Good morning, all.

OK, so I’ll play the bad guy here: Who the heck is Rick Warren?

I know, I know. The guy leads a 20,000-member social club/mega church in Orange County, California. He’s a best-selling author of pop religion tomes that plaster his smiling face across the back cover. And he’s known for wearing wacky, Dom DeLuiseian Hawaiian shirts to church. He provides the kind of palatable, spoon-fed, strip-mall religion lapped up by modern flocks. Fine.

As we have seen his type come around every few years – the ever-smiling Joel Osteen and the hypocritical-closet case Ted Haggard – we knew Rick Warren before we knew Rick Warren. He’s the latest in a long line of men, who despite their proclamations to be servants of God, don’t mind using The Word to elevate their own standing in the world as well. Again, that’s all fine.