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THE SCENE – at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest,
California on August 16 – was unprecedented.
American presidential candidates Barack Obama and John
McCain appeared before a national TV audience with Rick Warren,
Saddleback’s head pastor and the best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life.
Both candidates are professing Christians.
Obama has had to repeatedly debunk rumours that
he is a Muslim, and has distanced himself from his controversial former
pastor, Jeremiah Wright.
He told Warren he was “redeemed by Jesus”
– who, he said, had died for “my sins.”
McCain, who attends a Baptist church in Phoenix,
recalled his time as a former prisoner of war in North Vietnam. He spoke of
a prison guard who scratched a cross in the dirt, one Christmas Day.
“For a minute there, it was just two Christians
worshipping together. I’ll never forget that,” he said quietly.
Warren asked both men to describe the “greatest
moral failing” in their lives.
“I had a difficult youth,” Obama said.
“There were times when I experimented with drugs.”
“My greatest moral failing, and I am a very
imperfect person, is the failure of my first marriage,” said McCain.
When asked to say what he felt was one of his
country’s biggest moral failings, Obama replied: “Our treatment
of the poor.” He stated that the Bible quotes Jesus as saying
“whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for
me.”
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On the topic of America’s moral failings, McCain
said: “Perhaps we have not devoted ourselves to causes greater than
our self-interest.”
Despite some criticism of Warren’s decision to
hold this event, he received praise from an unusual source. The often
caustic Bill Maher, speaking on Larry King Live, commented:
“One thing I don’t like about religion is
that . . . it’s not mainly about doing the right thing or being
ethical. It’s mainly about salvation. It’s mainly about getting
your butt saved when you die . . .
“Rick Warren [is a] big improvement over Pat
Robertson and Jerry Falwell. If we have to have a pope of the super
Christ-ies, I’d rather it be him. He’s got good ideas about
actually, you know, actually helping people.”
Observers generally considered Warren fair in his
questioning. Many were surprised at how tough some of his questions were,
on issues such as abortion.
– Peter Biggs, with files from Assist News
Service
September 2008
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