Blanchard.” Warren told LT that our report contained multiple “errors” but his rebuttal included numerous untrue statements. He also issued a rebuttal against George Mair’s biography Rick Warren and the Purpose That Drives Him. It was Mair’s book that unwittingly exposed Warren’s connection with Blanchard and Robert Schuler (see A “Wondeful” Deception for documentation on this). These are just two examples of Rick Warren’s ongoing efforts to defend his actions and words. To learn more about Rick Warren’s involvement with the ecumenical, emerging church and the Road to Rome, read Faith Undone by Roger Oakland.
“By JIM HINCH
Orange County Register
The Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest and one of America’s most influential Christian leaders, has embarked on an effort to heal divisions between evangelical Christians and Muslims by partnering with Southern California mosques and proposing a set of theological principles that includes acknowledging that Christians and Muslims worship the same God.
The effort, informally dubbed King’s Way, caps years of outreach between Warren and Muslims. Warren has broken Ramadan fasts at a Mission Viejo mosque, met Muslim leaders abroad and addressed 8,000 Muslims at a national convention in Washington D.C.
Saddleback worshippers have invited Muslims to Christmas dinner and played interfaith soccer at a picnic in Irvine attended by more than 300 people. (The game pitted pastors and imams against teens from both faiths. The teens won.)
The effort by a prominent Christian leader to bridge what polls show is a deep rift between Muslims and evangelical Christians culminated in December at a dinner at Saddleback attended by 300 Muslims and members of Saddleback’s congregation.
At the dinner, Abraham Meulenberg, a Saddleback pastor in charge of interfaith outreach, and Jihad Turk, director of religious affairs at a mosque in Los Angeles, introduced King’s Way as “a path to end the 1,400 years of misunderstanding between Muslims and Christians.” Click here to continue reading.
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