Saddleback megachurch pastor Rick Warren was recently quoted in an CNN interview saying,
I don’t think it’s right for pastors to endorse [a political candidate] in the first place,
when asked if he thinks presidential candidate John McCain was right to disavow controversial pastors Rod Parsley and John Hagee. He added,
I would never endorse a candidate. I would never campaign for a candidate … I think as a pastor my role is to pastor all the flock regardless of their political persuasion, so I wouldn’t have wanted endorsements anyways.
Warren, however, is inviting both McCain and Barack Obama to his highly-anticipated leadership and compassion forum on 16 Aug, to answer questions about faith and moral issues such as poverty, HIV/AIDS, climate change and human rights.
I believe in the separation of church and state, but I do not believe in the separation of faith and politics because faith is simply a worldview and everybody’s got a worldview … We make our decisions based on our values, based on our worldview so I think it’s entirely appropriate for America to say not only what is your faith – whether it is in Christ or someone else – but what is your worldview because that is going to influence how we live in the next four year,
In terms of how evangelicals will vote this year, Warren expressed that they are not monolithic and are open to both Democratic and Republican candidates.
I do think that a lot of people, not just evangelicals, have reserved judgments. I think a lot of America hasn’t made up its mind yet between these two candidates and I’m hoping that this forum will allow these two guys (McCain and Obama) to speak for themselves without an interpreter or any spin on it.
Read the full article here.
http://christianpost.com/article/20080729/rick-warren-pastors-shouldn-t-endorse-politicians.htm
by Michelle A. Vu, Christian Post
29 Jul 2008
Pastor snags Obama, McCain for joint appearance
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/22/warren.qa/
CNN, 22 Jul 2008
