I’m a Warren fan, voting for McCain, disagree with but don’t dislike Obama. I’ll be gone while this happens but I’m opening up the discussion now.
Btw, does anyone just not like the idea of them meeting with Warren?
This link just happened to be among the first Googled up, but I thought a lot of Dopers might appreciate it being The New Republic…
Anyone care about separation of church and state. Churches that get involved in politics should lose their tax exemptions.
Not a Christian, here, not in the classical sense, anyway. The fact that Rick Warren is inclines me toward distrusting him, when matters of public policy are involved, however tangentially. The papers seem to be treating this tete-a-tete as a pretty benign exercise, but ever since I first heard about it, I’ve thought that the most fortuitous thing that could happen for Senator Obama is to have all of the tires in his motorcade mysteriously blow out before they head down to Orange County.
No. As long as no endorsement is given, there is no reason that candidates can’t interact with clergy.
Can’t imagine why I wouldn’t.
Why? Are they under new management as of sometime in the past few weeks?
And is this being televised, or YouTubed after the fact, or are transcripts being posted somewhere? Would be nice to know what’s actually being said in this conversation, or set of conversations.
If evangelicals and other Christians who take their faith seriously are actually watching this, I think it’ll be a great opportunity for Obama. McCain may have all the right positions on all the right culture-war issues, but hell, Michael Moore probably has greater spiritual depth than McCain, whose main faith story is of when someone else showed a cross to him.
Obama, on the other hand, has both the intellectual and the spiritual depth to get past topics that there are five verses about in the Bible, get to the heart of the Gospel message, and relate it to the things he stands for.
I’ll look forward to hearing how this comes out.
I think Warren is a tool for selling tickets for (reportedly) up to $2000 each to celebs, high-powered types and the like, when his own parishioners were completely shut out. This was after his statements about how this was an opportunity for the candidates to meet with and answer questions from “real Christian folks.”
Okay, I’ll admit that I think he’s a tool in general, too.
His statement on the “church & state” separation was pretty funny- he argued that while church and state should be separate, “faith” and state are completely entwined. 
Nope, it’s not a matter of separation of church and state directly. But it is a case of electioneering, pandering, and angling for votes from the part of the electorate that cares ( right wing / conservatives / Christian right/ whatever term). If one of them were to have refused this audience with this self-appointed pope, he’d be trashed by that big part of the voting public. And, possibly, lose some votes from the undecided, mushy middle - causing big problems for someone hoping to win this thing.
CNN 5-7PM Eastern Time. I set my DVR.
I guess I don’t know why Obama would want to be part of a Republican infomercial. He already got tricked into being in a Hilary infomercial in the primary “debate”. You’d think he’d learn.
Obama, I fear, has been coopted by the campaign industry. Independence of thought and creativity have to be put on hold for a while, apparently.
Warren, on the CBS news last night, seemed to have a sincere interest in his religion being centered on more than just abortion or the ten commandments in schools. Stuff like helping the needy, etc. He could have just been bullshitting, I guess.
I don’t know if this is a good idea for the candidates, but it seems to that they have equal shots at pissing off somebody, and I don’t see it as necessarily being a Republican forum. Sometimes people forget that many of the good points about religion are reflected in Democratic stances. Stuff like helping the needy, etc. I say go for it.
My TV schedule says 8-10 PM Eastern time (which would be 5-7 Pacific time).
Cite?
Btw, Warren’s been raked over the coals before for having a AIDS form in which Obama participated.
My guess is bullshitting. Warren’s Saddleback Church isn’t just a megachurch- it’s a neighborhood. Seriously. It is a multi-million dollar complex (like probably in the hundreds) with maybe a dozen structures, parking, retail, the whole nine yards. Old Warren must feel pretty needy, what with everything he’s done for himself… :dubious:
http://totalbuzz.freedomblogging.com/2008/08/13/mccain-and-obama-visit-saddleback-ticket-confusion/
Found it. A bit more complicated than stated.
One memo from Pastor Rick himself-
Though, it doesn’t list how man will be available to parishioners. Also, the church “only” has about 22,000 members, but the bigger number looks good- attendees might only mean single-visit folks.
Here’s a local story about ticket distribution, and from the same website-
But hey- it’s his business, he should be able to conduct it however he sees fit.
8-10 PM EDT on CNN and MSNBC. Pre-Game programming on MSNBC from 5-8 EDT.
ETA: Equal time to both. Obama is religious, McCain is not. What’s not to like? Obama has nothing to lose.
Yes, you are right. I did the conversion the wrong way. :smack:
Unless Warren is going to sandbag Obama (and I don’t think that he is), this is a winner for him. McCain’s a phony Christian with serious moral deficiencies, while Obama can recite chapter and verse. I predict McCain will have carefully memorized certain pasages, but will use them in inappropriate ways.
But John McCain is a member of the North Phoenix Baptist Church, so he must be religious, right?
Right?