Rick Warren on The Today Show

I'm becoming offended by The Today Show - yesterday was Karl Rove and today was Rick Warren.

Why Rick Warren?
Matt Lauer asked him if you have to be a good Christian in order to appreciate Christmas. He said Yes.

So, Matt Lauer was trying to give Rick Warren an opening to make Christianity inclusive. Instead, Rick Warren closed the door. Only Christians can appreciate Christmas.

Then he said that the world is a mess and there's no hope here so that's why we should pray to God for His will to be done on Earth.

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

I'm going to find the video so I can make sure I've understood it correctly.

But, as of now - Rick Warren - ugh.

UPDATE: I transcribed this from the video on AOL: (by the way, on second listening, I dislike this interview even more)

Matt Lauer: Whether its braving long shopping lines or attending another party, the holidays can sometimes feel more like a burden than a celebration. So, how do you keep the holiday spirit alive? Rick Warren is the pastor of the Lake Forest California megachurch Saddleback and the author of the bestseller "The Purpose Driven Life". His new book is "The Purpose of Christmas". Rick, and you told me to call you Rick, Good Morning, nice to have you here.
Rick Warren: Good Morning. Thanks.
Matt Lauer: Its amazing, stress, people always talk about stress this time of year. Gotta spend money, gotta go to party. This is supposed to be the celebration of the birth of Jesus.
Rick Warren: Yeah, that's right Matt. The truth is we often get sidelined by all the other things. It is a celebration. That God sent Jesus to Earth to solve our biggest problem. But, uh, we often don't accept the gift. You know, if you gave me a Christmas gift, and you came over a year later and you said 'How'd you like my Christmas gift?'. And I go, 'well, I'm sure its great , but I didn't have time to open it. You'd be offended and I'd miss the blessing of it. And a lot of people go through Christmas and never open the gift - God's gift to us.
Matt Lauer: I don't want to sound like an angel here, and I've been carried away with the commercial side of the holidays just as much as anybody else. But, its almost as if at every cash register at every store across the country, you should have the title of your book that says in question form "What is the purpose of Christmas?" before you're allowed to charge something on your credit card.
Rick Warren: Yeah, well that's the reason I wrote the book. I think its for, I wrote it to be given to people to think about. Whether you're a skeptic or a seeker or a believer. Why do we do this thing? Why is history divided into AD and BC by this event? I mean even people who don't accept Jesus Christ, they still use 2008 as the reference point.
Matt Lauer: You bring up a good point, you say whether you're a skeptic, a cynic or a believer. Do you have to be a devout Christian to to get the true meaning of the holiday?
Rick Warren: Oh, well I think so. I think you have to understand that Jesus Christ came for your greatest benefit. It's like unwrapping the gift to him. The bottom line of Christmas is You matter to God. He made you, he loves you. And he sent Himself to Earth so we can know what he's like.
Matt Lauer: Alright, so people are listening to what you just said 'You matter to God'. And a lot of people, Rick, as you know, in this country right now are facing unemployment, they're facing foreclosure, they can't pay their bills, they won't be able to send their kids to college. And they say 'well, if I matter to God, why'd he put me in this situation?". How do you answer that to your 20,000 plus congregants.
Rick Warren: Sure, well we live on a broken planet - the fact is nothing works here, no relationship, no economy, uh, its been broken since the beginning. And that's why we pray "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" 'cause its done perfectly there. But, what we need to do at Christmas time is focus on people less fortunate than us too. Not just receiving God's gift of salvation, but also, saying 'How can I make a difference in someone else's life?'.
Matt Lauer: Tony Robbins who's the inspirational guru there has that same theory. He says 'If you're really feeling bad about your own straits, go help someone in worse straits.'
Rick Warren: Exactly. Absolutely. You see, most of the world would love to have our problems. They would love to be in debt. They don't have debt. They don't have any money in their pocket. And, if you're depressed, Christmas season is the season where people often get the blues get stressed out, suicide goes up. You need to do two things: turn to God and turn to somebody less fortunate than yourself.
Matt Lauer: One of the major complaints, as I've mentioned, you have 20,000 plus congregants at your church. What's the main complaint, what's the number one complaint you hear at this time of year?
Rick Warren: Trying to do too much in too little time. I mean we just say 'let's go write a card to everybody we've ever known, let's redecorate our house, let's buy a gift for everybody we've ever known, let's go to five extra parties' and we add all all this stuff in. Actually, you could celebrate it in a whole lot simpler way.
Matt Lauer: We're going to have you back on Christmas Day. I think we're actually going to talk more. And I know you want people to ask themselves two questions on Christmas and we'll talk about that. But, first, in advance happy holidays.
Rick Warren: Good, same to you."

So, Christmas he's back and Ann Curry will interview him for Dateline later this month.

I don't know where to begin describing how this interview irritated me.
First, I guess I should accept that The Today Show had such an overtly religious segment. Christianity is the dominant religion of our culture. Maybe they'll have other religions represented over the next weeks or so.
Next, I think in this country where we celebrate many different religious traditions, its unwise and uncharitable for religions to go on mainstream/secular television and exclude people outside of their faith. Rick Warren must know that many families who celebrate Christmas are not devout Christians. Yet, he insists that only devout Christians can get the true meaning of Christmas. He's ignoring the centuries of traditions surrounding Christmas that have nothing to do with the birth of Jesus - Christmas Tree, Santa Claus, et al. Those traditions celebrate the ideals of community and giving and sharing. They're traditions that predate Christmas. Historically, in winter, it becomes obvious that we all need each other and because we're not in the fields we have time to reflect. That was happening before Christianity. Its not an idea exclusive to Christianity. Christianity, piggy-backed on the Winter traditions and then redefined the point of the winter holidays. I don't have a problem with celebrating the birth of Jesus, but don't act like the rest of us don't, or can't, understand what Christmas is.
Rick Warren talks about how bad the Earth is. I reject that idea. I accept its his belief, but I categorically reject it. This is a beautiful planet and we're infinitely great human beings. I don't appreciate that he perpetuates an idea that the only good things that come out of this world are the ones we receive from God - we have no control or choice. We have control and we have choice - in fact, in Christianity, isn't that what God wants - to be chosen?
Rick Warren is talking about losing the meaning of Christmas because people buy too much and do too much and get caught up in the materialism, and yet he's trying to sell a book that he suggests be given as a gift - meaning, buy several for all your friends.
Rick Warren suggests that Christmas must be truly for Christians because otherwise why would the rest of the world use the birth of Jesus as the marking point for time - why is this 2008 instead of 5042? Well, first of all, that's ridiculous. Does he want everyone to use a different calendar? Would that be pracical? Could it be that this date is used because it was instituted by the Christian Emperors and Popes? And don't forget that many societies DON'T consider this 2008? They use 2008 for common usage but still recognize their own years - Chinese New Year? Tet? Mayan Calendar? Jewish New Year? Ever heard of those Rick Warren?

Okay - I'm done. I find him offensive. Oh well. He believes what he believes. I believe what I believe. Hopefully our people will live in harmony for eons to come.