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Pastor Rick Warren said Thursday that his son, Matthew, purchased an unregistered gun over the Internet. It was that weapon that he used to take his own life last week after years of battling mental illness. "Someone on the internet sold Matthew an unregistered gun. I pray he seeks God's forgiveness. I forgive him. #MATTHEW 6:15," Warren tweeted Thursday. The Orange County Sheriff's Department told the Associated Press it is trying to identify the seller, but the gun's serial number was unreadable, making it difficult to trace the firearm.

My wife and I received the heartbreaking email yesterday morning from Rick Warren, our pastor at Saddleback Church in Southern California: His youngest son, Matthew went to be with the Lord. Had the 27-year-old died in a car accident – like Christopher Laurie, 33-year-old son of Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Church in Southern Cal, who lost his life in 2008 – we might have lamented the vicissitudes of life. Or had the young man been murdered – like Ryan Armstrong, 22-year-old son of Pastor Ron Armstrong of Cornerstone Church in SoCal (which my wife and I previously attended) –...

A few more details have been released about the apparent suicide of Matthew Warren, the 27-year-old son of Pastor Rick Warren, the popular evangelical leader of the Saddleback Valley Community mega-church in Southern California. The Orange County Sheriff-Coroner's Department has announced Matthew Warren was found dead of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his home in Mission Viejo, Calif. ((snip)) The 59-year-old pastor is the author of "The Purpose Driven Life," which has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, the church's website says --- making the book the bestselling hardback non-fiction book of all time and...

ick Warren’s son has taken his own life. Matthew Warren, 27, had struggled with mental illness before his death. Evangelist Greg Laurie posted an e-mail the Saddleback Church pastor sent to this staff: “Only those closest knew that he (Matthew) struggled from birth with mental illness, dark holes of depression, and even suicidal thoughts. In spite of America’s best doctors, meds, counselors, and prayers for healing, the torture of mental illness never subsided. Today, after a fun evening together with Kay and me, in a momentary wave of despair at his home, he took his life.” Click here to read...

LAKE FOREST (CBSLA.com) — Pastor Rick and Kay Warren’s youngest son, Matthew, has committed suicide, Saddleback Valley Community Church announced Saturday. The evangelical megachurch announced the death of the 27-year-old in a statement. Described as “an incredibly kind, gentle and compassionate young man whose sweet spirit was encouragement and comfort to many,” the statement said Matthew suffered from mental illness that resulted in deep depression and suicidal thoughts. He died Friday night.

Rick Warren, founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., announced in a letter today that his son, Matthew, 27, committed suicide. In his letter, Warren wrote that "after a fun evening together with [wife] Kay and me, in a momentary wave of despair at his home, he took his life." He also recalled a time years ago when Matthew asked him, "Dad, I know I'm going to heaven. Why can't I just die and end this pain?"

Fresh off his attack on America’s gun control laws, Piers Morgan set his sights on another set of laws that trouble him, the laws of Moses and the Bible. But before he called for an amendment to the Bible to recognize “gay rights,” Morgan actually asked his guest, Pastor Rick Warren, a very fair question, and Warren stumbled in his answer. Of course, Morgan’s timing could not have been worse. After all, this was a Christmas Eve interview with a Christian leader, and Morgan is not exactly riding a wave of popularity. And to compare the Bible to the Constitution...

Controversy is stirring over recent comments made by Rick Warren, author of the best-selling book The Purpose-Driven Life and megachurch leader of Saddleback Church in California, who stated that homosexual behavior “might be” sinful, and that he believes homosexuals go to Heaven. During an interview this week with the Huffington Post, Warren was asked by Marc Lamont Hill if having romantic feelings for a member of the same sex is a sin. Leading up to the question, Warren was explaining that he does not hate homosexuals, and that people should disagree politely on the subject of homosexuality. “I have many,...

From the Christian Post: Just two months ahead of the November presidential election, Pastor Rick Warren said Sunday that Christians should gain courage and not apologize for voting in accordance with their worldview. "You don't need to apologize for voting for a Christian worldview which stands up for the sanctity of life, the sanctity of sex and the sanctity of marriage. You don't need to apologize for that because everybody votes what they believe," Warren told thousands of Saddleback Church attendees at the launch of a new sermon series. The Southern California pastor said those three issues (life, sex, marriage)...

And the day’s not over yet. Somewhere, a Burger King ad man’s toying with the idea of having “The King” declare himself “100% pro-life.” @dancathy just called me. #ChickFilA has already set a world record today, with 7 more hrs to go in the West. #OutOfChicken— Rick Warren (@RickWarren) August 2, 2012 Not a word about today’s activities has been whispered on Chick-fil-A’s feed even though CFA has been trending on Twitter off and on all day. As noted in the earlier post, the suspicion is that the company’s lying low about what’s happening in order to extricate itself from...

Much has been made about Mormonism, now that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney looks to be on his way to the Republican presidential nomination. But should he win the general election in November, would it be accurate to say that Romney is a Christian president? On Sunday’s “This Week” on ABC, fill-in host Jake Tapper posed the question of Romney’s religion to Rick Warren, the pastor of the California mega-church, Saddleback Church. “Mitt Romney will almost certainly be the Republican nominee and if that happens, which it looks like it will, he’ll be the first member of Church of Jesus...

When 138 Muslim clerics signed a document entitled, “A Common Word between Us and You,” it was portrayed as an attempt to unite Muslims and Christians. The document, however, asserted that the Islamic God known as “Allah” and the Christian God known as “Yawheh” are one in the same, that Christians and Muslims worship the same God...

Excerpt here: Preamble As members of the worldwide Christian community, we were deeply encouraged and challenged by the recent historic open letter signed by 138 leading Muslim scholars, clerics, and intellectuals from around the world. A Common Word Between Us and You identifies some core common ground between Christianity and Islam which lies at the heart of our respective faiths as well as at the heart of the most ancient Abrahamic faith, Judaism. Jesus Christ’s call to love God and neighbor was rooted in the divine revelation to the people of Israel embodied in the Torah (Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18)....

This tweet is appalling. Odious. Have you fallen down the rabbit hole so far you have forgotten Matthew 25:31-46? Here, let me quote it for you, and for readers who may not be familiar with it: From the New International Version: 31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right...

After 23 years in the special top audience time slots with Trinity Broadcasting Network, Dr. Jack Van Impe has pulled the plug. Reasons cited are that, TBN’s top execs don’t want Van Impe naming names of ministers and ministries that Van Impe says are teaching corruptions of the gospel. Among the names Van Impe specifically referred to were Robert Schuller (Crystal Cathedral) and Rick Warren (Purpose Driven Life). TBN’s policy is that no one using air time with the TBN is allowed to rebuke or criticize other ministers. It is not known whether TBN includes ministers who are not part...

NTEB has reported extensively on the growing Chrislam movement. Started by Rick Warren of Saddleback Church, it has grown dramatically and now has infected many hundreds of churches and denominations all across America. A group called Faith Shared is now spearheading the move to merge Christianity with Islam, and in the process provoking the very judgment of God down upon us as a nation. The following is taken directly from their website: “Faith Shared asks houses of worship across the country to organize events involving clergy reading from each other’s sacred texts. An example would be a Christian Minister, Jewish...

Saddleback Church’s first-ever Daniel Plan Fun Walk & Run got more than 1,200 people to put on their running shoes this past Saturday. Adult participants were able to select walking or running in a 10K or 5K, while children had their own Fun Run event, according to the Orange County Register. As promised, Austin Andrews of the reality show “Biggest Loser” joined the Daniel Plan Fun Walk & Run. He took part in the 5K and then presented awards to church members who lost the most weight and to those who won the different races.The event is part of Saddleback’s...

) Jack Van Impe, a popular End Times broadcaster, has ended his decades-long run on Trinity Broadcasting Network after a dispute over naming ministers that he accuses of mixing Christian and Muslim beliefs. Earlier this month, Van Impe named California megachurch founders Rick Warren and Robert H. Schuller as proponents of “Chrislam,” which he defined as “a uniting of Christianity with Islam.” TBN pulled the episode before a repeat broadcast could air.Michigan-based Jack Van Impe Ministries said its board of directors decided unanimously Thursday (June 17) to no longer work with TBN.“We would not be able to minister effectively if...

I missed this (over two years ago). I left a church over Rick Warren's "Willow Creek Church Association" I found out our church had secretly joined, and was sending money to the Pope of Political Correctness (Rick Warren). This was just after Rick gave an open mike at his church to AL GORE. And didn't press him on his support for partial birth abortion. < SNIP FROM ARTICLE AVAILABLE AT FRONTPAGEMAG see link> A plethora of terror-related individuals surrounds the profile of Pastor Rick Warren on the “Speakers Corner” of the official website of the Islamic Society of North America...

It doesn’t take an emergency rescue operation to see that people need saving, says one megachurch pastor. So this Easter, Pastor Rick Warren says he’s prepared the most important message he’s ever given. “I’m calling it The Greatest Rescue,” the Southern California pastor told his congregation last week, according to The Orange County Register. Warren will also be inviting Jose Henriquez, one of the 33 Chilean miner survivors, to Saddleback on Sunday to speak about his own miraculous rescue and give his testimony of survival and redemption to the 20,000-plus congregation. “You know, the Bible is actually a book of...