Saturday, August 16, 2008

Obama, McCain Quizzed on Faith and Values Issues

On Saturday evening, Pastor Rick Warren held his Saddleback Forum at which he interviewed both Barack Obama and John McCain on issues of concern to faith and values voters. Warren posed the same questions to each of the candidates-- giving each one hour on national television time. CNN and ABC, among others, report on the forum. Among a wide range of questions, Warren asked each candidate about his own personal Christian faith. (See prior related posting.)

Meanwhile a letter to Barack Obama, initiated by Rabbi Michael Lerner and signed by 140 members of the clergy, urges Obama not to move to the political center. The full text of the letter, included in a Los Angeles Times article today, reads in part: "We are writing you ... not as your election strategists, but as people of faith whose primary allegiance is to be prophetic witnesses to the ethical vision articulated in the holy texts of our religion and the elaboration of those religious traditions over the course of the past two thousand years."

UPDATE: The full transcript of the Saddleback Forum is now available online.