The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Will Rick Warren Give Obama a Pass on Abortion?

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The Spectacle Blog

Will Rick Warren Give Obama a Pass on Abortion?

By Hunter Baker on 8.16.08 @ 1:57AM

Tomorrow, Rick Warren will host John McCain and Barack Obama for a candidate forum at his megachurch in California. Warren is famous for authoring the towering bestseller The Purpose-Driven Life and for his activism in Africa in favor of AIDS victims.

For reasons I spelled out in a post at Redstate, I've always admired him, but I'm worried he'll let Obama go without challenging his support for a broad abortion license and for infanticide.

Here's a short excerpt:

There is much to be said for rising above partisan politics. After all, the church is on a mission from God to all the earth. It is emphatically not intended to be a tool for either one of the political parties. We are after bigger game than a balanced budget, the right kind of welfare state, or term limits. We seek redemption for a world we believe has lost its way.

However, there are certain issues that demand the church's involvement, issues of basic justice, issues of life and death. Perhaps the least ambiguous of those issues is the protection of babies throughout pregnancy and immediately after birth. We live in a culture that, strangely, acts as though unborn children are like genies that can be stuffed back into the bottle. We know that isn't true. We know that abortions end with little piles of bloody flesh and bone. Fetuses don't merely cease to exist. They experience violent physical death.

topics:
John McCain, Barack Obama, Abortion, Africa