Rick Warren Bashing, Inauguration Edition: He Loves Him Some Hitler

Oh, yes, indeedy, he does:

Bruce Wilson at Talk2Action has come up with easily the most disturbing audio clip of a Rick Warren sermon I've heard yet -- and that's saying something:

On April 17, 2005, at the southern California Anaheim Angels sports stadium thirty thousand Saddleback Church members, more than ever gathered in one spot, assembled to celebrate Saddleback's 25th anniversary and listened as Rick Warren announced his vision for the next 25 years of the church: the P.E.A.C.E. Plan.

Towards the close of his nearly one hour speech, Pastor Warren asked his followers to be as committed to Jesus as the young Nazi men and women who spelled out in mass formation with their bodies the words "Hitler, we are yours," in 1939 at the Munich Stadium, were committed to the Führer of the Third Reich, a major instigator of a World War that claimed 55 million lives. Rick Warren has exhorted Christians towards Nazi-like dedication in at least several public speeches and also during a one hour video recording of a talk by Warren, explaining his P.E.A.C.E. Plan, that is currently hosted on the official P.E.A.C.E. Plan website. A version of the anecdote can also be found on page 357 of Rick Warren's 1995 book The Purpose Driven Church, which sold over one million copies.

Exhibit A: Rick Warren's own words:

"In 1939, in a stadium much like this, in Munich Germany, they packed it out with young men and women in brown shirts, for a fanatical man standing behind a podium named Adolf Hitler, the personification of evil.

And in that stadium, those in brown shirts formed with their bodies a sign that said, in the whole stadium, "Hitler, we are yours."

And they nearly took the world.

Lenin once said, "give me 100 committed, totally committed men and I'll change the world." And, he nearly did.

A few years ago, they took the sayings of Chairman Mao, in China, put them in a little red book, and a group of young people committed them to memory and put it in their minds and they took that nation, the largest nation in the world by storm because they committed to memory the sayings of the Chairman Mao.

When I hear those kinds of stories, I think 'what would happen if American Christians, if world Christians, if just the Christians in this stadium, followers of Christ, would say 'Jesus, we are yours' ?

What kind of spiritual awakening would we have ?

Um. Well, from the examples Warren cites, there would be a hell of a lot of dead people, to start. People would be forced to follow one rigid ideology or suffer the consequences. Democracy would die out in the flames of totalitarianism. Art, history and culture would be consigned to those flames.

Come to think of it, that's what most evangelicals seem to want, innit?

No wonder Warren loves him some dictators. And he's training his followers to become proper little brownshirts:

"Jesus said, 'I want you to do this publicly.' So what I want you to do is take the card, and in just a minute, and if you say 'Rick, I am willing to serve God's purposes in my generation.'

I want you to open up to the sign that says 'Whatever it takes.'

Whatever it takes.

And I want you to just say, 'This is my commitment, before God and in front of everybody else. I'm in.' "

And I would invite you to just stand quietly and hold up 'Whatever it takes'. . .

I'm looking at a stadium full of people who are saying 'whatever it takes'.

[snip]

As Wilson points out in the piece, he doesn't point to the methods of great spiritual leaders like Ghandi or Martin Luther King. He doesn't even point to the positive ideals of political or revolutionary leaders like the founding fathers. He stands before a roaring crowd of 30,000 followers in a huge sports stadium and points to the 20th century's worst genocidal madmen as inspiration! And from his work in Africa, it appears he practices what he preaches.

Some of you might get even more upset at Obama for allowing this Hitler-admiring, gay-bashing, African-dictator-enabling outrageous fucking freak to give the invocation. But I've now come around to thinking it's a brilliant idea.

You see, before the spotlight got shone on him, all most people knew was that he wrote The Purpose-Driven Life, hosted a presidential debate, and seemed somewhat moderate to the casual observer.

Now look at all the info emerging that proves he's a batshit-insane frothing fundie who's learned to speak in a normal-person voice. That, my darlings, is priceless. So yes, let him get up there and babble a few faux-holy words. It gives us such a delightful opportunity to introduce the country to the real Rick Warren.