In the last poll I heard about, 39% of Americans responded they would vote for McCain, 39% for Obama, and the rest were undecided. I'm still one of the latter. But I watched something today that every Christian American should watch before going to vote in this presidential election: the Presidential Forum at Saddleback Church. Why is it so special? Because it's unbiased. It's not a debate, but an interview conducted by Pastor Rick Warren, first with Obama and then with McCain. The same questions. About the major issues that concern the Christian community. Honest talk from the candidates themselves, from a faith-based perspective.
Why you shouldn't watch it. It's too long. It is 10 youtube videos of just under 10 minutes each. Why take all that time when someone at work, or some biased ad or video posted by the opposing party can tell you everything you need to know? Because you want to vote intelligently.
If you already know you will vote Democrat no matter what, watch it anyway. If you already know you will vote Republican no matter what, watch it anyway. If you haven't decided, just watch it. You will be glad you did.
I don't care who you vote for. I really don't. I just want to see us become a nation that votes with intelligence. A nation that knows how to discern truth from fiction from someone's opinion. A nation able to think and analyze information on our own without being vulnerable to deceptive leading. And a Christian body that prays for God's will, not our own, and entrusts the final vote count to Him.
If you'll watch this video, whether it changes your mind or not, it will change your heart. You will agree with both men. You will disagree with both men. You will like, respect, and appreciate both men. The Republican one, the Democrat one, the black one, the white one, the older one, the younger one. Then you can vote for the one you have chosen, without hatred for the half of America whose votes will oppose yours. And then maybe, just maybe, no matter which candidate wins the election to become President of the United States, you will not feel like all is lost, but that at least the 2nd best candidate won!
I am praying for the candidate that God chooses to be put in the White House.
I voted for Bush because I did not seek God's instructions and against my husband's wishes. I voted because I was told he is a Christian. The thing is only God really knows what is in our hearts. We can say whatever we need to say to win votes. It's like a marriage, you only get to know a greater percent of the person after living with them for a while, and sometimes even then, you still don't really know what is in their hearts.
God knows the beginning from the end. My prayer is that He put up whomever He will and take down whoever He will, in the name of my precious Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, Amen. That is my take on the whole issue.
I am finding more and more that the media, for the most part, are driving sound bite items that make it almost impossible to know who these people really are who want to run our government. These are some of the best interviews I have heard and they shed some good light on topics important to most of us who call ourselves followers of the Christ.
On another, but similar note, I would personally like to see them set aside the campaign for a couple of weeks and go help the Congress get some legislating done...this has been one of the worst performing Congress's ever and now they are faced with decisions that will impact us as a nation forever. These people, who would be president, should be involved in these decisions, IMHO.
Kathy, can't tell ya how much I appreciate you posting these links. I missed the orig broadcasts (if they were even broadcasted at all), but wanted to see them badly. Now I can catch all 10 parts at my convenience, what a perk!
Nicely put Kathy and great advice. I for one believe in God's gift to us all, free will. I will exercise that gift and vote my conscience and not claim is His will who the next President is. Yet I will say that along with His give of free will to me, also gave me enough wisdom to make decisions that are in accordance to His commandments and the way He expect us to life up to His gifts to us.
Well said Kathy (as usual) :). Like I've learned in my friendships and marriage, a person's real character and heart are shown in times of trials and tribulations.
Well ,Voice I see they did set aside the campaigning for a minute to pay attention to what is happening to our nation and I am grateful for that. Kathy, I saw this when it first aired and was grateful that someone finally put an unbiased tape on for us to see the actual person instead of just the Democratic or Republican nominee.
It did not change my vote, however it did open my eyes to the other candidate running and learning something I didn't know about that that person. I am so TIRED of all of the media hype, opinions, etc,etc,etc.
As in everything that I do I will ask the Holy Spirit to guide me in my decision and like you I pray that this country makes an intelligent choice instead of going on emotions...
Bravo, Kathy! I agree with you 100%! Our job as Christians, and citizens of this country, is to make informed decisions, without regard to race, religion, gender, or any other bias. Having dealt with small scale politics, I can attest to the fact that sometimes we let our emotions override our common sense. I sincerely hope that voters will take their responsibility very seriously, then accept the outcome with grace and dignity, vowing to support whoever becomes the leader of our great nation. The only true loser will be our country if we fail to pull together in these troubled times, instead of creating dissension and animosity. I keep both candidates in my prayers, and pray that whoever wins, God will guide them to make sound decisions and lead us in the right direction. God bless, BK
Excellent, Pastor Tim! Some great advice in attempting to get to the truth. You are right that it can be a daunting task, and that even the media lean to one side or the other. I catch myself almost daily listening to some radio program and feeling a leaning toward one side. Then I remind myself "Of course I'm leaning that way. Look what station I'm listening to!" It's so predictable!
Marcia said: "We can say whatever we need to say to win votes." Another good point that has to be weighed. What are they really promising, how does it match with their past record, and how doable is the promise? "My prayer is that He put up whomever He will and take down whoever He will." Amen, Marcia!
Voice, you are right! We are being "sound bitten" to death! And those ridiculous alarmist videos that are being passed around to millions at a time, and people are believing them!
Doyle said: "I vote for the person not the party!" I'm with you on that, Doyle! God did not create either political party. Neither is perfect, and neither is evil. As a matter of fact, if Obama and McCain were running together, I'd feel pretty good about their combined gifts and experience!
Mike, you'll love them! Caleb, may we all use the wisdom God has given us! Not lazily resting on what others tell us about the candidates (including videos, blogs, etc.), but taking the time to listen to and read all we can straight from them! God gave us so much more intelligence than we generally ever exercise!
Thanks, Carol! Great to see you! Mary said: "I am so TIRED of all of the media hype, opinions, etc,etc,etc.As in everything that I do I will ask the Holy Spirit to guide me in my decision and like you I pray that this country makes an intelligent choice instead of going on emotions." Amen, Mary! Excellent, Brenda Kay! Thank you for your wisdom! I apologize for all the choppy comments in a row! I posted them all on one comment, and it wouldn't hold the spaces between them. A temporary bug hopefully!
OK, Kathy I got to see some other videos (your fault, lol) and got lots of laughs on the "cone of silence" issue. I missed that whole issue when it happened. It showed me that even people like Pastor Warren would use such props even if they are not accurate in their statements. So again, only One is perfect!
Good idea dear Saint of God, Marti and I watched all of it What I found was that Senator Obama spoke what we would consider his understanding of what is true. While Senator McCain said what was expected of him to say. As a Life long Republican This year I will cast my first vote for a Democrat. Our Best hope. In my humble opinion. Cheers and our prayers dear Sister. Denis & Marti O'Callaghan
Obama is a RACIST..... Proven He is a Marxist, proven by his voting and his his writings.
What has he ever done but sign his name 6000 times on bills that everone else
His City of Chicago has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and he can not even do that. He cant fix his own city.
WHAT has he ever done except hate and hang out with people who hate, Bill Ayers Anyone that votes for Obama is about as ill informed and STUPID as the day is long. Have any of you read cap and trade? He is for it and it would destroy the economy. I hope he drops dead. He is that evil.
LOL Wyatt! I think you are a full-blooded Republican! As usual, each party seems to be calling its own victory, although I've had one Republican friend and one Democrat friend call it a draw! I thought both candidates had a good debate and I really have no interest in calling anyone a winner. For me, a debate is a chance to get know the candidates better. The winner will be determined in November! I agree with you that there were many "soundbites" in the debate, and much that was repeated from earlier speeches, but that makes perfect sense to me. First, they are talking about the same issues repeatedly, and we expect them to be consistent on their own positions. Second, the debate was not scripted, so it's natural that they had been anticipating what kinds of questions would come up and practicing their responses. McCain came across to me as a little less scripted, although he seems to really like his Miss Congeniality line! :) I see a lot to like in both candidates, and still have concerns on both sides. It's great to see you, Wyatt!
Michael Medved recently interviewed David Freddoso, author of “The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate.”
Michael Medved: What’s the most important thing people don’t know about Barack Obama?
David Freddoso: The carefully-crafted media image of Senator Obama as a reformer is a great lie. There is, in fact, nothing in his career to point to him as someone who bridges partisan divides for the sack of positive change. This is quite clear from his record in how he’s dealt with the machine politics of Chicago, how he’s essentially served as an enabler of some extremely corrupt politicians in that city, how he has championed the same old systemic corrupt arrangements that have existed in Washington, and existed in Springfield, and in Chicago, including the various forms of corporate welfare, the special advantages that certain lobbyists seek. Senator Obama has been right in the center of that for his entire career. There is so many cases of it. The pattern is completely unmistakable and I lay them all out in “The Case Against Barack Obama.”
Medved: What is surprising to me is you talk about Barack Obama’s deep and extremely sleazy involvement with the worst of the machine politicians and yet some of the reformers, some of the leading reformers—people like former congressman and federal Judge Abner Mikva who are known as reformers—kind of adopted him. Why?
Freddoso: Well, they took a liking to him. Part of it has to do with the ties that he had in High Park, and in fact they talked Emil Jones, the state Senate president, into adopting him. There is one piece of campaign finance legislation that had been written by and proposed by someone else that ended up given to Obama basically because of a conversation that occurred between Mickva and Jones who is the state Senate president in Illinois. So you can see, nonetheless, that when reformers run an election in Chicago, Senator Obama tends to endorse the other guy, he doesn’t endorse the reformers. This was clearest, as I point out in the first chapter, in a race that was very high profile that took place in 2006. So this is also a very recent phenomenon; this isn’t something from his distant past.
Medved: What about the idea of Obama as a far left candidate rather than a unifier? When did he start this conversation about him being a man of the center, somebody who is going to bring everyone together? When did he cease his identity as being somebody who is on the edge?
Freddoso: Well, you know another one of his biographers, David Mendell, refers to Obama’s charming lack of specificity. So this is something people in Chicago have noticed for quite a while—that he is able to talk about issues as though he’s taking everybody’s side. And people want to listen to him. They kind of want to believe and, as Obama himself says in “The Audacity of Hope,” he becomes something of a blank screen onto which everyone projects their own views and they all want to see him and think he agrees with them. Or, even if he doesn’t agree with them, he would be open to hearing their point of view.
In fact, when you look at Obama’s legislative record he’s really not terribly ideologically open minded. He tends to take a position that is at the far left and stick to it even when members of his own party, even when other liberals aren’t willing to follow him there. I mean one famous example that everyone knows about from this campaign is when he talked about meeting without pre-condition with world leaders of terrorists states. That was something that even his supporters like Tom Daschle couldn’t get behind, and of course Hillary Clinton didn’t agree with that, but also Joe Biden—people with a little more experience in foreign policy weren’t willing to follow him there.
Another terrific example of that, which I think is maybe the most dramatic of his career, was when he was the only Illinois senator in 2001 to speak against a bill that would have protected premature babies from being left to die after they’ve survived abortions. That was one of the very few times that Senator Obama took a really hard position that could hurt him politically and he did it for the sake of a very, very, very extreme abortion agenda that even such abortion advocates as Barbara Boxer were unable to support when the same bill came in front of her in the Unites State Senate. She gave a speech saying “I hope this [the Born Alive Infant Protection Act] passes unanimously”—and she voted for it and it did pass unanimously. So, Senator Obama definitely has an ideological, a rigid ideological view of just about every issue that you can think of.
PERAPGA, You have copied a post between a conservative talk show host and a conservative reporter who do not like the Democrats' candidate. No surprise. I wonder if you have had time to watch or read some unbiased material as well, like the debate Friday night, or the Saddleback interviews that this blog is about. I suspect your mind is made up, and there's nothing wrong with that, but some of the alarmist propaganda being passed around about Obama is playing on our vulnerability. If McCain is the best man for the Office, may he win the election, and likewise for Obama, and may we not fall for or perpetuate lies about either candidate. (This response is also posted on my Obama blog.)
I watched this forum on Daystar ! I agree with you whole heartedly every one should see it. I even had my boyfriend go to daystar.com and watch the live feed.
I don't vote party line. I vote Pro-Life. And only one candidate is pro-life -- John McCain.
The is the economy, the war, energy and drilling, health care -- all important issues. Neither candidate will have solutions to all these problems.
But the MOST important issue is the sanctity of human life. If you don't get this one right, I don't care what your views on the other topics might be. I VOTE PRO LIFE !!
Hi Christi! Welcome to MyChurch! Although I personally can't agree that the abortion issue is the most important issue in this election, above our critical economic situation and the war in Iraq . . ., I am sure you will find much agreement in the MyChurch community. I'm glad you're here!
Heavenly Father, the election is near, and your children are divided. Show up at the polls, and cast your decisive ballot in this election. Trump all our votes, and bring victory to the man who will lead our nation and make world-shaping decisions in a way that most pleases you. You alone are all-knowing and all-powerful. You alone can see the true hearts and minds behind all the politics. I will trust in You. I will trust in You. I will trust in You.
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