Pastor advises Bush, eyes the globe

March 26, 2005
Rick Warren spreads the word to 3000 pastors from around the world at his Saddleback Church.

Photo: Los Angeles Times

After writing a bestseller and building a theme-park church, evangelist Rick Warren is looking overseas.

Travel on planes in the US and you will see people reading The Da Vinci Code. It's a big seller, no doubt about it.

The South Beach Diet is popular too, as are the Harry Potter books. All of these titles have been dwarfed, however, by sales of a book that is all but unknown in Australia.

It is called A Purpose Driven Life and has sold 20 million copies in the US - more than The Da Vinci Code and The South Beach Diet combined. It has been on The New York Times best-seller list for more than 100 weeks and, last month, it became the biggest selling hardback in US history.

The book was written by a Christian pastor, Rick Warren, who is far from the image of a blockbuster writer. He is big like a bear and wears Hawaiian shirts and shoes with no socks. He has lived in the same house for 24 years and drives an old Ford.

Yet Mr Warren has incredible reach: he has given advice to President George Bush (who has a dog-eared copy of Mr Warren's book, as do all members of his cabinet), and to Mel Gibson, who sought Mr Warren's endorsement when he was making the The Passion of the Christ - a film that took $US600 million ($777 million) at the box office. Last month, Time magazine named Mr Warren as the No. 1 evangelist in the US, a man with more Christian influence than any other.

What is Mr Warren saying that makes him stand out? The first line of his book is: "It's not about you."

That alone was startling to many Americans who had for years devoured books that assured them they were masters of their own destiny, capable of success and happiness if only they dug deep enough inside. Mr Warren's message is different. In his book, he says: "Self-help books often suggest that you try to discover the meaning and purpose of your life by looking within yourself." In his view, that is the wrong place to start.

"You must begin with God," Mr Warren says. He promises that if you read his book, one chapter every day for 40 days, you will get an answer to the fundamental human question: "What on Earth am I here for?" And more: in knowing the answer, you will "reduce your stress, focus your energy, simplify your decisions and give meaning to your life".

Mr Warren's message has resonated. His Saddleback Church, which he started with one other family in his private home, now has 22,000 baptised members, 400 paid staff, 5000 volunteers, and 1 million visitors a year. It covers nearly 50 hectares in Lake Forest, California, and was designed by the people who made one of Disney's theme parks. It has waterfalls, restaurants, even a child-care centre. There are tour buses in the car park, and soft drink machines in the halls.

Mr Warren has to give six sermons every weekend, just to satisfy demand. He preaches in a flash, new auditorium. But you don't have to watch him live: there are 10 different venues with mega-screens on the site, such as the "Elevation" tent with "Christian radio hits and cool lighting effects!" and "Ohana", an island-styled venue with hula dancers.

The atmosphere, even at 4pm on Saturday, was electric. Seats were filled, yet everybody seemed to know each other. There were handshakes all around. No one group dominated: there were African Americans, whites, Asians, men, women, old ladies in hats, and teenagers.

Given that the church is in Orange County, California, there were people who were poor - the area has a lot of itinerant workers and illegal immigrants from Mexico - and very rich, such as moguls from nearby Hollywood. Mr Warren is, of course, among the rich, as any person who has sold 20 million copies of a book would be.

He doesn't object to wealth, indeed, he encourages people to enjoy their money, but he says greed makes slaves of people. In 2003, he stopped taking his $US110,000 ($142,490) salary from Saddleback and refunded the salary the church had paid him over two decades. He also gives 90 per cent of everything he makes back to the church, which would explain its splendour. "I don't think God gave me this notoriety just to be an egotistical fat cat," he says.

Money is one thing, but Mr Warren cannot so easily dodge his fame and influence. He turned down an invitation to be on Oprah, saying: "Too many ministers start out as servants and end up as celebrities."

But there is no doubt he has political power. In a sermon before the last election, Mr Warren said: "As church leaders, we know our congregations are not allowed to endorse specific candidates. But for those of us who accept the Bible as God's word, I believe there are five issues that are non-negotiable.

"Here are the questions to ask when considering who to vote for in this election: what does each candidate believe about abortion and protecting the lives of unborn children; about using unborn babies for stem-cell harvesting; about homosexual marriage; about human cloning and euthanasia, the killing of the elderly and the invalids?" Mr Bush was opposed to all of them. His opponent, Democrat John Kerry, supported abortion and stem-cell research, and opposed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Evangelicals, who comprise 42 per cent of Americans, were delighted by Mr Warren's decision to wade into these debates, and Mr Warren was pleased with the poll outcome.

"The signs have all been there for at least two years that there is a cultural shift going on," he said. "Because the media is not in the churches, they don't see it. But this was not a political election in my view. It was a cultural election. I think a lot of people were concerned not about Iraq and the current issues. I think they were worried about where is the direction of the culture going in the next 40 years."

Evangelicals hope Mr Warren will continue to use his influence. There is no doubt Mr Bush owes a great deal to his Christian base. They voted for him because they wanted a Christian leader, preferably one who would not be afraid to make America a more conservative society. Mr Warren's influence will help. He has spoken of plans to create 40,000 churches across the US. These churches will be, he said, "for people who hate church".

He has his critics, of course. Robert Jenkins, of the online Christian journal Observations on God, has described him as a "huckster", saying: "We are now in the age of marketing executives posing as pastors. (His) church is not a house of worship but huge corporate enterprises offering self-help books for a price (and) cappuccino delights."

The web bristles with such sentiment, and with complaints from people who object to the Christian right's influence. The pressure sometimes gets to Mr Warren. A few years ago he collapsed in the middle of a sermon, and he suffers from occasional blackouts. He often takes breaks in the middle of a service to sit in his cool office and calm down. He stopped ministering for months when his wife, Kay, was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Like most believers, he has had doubts about his faith but, says, when it happens, he gets down and prays. And then he gets up again, to keep spreading the message. "I've got a target," he says. "It's called the globe."


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