LAKE FOREST, Calif. (ABP) — North Korean officials have invited best-selling author and Southern Baptist pastor Rick Warren to preach to at least 15,000 people in the communist country, a spokesperson from Warren's Saddleback Church confirmed July 5.
The spokesperson told Associated Baptist Press that Warren is expected to speak during the summer of 2007. The exact itinerary for Warren's trip is still undetermined, although a trip to Asia this year will be used to plan for next year's North Korea trip. Warren was unavailable for comment.
Warren's trip comes at a time when tensions between North Korea and the United States are extremely high.
A country famous for its religious persecution, North Korea fired a seventh medium-range missile July 5, but it malfunctioned soon after launch. The action, which drew international protests, prompted an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. Japan is considering calling for sanctions against North Korea, according to Associated Press reports.
Warren acknowledged his trip could be used by the Korean government for propaganda or further persecution, but he said it is worth the risks.
Warren first announced his Korea trip June 25 to worshipers at his Southern California church, the largest Baptist church in the nation. He told the congregation the Korean visit will be part of a nearly 40-day international tour, during which he will meet with government leaders and pastors in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Rwanda and South Korea. He also asked church members to pray for him in his travels.
According to a Religion News Service report, North Korean leaders will allow Warren to preach in a stadium that will seat 15,000 people. Warren may preach in a larger venue if he can fill the seats, he said.
Saddleback members celebrated the news as a victory for religious freedom. But some critics said it will only bolster North Korea's oppressive regime.
Ingrid Schlueter, producer and co-host of a Christian talk show on the VCY America Radio Network, called Warren's visit a “massive propaganda event in promotion of the world's most brutal and oppressive regime.” In a July 4 column for the right-wing Christian Worldview Network website, Schlueter said Warren won't “call the communist faithful to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” because he preaches a “man-centered, counterfeit gospel.”
“Not for a moment do these leaders worry that they will have a Christian revival on their hands by letting Mr. Warren speak,” she said. “Rick Warren is loved and feted because his message is absent the cross and Christ's call to die. That's why he is popular and politically useful.”
Schlueter also compared Warren's trip to Billy Graham's visit to communist Russia in 1982, during which Graham “became a shill for the Communist Party in Russia.”
Warren had told his congregants that he called Graham to ask for advice on his trip, since Graham traveled on a brief, tightly controlled tour of North Korea in 1992.
Warren acknowledged North Korean leaders may exploit his trip. “I know they're going to use me, so I'm going to use them,” Warren told reporters.
Warren wrote The Purpose Driven Church and The Purpose Driven Life, which currently sells at the rate of 1 million copies a month, according to the church's website. The Purpose Driven Church has been translated into 25 languages. Warren, a graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary started Saddleback Church in 1980 with his wife, Kay. It now has more than 20,000 regular weekly attendees.
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