The Saddleback Church “civil forum” on Saturday struck the right balance between church and state and is a worthy model for pastors and individual Christians who wish to dabble in the politics of the kingdom of this world. Warren, who announced in advance that he serves another kingdom, also made it clear he is friends with both men.

I have been amused at a few on the far-right who denounced Warren because he didn’t live down to their expectations. The Pharisees had the same attitude concerning Jesus. — They wondered how Jesus could keep company with “sinners” when, if He were from God, he would naturally want to associate with the fundamentalists of His day.

Warren avoided “gotcha” questions and by doing so was able to extract more insight and information about the world view of the two candidates than most journalists would have a prayer of doing.

By not seeming to favor either candidate and by asking mostly the same questions of each candidate, he performed a useful service to voters, to his country and even to that other kingdom from which all authority comes.

I would like to see more of these forums and fewer of the phony “debates,” which are not debates at all. Perhaps future election cycles will produce more of them. If they do, Rick Warren will have created a kind of “purpose driven” politics.

Saturday’s presidential candidates forum, moderated by Pastor Rick Warren, gave me a number of new reasons to believe John McCain may beat Barack Obama in the 2008 race for the White House, a race Obama’s party has every reason to win.

But first, congratulations are in order for Pastor Rick Warren, whom I am honored to call a friend. His questions were fair, concise (what a relief!), and important. He managed to get the candidates to reveal their differences on important issues in a way that has not been done before.

And Pastor Warren’s function as “Values-Inquisitor-in-Chief” reminded all of us that while a certain separation of church and state is very good for our republic, it is dangerous and un-American to advocate for the divorce of religiously motivated moral values from politics. The candidates proved this in their own words by explaining how their religious and moral values shape their policy proposals.

Before Saturday’s event, most analysts agreed the forum at Saddleback Church was the perfect venue for Obama to break into McCain’s considerable advantage among evangelical voters. He would be on their turf and could talk their language—beautifully, of course—and that would be enough.

How wrong they were.

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By Betsy Newmark
High School History and Government Teacher/Blogger

Claire McCaskill appeared on “FOX News Sunday” as a spokeswoman for the Obama campaign. There have been a few murmurings about McCaskill as a vice presidential running mate because she supported Obama early and is a woman. Well, her performance yesterday indicates why she would be a poor choice.

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