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Tickets to Obama/McCain at Saddleback Church: ‘The Untold Story’
August 19th, 2008, 6:55 am · 7 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
A wee bit of controversy swirling about how tickets to Saturday’s chit-chat with Barack Obama, John McCain and Saddleback Church’s superstar pastor, Rick Warren, were handled.
Many who really, really, really wanted in didn’t get in, and that led to all sorts of hard feelings, as my colleagues reported last week.
Here’s what people knew: There was room for about 6,500 attendees. Ticket prices would range from $500 to $2,000. If just 5,000 tickets were available for sale, the church could take in between $2.5 million and $10 million on the event. Sweet, right?
NO!
says Pastor Rick. The event made just a fraction of that: Only about $250,000 or so, by The Watchdog’s calculations. The skinny from “Pastor Rick’s News and Views,” an email newsletter Warren sends to the faithful (bullets and bolding courtesy yours truly):
“Here’s the real story behind the ticket distribution. 
- “The moment McCain & Obama were announced as this month’s Civil Forum guests we were overwhelmed with thousands of requests from partisans who wanted to fill our auditorium with their troops.
- “To prevent them from taking all the seats we did two things: First, we reserved 95% of the 5000+ tickets as FREE to our Saddleback volunteers who faithfully serve our family. We then sold 5% - less than 250 seats - to other members & outsiders in order to defray the expenses of this (now) national event. I didn’t want our tithes and offerings paying for this event.
- “One untold story is that we invited the principals of schools in the Santa Ana district to select some worthy students to attend for free in order to experience the American election system. 22 students and 2 chaperones have been awarded seats.”
So. Thus saved from the thousands of partisans, the forum went off without a hitch.
Did it cost you? Saddleback contracted with the Sheriff’s Department for extra security services, a spokesman said. Waiting for details.
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Hmmm 95% went to members of a megaMcChurch in a predominantely “conservative” community.
Sounds like an unbiased crowd to me.
hmmm 90% of his income is given away.
So 10% of 2.5 mill is $250, 000
or better yet
10 % of 10 million.
Rick is surely “blessed”.
I am thinking of writing a book entitled “The Money-Driven Life”. It will be a spoof of “The Purpose Driven Life” and will consist of one sentence:
“Do as Rick Warren does, not as he says.” The end!
He makes me ill.
I like the statement that he didn’t want the tithes and offerings to pay for it…you mean, Rick, you didn’t want to take it out of YOUR salary. But you want the recognition for hosting your “friends”. Gal. 6:7 God is not mocked, what you sow ye shall also reap. Jesus said, To be called a friend with the world is to be an enemy of God. So, Rick, what God are you preaching up there? I know its not Jesus because you haven’t mentioned his name is a single interview for the last five years. ‘Pride comes before destruction and a haughty look before a fall.’
I’m in now way affiliated with Saddleback Church, but it’s well known that Rick Warren doesn’t take a salary. Yes, you read right… he doesn’t earn one cent for his work at Saddleback. I’m willing to bet that he puts in a tad more than the typical 40 work week too. It’s also well known that he paid back every dollar of salary he earned before his book became successful. Hmm…
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:3-5
What really pi$$es me off, is that he lied about the availability of tickets before the event. I sent an email inquiring about tickets a week and a half. I received a reply stating that it had not been determined how the tickets would be distributed. Lying jerk.
I am upset because I went to the website as soon as it was announced. The site said yes there were free tickets to the public and the day to go back and register for tickets. I went back that day early in the morning and the site said all of the tickets were taken!!