Matthew Warren, 27, son of popular Evangelical Pastor Rick Warren has taken his own life in a “momentary wave of despair,” at his Mission Viejo, CA home according to a statement from the Saddleback Community Church where his father preaches. The younger Warren was described as “an incredibly kind, gentle and compassionate young man,” suffered from lifelong mental illness and severe depression.
Matthew Warren had been treated by America's best doctors over the years, and had received counseling and medication as well as having been the recipient of numerous prayers from others, his father said.
"I'll never forget how, many years ago, after another approach had failed to give relief, Matthew said 'Dad, I know I'm going to heaven. Why can't I just die and end this pain?'" Warren recalled. Despite that, he said, Matthew (the youngest of his three children) lived for another decade, during which he often reached out to help others.
"You who watched Matthew grow up knew he was an incredibly kind, gentle, and compassionate man," Warren wrote. "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."
Pastor Rick Warren, author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” founded Saddleback Church in 1980, originally holding Bible studies with his wife Kay for people who were not regular churchgoers according to his biography on the church website. Since then the congregation has grown to include 20,000 members. The church says it now offers more than 200 community ministries and support groups for parents, families, children, couples, prisoners, addicts, and people living with HIV, depression and other illnesses.
Others may also remembee that the church sponsored a presidential forum with Barack Obama and John McCain in 2008. Warren was also named the top newsmaker of the year for 2009 by the Religion Newswriters Association, partly for his invocation at Obama's inauguration, and for comments he made in the aftermath of California's Proposition 8, which overturned gay marriage.
The Saddleback church had also invited Presidenr Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney to a similar forum last fall, but Warren canceled it several days beforehand, saying the campaign had become”too uncivil.”
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