Posted on 08/16/2008 11:59:35 AM PDT by XR7
LAKE FOREST, Calif. — When John McCain and Barack Obama appear on the same stage today, they will vividly demonstrate the reach that has made the Rev. Rick Warren among the most significant evangelists of his generation.
He's a megastar who leads the nation's fourth-largest church and reaches thousands of ministers through the Internet and crusades against poverty and AIDS. That globe-trotting work and his successful book — "The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?" — puts him at the vanguard of a movement that inspires young, socially conscious Christians.
But his willingness to soft-pedal political issues once central to U.S. evangelicals, such as opposition to abortion, has opened him to criticism that he has strayed from his calling to spread the Gospel.
Today's forum also is a sign of religion's importance in the 2008 presidential campaign, and the emergence of a new style of evangelical leadership on the national stage that is not tied to a single party and has broadened its social agenda beyond that of the religious right.
"This is absolutely a changing of the guard, and it suggests that the new guard of the evangelical movement is able to generate the attention and focus of both parties," said D. Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University and author of "Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite."
Warren personally invited the two candidates — "friends of mine" — via their cellphones. His event at the Saddleback Church will be broadcast live on CNN and Fox News Channel and streamed on the Web. It has among its aims "helping the church regain credibility and encouraging our society to return to civility," he said.
It's likely that fans and critics will be watching closely...
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
I may try to get Fox streaming, I may not. Based on what I am reading here, it may be more than I can take.
Thanks for thinking of and praying for cajungirl, she is a dear lady...
MOgirl
Mom you are shocked by that are you...he is a liberal after all.
Bambi’s never read a single thing Justice Thomas has ever written.
The distance between the intellects of Thomas and Bambi is the distance between Heaven and hell.
Rick Warren is actually doing a decent job.
Obama’s answer on Scalia & Thomas may be enough for me to stockpile however much alcohol I need to vote for McCain. I just hope my breath doesn’t make the voting station catch on fire...
Suspicous of John Roberts before he was confirmed.
Obama, the intellectual giant.
faith based—
give gov’t money to Sierra club and Hamas
Since 2004, he has gotten nuts........it is what fame has done to him.
His whole philosophy was heretical from the beginning, but it is ten times worse now that he has injected politics into it.
Did he say that? I was in the kitchen for a sec..
Sorry — I think Warren’s questions are limp, weak, empty, vacuous... hell, pick one.
But they ain’t tough, that’s for sure. And he’s letting Obama skate. this is as bad as the presidential “debates”.
A complete joke on the American people.
Got to like that Warren is letting Obama hang himself......
Guess what, black folks would agree with him too on Clarence Thomas (shakes head), it’s right in front of them... he doesn’t give a damn about black, white, purple only red and green.
Why doesn’t he ask about his law work with ACORN and where his law records are. False info on his bar and other applications re: former drug use, outstanding tickets (17), having an alias, etc.
If he were a real pastor, he would ask him about the Drew Scott ruling re: abortion/personhood.
He actually voted for John Roberts before he voted against him
he said pay “grade”!
Yes. I don’t think he intended it to come out that way but it did.
CNN has a full screen thingy
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/
CSpan does not...
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN_wm.aspx
thxs for the correction! ;0)
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