Pastor Rick Warren of California’s Saddleback Church gave the final keynote address of the World Meeting of Families conference, sharing the stage with Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, in Philadelphia on Friday, the day before Pope Francis arrives in the city.
“Thank you for caring about the family,” warren told the crowd, he went on to say:
“In today’s society, materialism is idolized, immorality is glamorized, truth is minimized, sin is normalized, divorce is rationalized, and abortion is legalized,” bestselling author Warren said. “In TV and movies, crime is legitimized, drug use is minimized, comedy is vulgarized, and sex is trivialized. In movies, the Bible is fictionalized, churches are satirized, God is marginalized, and Christians are demonized. The elderly are dehumanized, the sick are euthanized, the poor are victimized, the mentally ill are ostracized, immigrants are stigmatized, and children are tranquilized. In families around the world, our manners are uncivilized, speech is vulgarized, faith is secularized, and everything is commercialized.”
Pastor Warren said Christians are often disorganized and demoralized, and their faith is compartmentalized, and witness compromised. “So what do we need? We need to revitalize our worship, minimize our differences, mobilize our members, and evangelize the lost, and we need to re-energize our families.”
