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The power of the evangelical vote in the U.S. was made clear last weekend as American presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama made their first joint campaign appearance at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in California on 16 August. The televised event was part of the Saddleback Civil Forum on Leadership and Compassion and saw the candidates speak candidly about their faith and how they would go about leading the U.S.
Unlike a typical debate format in which the opposing candidates spar over various issues with a moderator controlling the time, the Civil Forum allowed each man an hour to answer questions from Mr Warren with no other interruptions. The two candidates responded to various questions such as “What was your greatest moral failure?” and “Why do you want to be president?”
Both Obama, a Democrat, and McCain, a Republican, have been wooing religious voters in this election season. Evangelicals have largely voted Republican since the 1980s but are now becoming more fractured as the evangelical political agenda has broadened from abortion and homosexuality to issues such as poverty, global disease and the environment. At the same time social conservatives have been hesitant to embrace McCain. Discussion of faith and values on both sides has risen to unprecedented levels, as evangelicals account for a quarter of the voting population in the U.S. and politicians realise the importance of addressing the concerns of this large voting bloc.
Mr Warren’s church is one of the largest megachurches in the U.S., and he is increasingly looked to as a leading voice in public affairs for the evangelical centre. He said, “The primaries proved that Americans care deeply about the faith, values, character and leadership convictions of candidates as much as they do about the issues.”
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Times: McCain and Obama reach Christian voters with sex and drugs
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Independent: Sex, drugs and regrets - the battle for the Christian vote
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