Rick Warren, Pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church, recently conducted one hour interviews with presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain. In between the interviews the candidates actually shared the stage with Warren briefly.
Depending on where you fall on the spectrum between faith or no faith you probably either really appreciated this moment in American political life, or really didn’t. I, for one, did. But others feel that the job of interviewing candidates should be left to the journalists amongst us, who are trained to do the job “objectively.”
I think Warren did such a good job in the interview because he is NOT a journalist, but a pastor. He set up an environment of civility and conversation (and had the moral authority to do so), and asked the candidates the same questions so that we got to see a real comparison. It was because he has relationships with men and has earned their friendship that he was in a position to do so. I’m not saying that a journalist couldn’t do it better, just that a journalist hasn’t yet. I personally don’t care what “professional” credentials a question-asker has. If they are good questions, they are good questions. Period. And sometimes the best questions come from the person in the room who hasn’t been “trained” to know what the “right” question is.
Second, as a person who is concerned about poverty, pollution, war, poor health (both care and habits), etc. I would have to say there are few individuals who have made a more practical, personal and profound contribution to these problems than one Rick Warren (have you heard of the PEACE plan?), and there are no groups who have made a greater contribution to solving these issues than Christians, precisely BECAUSE they are followers of Christ. It seems if a critic were objective, they would at least say, “I have to hand it to these evangelicals…no one is putting more time and money up than they are to solve the world’s problems. I just wish they wouldn’t interview the presidential candidates and let the people who are talking about the problems but not doing much to solve them ask the questions around here.”
It is inaccurate to assert that those with faith have less objectivity than those without. Everyone has a world view. It’s just nice to know sometimes what a person’s is, particularly when they are running for president. I think it was G.K. Chesterton who said “Atheism is the most daring of all dogmas because it is the assertion of a universal negative.” Some of the most biased and close-minded people I’ve met have been irreligious, and some have been religious. Rick Warren, however, seemed to strike a good balance in probing for values in a non-religious way.
