After resisting doing a radio or TV program for 32 years, mega-church pastor Rick Warren announced a deal with Salem Communications to broadcast a half-hour daily show in top 25 markets.
“Daily Hope” will air Monday-Friday to bring hope to a discouraged country. Warren said he doesn’t like televangelists but changed his mind and decided to do a radio show because America “right now is in a discouragement period,” the Christian Post reported.
Warren wants to address the discouragement arising from the weak economic recovery, high unemployment, partisan gridlock and events such as the Newtown, CT shooting.
He also plans to speak out against infringements of religious liberty. He’s concerned about a “coarsening” of communication, particularly on the Internet, reported WND.
“People are far more rude now than they used to be,” Warren said, “Our civilization is losing its civility. We just don’t know how to be nice to people.”
Regarding the erosion of religious liberty, Warren pointed to attempts to bar Muslims from wearing head scarves at school and prevent Jews from circumcising their children. He also cited the new health care law that requires companies and religious institutions to purchase health insurance coverage that violates their religious beliefs.
Warren explained he had resisted doing a radio or TV show because he doesn’t want to turn his church into a studio and lose the intimacy of a congregation. He also said he doesn’t like the style of TV preachers and doesn’t want to do fundraising.
The church he founded in 1980, Saddleback, has a total average weekly attendance of 22,000 at its main Lake Forest, CA campus and nine other locations.
