$addleback Church Raises $2,400,000 January 3, 2010

$addleback Church Raises $2,400,000

By Guest Contributor
January 3, 2010

Pastor Rick Warren had asked for $900,000 from his church members because of a budget shortfall. And (shocking!) they gave him $2,400,000.

Glad to see all is right with the world…

Hugh Kramer wrote a nursery rhyme for the occasion:

Baa, baa, slack-jawed sheep
My coffers can you fill?
Yes sir, yes sir,

$2.4 M. in the till.
Some for our pastor,
Some to praise his name,
And some for the anti-gay
political campaign…

I like it. Do “Hickory Dickory Dock” next!

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  • Rix

    This is where the chart showing who gives more to charity falls apart. Since theists waste a lot of their donations keeping people like Rick Warren living the extremely good life.

  • Indeed, giving to a church is often not charity, but indeed, the reverse – it’s giving your own private members club money.

  • Jenniffer Groceman

    Ah, my dirty mind strikes again. I can’t read anything about Rick Warren and his lackeys without thinking of Dan Savage and his readers redefining ‘saddleback’. It makes me laugh every time.

    Now, it is a sex column. Those of you with delicate sensibilities have been warned.

    http://www.avclub.com/articles/savage-love-january-28-2009,23114/

  • muggle

    Now too bad they don’t want to give to the poor like that.

  • There is something wrong with this. A Megachurch and extracting this much from it’s members. And none of it going to help anyone but the church and Pastor Warren.

    At least some of this dough should be going to a charity. And if it is, that’s good. But I have my suspicions.

  • I think Warren is saddlebacking his congregation. Thanks jennifer.

  • Parse

    With this result, and their lack of open financial books, I’m somewhat suspicious if this shortfall was planned. After all, nothing gets money flowing faster than a sense of urgency – which is why sales are always ‘running out,’ even when they have just started.

  • I’m with Jenniffer. Saddlebacking is exactly what they’ve done to their donors.

  • I want all mention of Rick Warren in the media for years to come to refer back to the debacle of trying to get him to denounce the Kill The Gays Bill in Uganda—which he finally did, after insisting he shouldn’t get involved in fixing his own African mess for a month.

    So here’s my submission:

    Hickory Dickory Dock,
    Where can I put my cock?
    Rick Warren says, “Wife,
    ”Now go change your life
    ”Or we’ll stick you in the dock!”

    Alternatively, for those of you who prefer Brothers Grimm to Mother Goose:

    Hickory Dickory Dock,
    Where can I put my cock?
    Rick Warren says, “Wife,
    ”Now go change your life
    ”Or we’ll put your head on the block!”

  • Staceyjw

    I’m in the wrong business. I need 2.4 million too, I guess I have to preach hate and intolerance to get it, since teaching love and charity just doesn’t work as well.

    They need to have their tax exemption REVOKED. All churches do, but especially this one.

  • Odds are that a certain percentage of their operating budget goes to missions, but you’re probably lucky if it’s the equivalent of a tithe at 10%. And even then, you have to wonder what constitutes a mission for this church, what the missions do, etc.

    Frankly, I’ve worked at a church, and the entire institution – simply because it IS an institution – rubs me the wrong way. These days, churches have to be run like nonprofit businesses, but just the idea of a church being a business … it seems antithetical to what the church was originally supposed to be. My salary, poor as it was, had to be paid, sure. But it was still weird to me.

  • nihilitas inclusus

    What frustrates me is that I saw an article on foxnews.com describing the budget shortfall of this one particular church. Helps to have friends in high places, I suppose.

  • Peregrine

    I know Rick Warren is something of a controversial character. But from my perspective, he was only asking for under a million. $900,000, to be exact. And he got 2.4 million.

    Meanwhile, there’s a Catholic church in Moncton that’s asking for $7 million.

    As a former Catholic, and someone of Acadian heritage, and living within driving distance of the church, I can at least appreciate the historic importance of the Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption Cathedral. And it is an architecturally impressive building.

    But still, they’re asking $7 million from cash strapped maritimers. I’m sorry if I can’t drum up enough disbelief that Rick Warren was able to wring $2.4 million out of middle America.

  • Hilary

    Isn’t this a strategy Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker used to do to raise money?

  • keddaw

    Business is better when busines is bad???

    Roll on May 21st 2012 when all this is over.

  • Isn’t this the same Rick Warren who keeps bragging that all the money from his book goes to his church? Shouldn’t all that money have made his church financially set forever?

  • Beth B.

    I was about to suggest a *new* new definition for saddlebacking, but I think the traditional one provided by Robert Madewell will suffice.

  • dannyness

    Hickory Dickory Dock
    Another reason to mock
    When palms need a greasing
    The flock gets a fleecing
    And saddlebacked in the buttocks