"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 not to allow any extremism of any kind."

When Farah's report first broke, Warren began e-mailing Farah in a panicked fashion, at one point according to Farah, "nearly every hour."

Warren's staffers also yanked the incriminating YouTube video footage.

Then in an e-mail circulated to the Saddleback faithful Warren claimed that he had been misquoted by "Syrian Government press releases." And adding insult to injury Warren then claimed it was Farah who had misrepresented the facts. (He also purposefully and incorrectly refers to as a 'blogger' - in order to marginalize the far reaching impact of WorldNetDaily - which has 10 times the daily audience traffic of the largest blog in the blogosphere.)

"By the way, even though this was just a private trip, we notified our friends at the U.S. State Department in advance of our meeting with President Bashar (sic) and sought advice," he wrote. "They told us that Syria would likely offer press releases after the meeting – which they did."

Warren concluded: "Regrettably, because I praised Syria's welcoming of Christian refugees from Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon into their country, some bloggers concluded that I approved of everything Syria does. That's nonsense! Syria needs many reforms, but in terms of religious freedom, they are ahead of places like Burma, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, and many others."

Warren made no apologies for putting himself in a position to be used by the police state. But he did say: "I also know that anyone who speaks publicly all the time, is bound to say something dumb every now and then. So I ask for your patience and forgiveness in advance because I’m sure it will happen! Every day I'm amazed that God uses someone as flawed as I am. You should be too. Just don't believe everything you read by bloggers or hear in the media."

That set up a "his word" vs. "his word" scenario that Warren now felt confident to win given that his staff had removed the proof as cited by Farah from YouTube. So confident in fact that he issued another statement to the Saddleback faithful over the weekend. And again he invoked the "Syrian press release" line as to the substance of the actual facts...

Recently, 4 "bloggers" made accusations about my visit to Syria (between speaking in Germany and Rwanda). They based their accusations on a Syrian state press release! Of course, they had no idea what my motivation was, what I actually did and said, and the confidential results. But they attacked me anyway. Not a single newspaper carried the story, but several websites repeated the gossip without talking to me to get the facts. Most sites were already critical of The Purpose Driven Church and Life, and were just happy to have something else to attack.

The only problem now facing Rick Warren is that the proof has resurfaced, and this time he cannot control the spread of it as now multiple copies now exist. Now you can hear with your own ears the exact quote as transcribed at the top of this post - in Warren's own voice - AND NOT from a Syrian press release.

And the ONLY CONCLUSION that most people can draw - is that Rick Warren told an outright lie, then denied it twice - thus making him a serial liar on this one matter alone. (In his mind it might not be that big a deal given that he 'asked for forgiveness in advance'.)

Rick Warren owes an apology to his congregation, he owes an apology to Joseph Farah and WorldNetDaily, and most importantly he owes an apology to the Christian communities in Syria and by proxy in Lebanon - where last week as Warren was covering his tail, trying to destroy evidence - the Syrians were murdering a prominent Christian leader.

Dennis Prager is one of the best minds in America, that's why he can even make "Smoking Cigars" such a fascinating topic for his syndicated column. It's a tremendous read:

Indeed, I am quite convinced that my one-a-day cigar or pipe may well have had a positive impact on my health given how much relaxation it induces. Stress kills far more people than cigars or pipes do.

It is a sign of the times that the latest James Bond film has prohibited 007 from smoking a cigar. One of the most benign practices a person can engage in was banned, but our macho hero can be shown drinking alcohol and bedding women (and without any mention of condoms!), not to mention killing people and engaging in behaviors infinitely more dangerous than cigar smoking.

We live in the Age of Stupidity. This new age has been induced by widespread college education and widespread secularism -- Psalms is entirely accurate: "Wisdom begins with fear of the Lord" -- which explains, for example, why only well-educated secularists came to believe that there were no innate nonphysical differences between men and women.

Nearly 100 years ago, before widespread college education and before widespread secularism, when America tried to prohibit a vice, it chose alcohol, not tobacco. It knew that there were immoral consequences to alcohol consumption -- most child abuse, most spousal abuse, about half of violent crimes and most rapes are accompanied by alcohol. Nobody has ever raped because smoking a cigarette or a cigar numbed his conscience. And no one fears smoking drivers; we rightly fear drinking drivers.

Read the whole thing...

On the topic, from the MuscleHead video vault, I captured this rare discussion between Hugh Hewitt and Dennis Prager on the issue of cigars only a couple of weeks prior to the election. Still amusing and worth seeing again...

Nearly as effective as that:

Evidently tired of the polite requests by decent people from across the nation asking him to kindly dis-invite Senator Barack Obama from the upcoming conference on AIDS/HIV at Saddleback Church, Rick Warren has attempted to answer the actions of my radio show, syndicated column, and my blog - now one full week before the AIDS conference is scheduled to take place. (Notice the disdain which he attempts to minimize our efforts of concern by referring to me as a "blogger...")

In an e-mail to the Saddleback faithful Warren sent this out yesterday...

Dear Saddleback Family,

Happy Thanksgiving. This weekend I'll announce the new giving commitments that are joining the rest of us in "EXTENDING THE VISION; For the Next Generation" PLUS

I'll be sharing a very personal message on " Living By Your Convictions."

When Kay and I announced the launching of the P.E.A.C.E. plan a few years ago, we both knew we could expect severe opposition coming from different angles. The P.E.A.C.E. plan empowers churches to do the 5 things Jesus did, and Jesus warned us, "People will do to you exactly what they did to me. They will do it because you belong to me, and they don't know the one who sent me." John 15:21 (CEV) Millions of Christians throughout history and around the world right now know that persecution is real.

We are in a spiritual battle for the lives of billions, so we expect opposition. The Bible tells us that " Satan is the accuser of the brethren." Unfortunately, sometimes Christians do Satan's job for him. They accuse and criticize other believers. I'm sure that makes Satan smile.

The Bible says it is foolish to spout off about issues before knowing the facts, but the Internet has made it very easy to do. God says, "He who answers before listening--that is his folly and his shame." Prov. 18:13 (NIV) God also says, "Fools have no interest in understanding; they only want to air their own opinions." Prov. 18:2 (NLT)

Recently, 4 "bloggers" made accusations about my visit to Syria (between speaking in Germany and Rwanda). They based their accusations on a Syrian state press release! Of course, they had no idea what my motivation was, what I actually did and said, and the confidential results. But they attacked me anyway. Not a single newspaper carried the story, but several websites repeated the gossip without talking to me to get the facts. Most sites were already critical of The Purpose Driven Church and Life, and were just happy to have something else to attack.

Another blogger claimed I've invited Barack Obama to preach in my pulpit to the Saddleback congregation. Of course that is untrue. I'd never invite ANY politician to speak from the pulpit to our congregation. Never. The blogger got his facts wrong but he told everyone to call our church office and complain. Many of these people were quite rude and vicious to our receptionists this past week.

Next week, the Global Summit on AIDS and the Church will be held on the Saddleback campus. It is not a church service, but an international summit for pastors and world leaders. Leaders from churches, denominations, health, NGOs, Christian organizations, governments, businesses, and entertainment will meet together to discuss how they can work with churches to end AIDS. Participants will hear messages from Laura Bush, Sen. Bill Frist, Sen. Sam Brownback, Bill Gates, Bono, the doctor who discovered AIDS transmission heterosexually, Franklin Graham, the President of World Vision, the President of World Relief, the President of Compassion, and about 30 other speakers who are concerned about AIDS. Sen. Obama is one speaker at a conference which includes Republicans and Democrats, Christians and non-Christians, pastors, business leaders, and all kinds of races from around the world. Yet the vitriol and unChristlike slander was over the top.

This weekend I am teaching a message called " Living By Your Convictions" where I'll explain the 6 Biblical convictions that are the framework for all we do at Saddleback. This message will be released on pastors.com for free on Monday.

Of course, you friends know my heart, my motivation, and my 26 year track record. What matters to me is not pleasure..possessions...prestige...politics...power.. or popularity. I couldn't care less about these things. I care about bringing people to Jesus, and I will do whatever it takes to " Reach One More For Jesus" as my father's dying words instructed me. No criticism will ever stop me from doing that.

Like Paul, God has called me as a missionary to non-believing cultures, and he has opened doors in amazing ways to share the Gospel behind lines that pastors don't normally get invited to. Paul was willing to go anywhere and talk to anyone about Jesus. So was Billy Graham. So am I. I'd go into hell if I could bring some people out with me.

No matter where I've been invited to speak- to Congress, to the Davos World Economic Forum, at Harvard and Oxford and Cambridge, to the United Nations. to the Foreign Affairs Council, from Rabbis at the University of Judaism to Muslim leaders in the Middle East, from Urban Gays to Rural Cowboys - my message is unchanged:

We all need Jesus! Left or Right is irrelevant to me. I'm not a politician. I am a pastor, and my calling is to go "to ALL nations and ALL people " with the saving knowledge of Jesus.

I believe the Good News with all my heart and I want everyone to have the opportunity to respond to it - not just those who come inside the doors of churches.

I hope you'll join us this weekend, and I hope you'll email the message to others when we post it for free on Monday. I love you all! We're going to have a fantastic Christmas season together!

Pastor Rick

Ok, so I missed it. So he says he would never invite Obama, but then he says Obama is an invited speaker. See the truth of it is - I never used the word "preach." So while Warren is trying to move the goal posts - I can't let him do that unchallenged. Warren is either misinformed or he is being dishonest. I'm willing to grant him the benefit of the doubt.

But on this point I can't - he states that it was the "callers who called the church and complained" who were the rude and vicious ones. I have tens of thousands of listeners and readers who state it was the complete opposite. That it was Warren's staff who were rude. Even to the point of cutting people off and hanging up on them.

So to Pastor Warren, I am now - one week out from your conference - inviting you back on my radio show. I will link to the PodCAST and promote the transcript/archives of the conversation. I will be willing to pre-record, or go live at an hour of your convenience. I will then air the actual conversation - unedited and this is my promise and agreement in full.

Someone please extend to Warren a written copy of this invitation by printing it out from this page. His telephone number is 949.609.8000. The e-mail to the church is info@saddleback.com.

The clock is ticking...