Fresh off of urging his millions of supporters to protect “traditional marriage” by passing Proposition 8 in California, evangelical guru Rick Warren announces a new partnership with Reader’s Digest to spread his personal brand of “Purpose Driven” Christianity across the nation:
The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., and Dr. Rick Warren, Pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church and the author of the worldwide best seller, “The Purpose Driven Life,” today announced a partnership to produce an inspirational multimedia platform called The Purpose Driven Connection.
Together the organizations will pool their international resources to produce and publish this Purpose Driven platform to help people who are seeking their purpose in life and wish to interact with others on their spiritual journeys. The platform will provide a suite of bundled multimedia tools: “The Purpose Driven Connection,” a quarterly magazine; Small Group study materials delivered in DVDs, workbooks and downloadable discussion guides; and a state-of-the-art Christian social networking website.
“We are excited about this new partnership and its unprecedented potential for international impact,” said Warren, who will serve as Editor-in-Chief and be heavily involved in the conception of each element. “The Purpose Driven Connection represents more than simply integrated multimedia resources; it will become a platform for a movement of people to change the world.”
“We are delighted to be working with Rick Warren and the Saddleback team,” said Alyce Alston, President of RDA’s Home & Garden and Health & Wellness affinities. “This is one of our company’s most important and far-reaching ventures ever. Together we will create a category-busting multimedia suite that will help millions of people in their daily lives, including those who already follow the Purpose Driven principles as well as seekers everywhere looking for greater fulfillment.”
Apparently, while Reader’s Digest would presumably never agree to a partnership with someone like James Dobson, they have no problem partnering with Warren, even though he admits that the only difference between himself and Dobson is a question of tone.
