FLASHBACK: Rick Warren on Syria: ‘A moderate country’

One of my first news searches this morning at Twitter was for anything about #Syria, a country that is embroiled in civil war (it’s gone way beyond protests at this point), and whose leader shells hospitals.

Well, this is what I found as a tweet from Saddleback Church guru Rick Warren:

Now, I totally agree with Warren’s call for prayer, but I find it really interesting that he appears to be calling on the ‘world’ to stop the violence. Is this the same man who strolled the streets of Syria last year, extolling the virtues of the Assad government?

Let me quote from his Saddleback promo reel:

“Syria’s a place that has Muslims and Christians living together for 1,400 years. So it’s a lot more peaceful, honestly, than a lot of other places because Christians were here first.

“In fact, you know Saul of Tarsus – Saul was a Syrian. St. Paul, on the road to Damascus, had his conversion experience and so Christians have been here the longest, and they get along with the Muslims and the Muslims get along with them. There’s a lot less tension than in other places.

“It’s a moderate country, and the official government rule and position is to not allow any extremism of any kind.”

The full audio and additional commentary from Joseph Farah is available at the original source, World Net Daily. Read the entire article at Rick Warren on Syria: ‘A moderate country’.: