by Josh, Boston College Pastor Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA, hosted a forum for the presidential candidates on Saturday night. Senator Obama responded to questions about his was world-view, faith, family, and the future direction of our nation. Pastor Warren's opened with, "who are the three wisest people you know in your life, and who are you going to rely on heavily in your administration?" Senator Obama answered with several names (seemingly unrelated to one another), including his wife, Michelle, former Senator Sam Nunn, Senator Dick Lugar, Senator Ted Kennedy, and Senator Tom Coburn as some voices he'd look forward to hearing as President:
"What I found is very helpful to me is to have a table where a lot of different points of view are represented, and where I can sit and poke and prod and ask them questions, so that any blind spots I have or predispositions that I have, that my assumptions are challenged. And I think that that’s extraordinarily important."
He made sure the audience knew that his wife was the one to always call him out on a boneheaded mistake. That sense of working together and listening to solve important problems continued throughout the rest of Senator Obama's time with Pastor Warren. When asked about America's greatest moral failure, Senator Obama replied:
"I think America’s greatest moral failure in my lifetime has been that we still don’t abide by that basic precept in Matthew that whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me, and that notion of — that basic principle applies to poverty. It applies to racism and sexism. It applies to, you know, not having — not thinking about providing ladders of opportunity for people to get into the middle class. There’s a pervasive sense, I think, that this country, as wealthy and powerful as we are, still don’t spend enough time thinking about the least of us."
Senator Obama also included the idea of empathy and working together when describing what his Christianity meant to him:
"But what it also means, I think, is a sense of obligation to embrace not just words, but through deeds, the expectations, I think, that god has for us. And that means thinking about the least of these. It means acting — well, acting justly, and loving mercy, and walking humbly with our god. And that — I think trying to apply those lessons on a daily basis, knowing that you’re going to fall a little bit short each day, and then being able to kind of take note and saying, well, that didn’t quite work out the way I think it should have, but maybe I can get a little bit better. It gives me the confidence to try things, including things like running for president, where you’re going to screw up once in a while."
The Saddleback Forum on Saturday allowed Senator Obama the chance to speak to the faith community across America, and emphasize the role of faith in his particular spiritual journey and how that faith might influence his public policy as President.
It is important to bear in mind the differences between us and those we disagree with, we must try to follow the Senator's example in trying to have a open, honest dialogue about our views. It's only through discussion and debate that we will come to know others as equally concerned citizens and not as people who are pursuing a radical agenda that we don't agree with. Pastor Warren urged the audience to find a way to disagree with out demonizing the other side. I think that is something we should all strive for.
For a full transcript of the exchange click here.
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