Free Republic

WELCOME TO 2010! Dear Saddleback Family, You won't want to miss this weekend at Saddleback! It will be history-making and also the first service of our Decade of Destiny. I can't wait to share with you what happened this week. It speaks volumes about YOU, the depth of commitment in this fellowship, and where God is taking us in 2010 - our 30th Anniversary year. I'm simply calling this week's message "The Miracle". In spite of a media culture that thrives on bad news and is typically clueless about how churches actually work, and in spite of hatefulness and insults...

The leader of a Messianic Jewish ministry has written an open letter to mega-church pastor Rick Warren in response to his address to a Muslim group with terrorist connections during its annual convention over the Fourth of July weekend. As reported by OneNewsNow, Warren, who pastors Saddleback Church in California, agreed to appear at the recent convention of the Islamic Society of North America and be part of its main session discussing the convention's theme -- "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." He told the gathering of 8,000 that "Muslims and Christians can work together for the common good...

WASHINGTON, DC – Defying some of his fellow conservative Christian critics, one of the most prominent religious leaders in the country told several thousand American Muslims on Saturday that "the two largest faiths on the planet" must work together to combat stereotypes and solve global problems. "Some problems are so big you have to team tackle them," evangelical megachurch pastor Rick Warren addressed the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Warren said Muslims and Christians should be partners in working to end what he calls "the five global giants" of war, poverty, corruption, disease, and illiteracy....

Sayyid Syeed remembers an interfaith event several years ago when a Jewish leader went to embrace him, saw someone snapping a photo, then suddenly pulled back. "He said to the man, 'Stop,'" Syeed recalled, "'I'll lose my job.'" Times have changed for the Islamic Society of North America and for Syeed, who leads the group's interfaith outreach. In a sign of growing acceptance of U.S. Muslims, one of the most prominent religious leaders in the country, evangelical pastor Rick Warren, will speak at the Islamic Society's annual convention this weekend. Representatives from the two largest streams of American Judaism, the...