August 19, 2008

Suffice it to say that I was not very hopeful about the Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency held at the California megachurch last Saturday night.  In the first place, I am not really comfortable with the idea of hosting such a politically charged event in a church.  No matter how the event is planned and projected, once the event starts it can turn into something far more politically volatile than planned.  That is a truth I have learned by hard experience.

Secondly, the advance publicity about the event touted it as a platform for a kind of "third way" movement that would avoid the serious worldview issues and would instead limit the conversation to vague generalities.  A good many media reports suggested that Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain would be asked only "soft" questions that would demonstrate common ground and agreement between the candidates.  That would be an exercise in wasted time and a squandered opportunity.

Thirdly, I was concerned that Pastor Rick Warren, the moderator of the event, would be reduced by the format to the role of a therapist or spiritual guru.  Like all of us, Rick Warren likes to be liked, and being liked by two of the most famous political figures in the world is quite an achievement.  Yet, if Rick Warren was to fulfill his role in moderating and leading these conversations, he would have to risk being liked a bit less. Maybe even a lot less.

With the press pushing the event as a "new face" for American evangelicals, I was not overly hopeful.  Given the hype, I was positively unhopeful.  But . . . the event turned to be quite worthwhile after all.  I still have deep reservations about identifying the event so closely with a church, but the conversations really did get to urgently important and controversial issues, and Pastor Rick Warren handled the conversations with aplomb, demonstrating both civility and candor.

Pastor Warren's questions ranged from the deeply personal to the overtly controversial.  He often asked questions that made it difficult for the candidates to avoid giving direct and revealing answers.  He let the candidates speak for themselves.

He asked about their greatest moral failure.  Obama spoke of drug and alcohol use as a young person.  McCain referred directly to the failure of his first marriage.  When asked about the reality of evil, the two candidates revealed very different approaches.  When asked about abortion and same-sex marriage, a great chasm appeared between the candidates.  Obama declared his complete support for the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion on demand.  When asked, "at what point does a baby get human rights?" Obama said that the question "is above my pay grade."  That is a particularly evasive answer, because the President of the United States must frame policies that are predicated on some assumption of when a human being, born or unborn, deserves the full protection of the law.