Rick Warren Builds Bridge to Muslims

AN UPDATE HAS BEEN RELEASED ON THIS STORY! CLICK HERE…

GFM Note: We have learned that Rick Warren has left a comment at the bottom of the Orange County Register article we are sharing below. “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.” However, his comment did not say what specific “errors” the article contained. It is very common for Warren to claim that others are in error when exposing his dealings with those whose beliefs and practices are contrary to biblical Christianity. There is simply too much documentation, facts and historical evidence to deny that there are some serious concerns when it comes to Rick Warren. [UPDATE: GF has learned that Rick Warren’s comment has been removed. Perhaps because his comment was in error?]

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.”

The full story can be read here at The Orange County Register’s website…

Here is a sample video clip from our new DVD, The Submerging Church, which is related to this post…