An Army of Compassion

Many of us know or have heard of Rick Warren, the author of "A Purpose Driven Life" and pastor of Saddleback Church (the site of a recent debate between our presidential candidates). For some, he represents a key figurehead of the modern American Evangelical movement. I stumbled across some comments that he made at a recent Clinton Global Initiative meeting:

"There are 600 million Buddhists in the world, there are 800 million Hindus in the world, there are a billion Muslims in the world, and there are 2.3 billion Christians . . . And there is already an army ready to be mobilized, an army of compassion, in those villages. They're called churches or mosques or temples or synagogues."

The last line is in bold print because it's important. This is a telling comment, not simply because he's laying out a vision of the power of people of faith to do good in the world, but because he's including all people of faith. Pastor Warren wields considerable influence among American faithful. When he mobilizes his "Army of Compassion," I don't think it'll just be Christians marching to help.

*Disclaimer* I found this quote on a "Biblical End Times" forum, where concerned Christians were venting their frustration with Warren's open message. Still, I doubt he would ever fall that far out of favor.