Holding the unofficial title of “America’s Pastor” brings a lot of perks. It also brings a lot of eyeballs watching your every move, as Rick Warren found out this week with a controversial post he put up on Facebook and Twitter.
Social media is permanent when you’re famous. It doesn’t matter how quickly you delete a post. Someone saw it, took a screen shot, and will be posting about it on their blog shortly.
When Saddleback Church’s Rick Warren posted an image of a happy Chinese military woman who appeared eager to do her duty, he captioned it with the words, “The typical attitude of Saddleback Staff as they start work each day”. Unfortunately, the image was taken from a propaganda poster used by the Mao Zedong regime during the Great Leap Forward, a four-year portion of 20th century Chinese history that resulted in the deaths of over 40 million people.
Chinese pastor and blogger, Dr. Sam Tsang, pointed out the cultural and historical insensitivity of Warren’s posts on his blog:
Rick Warren angers many on social media with Red Guard propaganda post
Sam Mad Doc Tsang
I’m not really “Chinese”. I’m American. I don’t pastor. I’ve worked as an academic for a number of years overseas. I might be an immigrant but I think i should be considered 100% American. Thanks for posting.
JD Rucker
Thanks Danny! I’ll make sure they get that adjusted.
Danny Chen
Correction: Kathy Khang is Korean, not Chinese, standing up and advocating for the entire Asian community.