People inventing fake Rick Warren Facebook pages

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

LAKE FOREST, CA
(ANS) – Following the tragic death of 27-year-old Matthew Warren, the youngest son of Pastor Rick Warren and his wife, Kay, who committed suicide “momentary wave of despair” in April, the Saddleback pastor has been facing another problem – a large number of fake Rick Warren Facebook pages.

In a message posted today (Friday, May 24, 2013) on his page – www.facebook.com/pastorrickwarren – he wrote, “Dear Facebook Friends, I have a personal favor to ask.

Vitriol infests Rick Warren family’s grief

Pastor Rick Warren greets the audience
before a forum with the presidential nominees
at his Saddleback Church on Aug. 16, 2008.
Religion News Service
file photo by Ann Johansson.

(RNS)  Pastor Rick Warren, the best-known name in American evangelism after Rev. Billy Graham, lost his 27-year-old son, Matthew, to suicide on Friday (April 5).

In the days since, uncounted strangers have joined the 20,000 congregants who worship at the megachurch network “Pastor Rick” built in Southern California, Warren’s nearly 1 million Twitter followers and hundreds of thousands of Facebook followers in flooding social media with consolation and prayer.

“Kay and I are overwhelmed by your love, prayers, and kind words,” Warren tweeted on Sunday. “You are all encouraging our #brokenhearts.”

But a shocking number are taking the moment of media attention to lash out at Warren on their digital tom-toms. The attacks are aimed both at him personally and at his Christian message.