Pastor Rick Warren's son commits suicide

Pastor Rick Warren's son commits suicide



Published April 06, 2013

FoxNews.com

The Southern California church headed by popular evangelical Pastor Rick Warren says his 27-year-old son has committed suicide.

Warren's Saddleback Valley Community Church in Lake Forest, Calif., says in a statement Saturday that Matthew Warren had struggled with mental illness and deep depression.

"No words can express the anguished grief we feel right now," Warren said in a letter to church members.

"He had a brilliant intellect and a gift for sensing who was most in pain or most uncomfortable in a room. He'd then make a bee-line to that person to engage and encourage them," Warren said of his son in the letter.

Warren is the author of "The Purpose Driven Life." In 2008, his church sponsored a presidential forum with Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney had been invited to a similar forum last fall, but Warren canceled it, saying the campaign had become too uncivil.

Saddleback's website says that about 20,000 people attend weekend services at the church near Los Angeles.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

That is truly disturbing. So sad....

Yeah, it is. It just shows that pastors are people too. They are not immune to the darkness and decay of this world.

His church is the one that started Celebrate Recovery which is where I was able to get clean and connect with the Lord.

Oh, wow, I can see how it might be especially significant in your case. I'm so sorry. It's quite a shocker.