Ho-Ho-Holy Man Speaks Something New To My Ears

For any of you who may have missed Meet the Press this morning, I want to ask you to watch it online. Tim Russert invited Rick Warren, an Evangelical Pastor on his show to discuss religious faith in American life and politics. Some of you may know Warren as the "guy who invited Barack Obama to his church." Others may know him as the author of the world famous, "The Purpose Driven Life."

I had not heard of this man but let's just say I was pretty impressed. I think that he has the RIGHT idea about how religious leaders should approach global problems. He is basically saying (I'm going to attempt to paraphrase a 20 minute segment of his dialogue) that just because he is religious doesn't mean that he can't work with those who don't hold the same ideas about faith that he does. One of his lines was that him and his gay friends disagree about many things but he would love to work with them in the fight against aids because it is a problem that all human beings should be concerned with. Basically, he is saying that if you isolate yourselves as the extreme right, you will never get ANYTHING done. In order to fight global problems, you have to be able to work with as many people as possible. This will clearly not happen if you only are willing to work with people who have the same point of view as you on everything.

I like the way this guy thinks. He donates 90% of his earnings to charity and seems to have the right idea about how to better humanity.

Happy Holidays.

-JG