Wooing the evangelicals
22 July 2008 by Stardust 
Get ready for more Gawd talk and praising Jeebus from the candidates in coming weeks and months and stock up on plenty of antacid and Pepto Bismol. We are all going to need it.
McCain, Obama to participate in church forum
LAKE FOREST, Calif. - Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama will participate next month in a question-and-answer forum at Saddleback Church, Pastor Rick Warren said Monday.
Warren, who oversees the 22,000-member congregation, will question the presidential candidates on Aug. 16 during the church’s Saddleback Civil Forum on Leadership and Compassion.
Joshua DuBois, Obama’s director of religious affairs, said the senator was “looking forward to going back to Saddleback with his good friend Pastor Rick Warren.” Obama spoke at Saddleback in 2006.
Warren said the candidates didn’t want a debate format but rather the two-hour forum. The candidates are expected to appear together briefly before each takes questions from Warren for about an hour. A coin toss determined that Obama will go first.
Warren is the author of “The Purpose Driven Life.”
At least, however, Warren doesn’t seem as big of a whackadoo as Huckabee and Hagee. Warren is actually working to help people as stated on his website:
As a global strategist , Dr. Warren advises leaders in the public, private, and faith sectors on leadership development, poverty, health, education, and faith in culture. He has been invited to speak at the United Nations, the World Economic Forum in Davos, the African Union, the Council on Foreign Relations, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, TIME’s Global Health Summit, and numerous congresses around the world. TIME magazine named him one of “15 World Leaders Who Mattered Most in 2004” and in 2005 one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World.” Also, in 2005 U.S. News & World Report named him one of “ America’s 25 Best Leaders”.
When will people see the the real “faith” belongs in human endeavor? We can accomplish much if we just rid ourselves of the religion obstacle and believe in each other and humankind.
22 July 2008, on 8:31 am
Gee, I wonder what thought provoking questions Rick Warren will ask? Maybe he’ll use some of the wonderful questions at the end of the chapters of his book, such as…
Why did Gawd make us to last forever? What are you doing to prepare for eternity? Do you know anyone who has already gone on to heaven?
This will be a hoot, he’s just as wacky as the rest! (Lol, the Porpoise Driven Life… ok that was an easy one… )
22 July 2008, on 8:50 am
Warren is actually working to help people
I beg to differ. This guy is interested in political power. Frankly, I can deal with people like Hagee because he’s so polarizing. Warren, on the other hand, scares the crap out of me.
“Man shall not be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.” Meslier
22 July 2008, on 9:08 am
I will give Warren props for one thing, he’s the driving force behind that group of evangelicals who are working to open people’s eyes to the reality of global warming. Those his motive may be more along the lines of proper stewardship of the natural, created world which Gob gave them dominion over, the actions are the correct ones.
And, yes, as I’ve had to explain before, this will be a great big schmooze fest dedicated to wooing the demented fuckwits. The relatively reasonable religious(R3) are already pretty solidly with Obama. C-C-Cain’s natural base, the abovementioned fuckwits, however, have threatened mutiny over both the reality of the supposedly evangelical Bush administration and C-c-Cain talking out of both sides of his mouth- denouncing Falwell while embracing Hagee, etc. While the garden variety fundie will not be in play, Warren’s crowd may.
This is politics 2008. We may not like it but we are stuck with it for the moment. Cue calls for Obama to denounce all forms of religion and shit on a stack of Bibles, Torahs, and Qurans- sprinkled with delicious crushed eucharist in 5…4…3…..
22 July 2008, on 9:49 am
I demand Obama supply PZ Myers a consecrated cracker. Otherwise, I’ll vote Nader.
22 July 2008, on 12:10 pm
Too bad both of these candy-dates wouldn’t appear (after, of course, a HUGE organized Infidel email request “surge”) with the atheist “Four Horsemen” in a televised Infidel “Town Hall” setting.
I’d love to hear either of these delusionals have a debate on Religion, with say…Hitchens, frn’stance…without, of course, getting sidetracked with Hitch’s views on the Iraq War.
Opening scene…
[Moderator (PZ Meyers?)]:
“Let’s all Just try to stick…as strictly as possible…to the subject of “Cosmology”, folks!”
“Jeebus Crackers and plenty of the beverage of your choice will be served…AFTER the debate.”
“Bongs, and plenty of psychedelic drugs, are also available on that picnic table in the NE corner of the room”.
OK…maybe that last script suggestion might be a bit over the top.
22 July 2008, on 12:17 pm
Too bad both of these candy-dates wouldn’t appear (after, of course, a HUGE organized Infidel email request “surge”) with the atheist “Four Horsemen” in a televised Infidel “Town Hall” setting.
That’ll be the day! No candidate will ever “change” that much (nor even consider the idea).
“Jeebus Crackers and plenty of the beverage of your choice will be served…AFTER the debate.”
You got it! God botherers love those donuts and cookies after the services, too. Coffee cake and such. Maybe a nice pot luck of mayonnaise-laden side dishes.
22 July 2008, on 7:23 pm
“God botherers love those donuts and cookies after the services, too.”
They really help to cleanse the palate of that nagging, 2000 year-old flesh aftertaste, don’t ya know. Talk about your aged beef…
22 July 2008, on 10:38 pm
I love it!!! Which candidate can fit more of the religeous right’s dick in their mouth.
23 July 2008, on 11:12 am
And even more sucking up is in the news:
Lieberman praises pastor repudiated by McCain
I have heard other Xians use this made-up excuse for the Holocaust and I asked them why their god just didn’t create Israel in the first place? Or does this god love bloodshed, murder and violence just too much?
23 July 2008, on 7:04 pm
Creating Israel by means of a holocaust is exactly how a psychotic deity would git ‘er done.
24 July 2008, on 1:35 pm
After murdering so many jewish folks, did gob then create israel so he could get on with the business of murdering arab folks? Did he get bored? Or did he just feel he hadn’t spread enough of his special brand of “love” to the middle east yet?
Is the message then “gob is murder but it’s ok because it’s all part of the plan” ?
I think we have all achieved deity-ship in that we are now morally superior to gob.
24 July 2008, on 4:42 pm
^RAmen, Ourlady! If regular human beings like you and me can come up with better master plans for the universe and everything (i.e., ones that don’t involve mass torture and bloodshed), then we really are better than “God.”
Which would seem to be a clue to anyone with a decent command of reason that “god(s)” are really just human inventions - but there ya go…
25 July 2008, on 11:27 am
The news today published the paper that Obama wrote on and stuck in the magical wall in Jerusalem a few days ago. He wrote:
IMO, Obama is far more a believer than GW is. Obama is sincere in his sky daddy beliefs. Let’s hope his god is more intelligent and peace-loving than GWs.