Word: pastoralism
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Watching Barack Obama and John McCain handle pastor Rick Warren's questions about abortion, you could see the whole presidential race in miniature taking shape before our eyes. The clear answer beats the clever one any time ... unless you worry about the chaos that clarity can bring...
...sign of how seriously Americans take religion that the first general-election meeting between Barack Obama and John McCain will take place not in a university auditorium, with network news anchors as moderators, but in the sanctuary of an Evangelical megachurch with a Southern Baptist pastor playing the role of interrogator. For two hours on Saturday evening, the two presumptive presidential nominees will field questions on policy issues, character and faith (consecutively, not debating each other) from Rick Warren at his Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif...
...most part, they don't separate religion from the political sphere. In those same polls, 70% of Americans say they want their President to be a person of faith. For Obama and McCain, an evening spent discussing matters of faith with the country's most popular Evangelical author and pastor would seem a relatively easy way to get that particular ticket punched...
...Warren may not aspire to global mogulhood, but he is clearly near giddy over occupying a globetrotting-catalyst status normally reserved for ex-Presidents. If he no longer wants to be the official pastor of the Republican Party, that's in part because he needs support from both parties for his various world projects. His new willingness to embrace causes regardless of their political implications places him firmly in the movement of New Evangelicalism, which remains socially conservative but has opinions on, say, Christianity in China that don't align with either political party...
...problem - it's a moral problem. There's a hole in that young man's heart. Solving problems like this will require changes in government policy, but it will also require a change in hearts and a change in minds. That's a lesson that friends of mine like Pastor Rick Warren and Bishop T.D. Jakes know well...