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WHAT TO THINK OF RICK WARREN’S FORUM WITH OBAMA AND MCCAIN

By Rev. Rob Schenck

This Saturday, August 16, Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, will host the first joint appearance of the two main presumptive nominees for president, Barack Obama and John McCain. The venue will be the church’s sanctuary itself and the event is called a “Civil Forum on the Presidency.” Pastor Warren will be the only questioner as each candidate is separately asked a series of questions for approximately an hour each.

I’ve gotten many calls asking what I think about the whole affair. My initial response is always that I think the intention is a good one and it can’t really be bad, but there is room for constructive criticism and caution. First, and at the expense of sounding cynical, candidates for the presidency know very well how to exploit this kind of platform. California is California and Washington is Washington. Anyone who’s made it to the top here (and the U.S. Senate is definitely the top) knows how to dominate and control any platform. My concern is that Rick Warren isn’t wittingly or unwittingly used by either candidate to gain political cover for his respective campaign.

Warren has established some pretty restrictive boundaries for himself. He’s not going to ask any questions about abortion. Well, abortion just happens to be the most incendiary concern of our times; it’s even hotter than the debate over the war. For example, traditionalist Catholic leaders are split on their opinions over Iraq, but they are united in their opinions on abortion. Evangelicals are also overwhelmingly pro-life. So what’s with artificially ignoring it? Warren will also assiduously avoid anything related to the definition of marriage—even as his state is embroiled in a huge controversy over it.

Could it be that Rick Warren had to promise not to mention abortion or marriage in order to get Senator Obama to show up? Is it a Faustian pact with the Obama campaign? After all, Senator Obama is even more extreme on abortion than the National Abortion Rights Action League, the most militant of any pro-abortion group.

Then again, were promises made to the McCain camp to make this stage a little less “religious” for the candidate who is obviously more uncomfortable when the topic turns heavenward? I have pointed out more than once that Barack Obama has been more articulate and more effective reaching out to Evangelicals than has his opponent. Rick Warren has said there will be no “test” of the candidates’ respective claims to be Christian. Was that to comfort the senator from Arizona?

I hope and pray my musings about this whole thing prove to be false and the outcome of this exercise is enlightening and helpful to the American people and particularly to Christians. This is not an easy year to pick a president. There’s plenty to worry about on both sides. Still, my greatest concern is for the man in the middle, Pastor Rick Warren. He may be “Purpose Driven,” but this may prove not to be his purpose.

I, for one, will be praying for the whole affair. May God redeem it in the end for His purpose alone.