The following is a reproduction of the August 20 email edition of
850 WORDS OF RELEVANT: Face-Off at the Faith Forum
Rick Warren’s Southern California mega-church, Saddleback Church, has been a repository of surprises over the years. At his AIDS summit in 2006, Barak Obama was a featured speaker. In 2007, Hillary Clinton was. In 2008, Warren specifically invited gay fathers to attend father’s day church services and share a meal with the super-pastor. The stage was set to surprise once again on August 16 when, for the first time ever, the two presumptive Presidential nominees met at Saddleback to answer questions about faith and morality.
The goal of the nominees was no secret to anyone: capture the Christian vote that has traditionally gone Republican without reservation but in this election have remained undecided. With poll numbers running so tight, the religious vote could decide the election. If there were no votes to be gained by talking about faith, the candidates wouldn’t be doing it.
Questions centered on moral issues such as poverty and climate change, issues that didn’t seem to create much distance between the candidates. But things changed when Warren pressed them on the “big two”: abortion and same sex marriage.
When asked to define marriage, Obama appeared centrist. “It’s a union between a man and a woman,” he said. “For me as a Christian, it is a sacred union. God is in the mix.” Obama added that he does support civil unions for gay couples because civil rights should be afforded to others even if he doesn’t share their view. McCain played it safe and said that he would leave the decision up to individual States.
When asked when the candidates believed life began, McCain blurted out “conception” without hesitation. Obama seemed to spin things a little bit. While he said he supports Roe vs. Wade and has always been pro-choice, the goal should be to reduce the number of abortions in America.
“What I can do is say, are there ways we can work together to reduce unwanted pregnancies,” he said. Obama never answered the question.
