Rick Warren to Hold 'Presidential Forum' With Obama, Romney
Rick Warren, best-selling author and head pastor of Saddleback Church, will hold another "presidential forum" with President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. His 2008 forum with Obama and John McCain was well regarded for its civility and for offering insights into the candidates' character and issue positions.
The purpose of the upcoming forum is "to promote social civility so that people with major disagreements [can] talk without beating each other up," Warren told Fox News.
Warren has been in touch with both campaigns to finalize a date and is currently looking at the week of Aug. 20-24, which would be just a week before the Republican National Committee's convention and two weeks before the Democratic National Committee's convention.
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At the 2008 forum, Warren interviewed each candidate separately while the other candidate was off-stage and unable to hear the questions. Warren expects this year's forum to have the same format.
In 2008, Warren asked both candidates, "What's been your greatest moral failure?"
McCain answered that it was the failure of his first marriage. Obama talked about his difficult childhood and experimenting with drugs, which he acknowledged was the result of his own selfishness.
Both candidates also talked about their Christian faith and what it meant to them.
Obama said, "Jesus Christ died for my sins, and ... I am redeemed through him."
McCain said his Christian faith means that he is "saved and forgiven," and recounted a story of when he was a prisoner in Vietnam and realized that one of his guards was a fellow Christian.
In one of the most memorable moments of the 2008 forum, Obama was asked, "At what point does a baby get human rights?"
Instead of answering that question, Obama spoke to his view on when life begins and said the question was "above my pay grade."
(Read Rick Warren: Obama's Answer Not Clear Enough)
Warren, who had worked with Obama before he became a candidate for president, gave the invocation during Obama's 2009 inauguration.
