Just a reminder that you can see Rick Warren test Obama and McCain from his Saddleback Church tonight (16th) on MSNBC 8-10pm. This must be a Right Wing affair because Catholics, Jews and other religions are not being represented.

Should both Obama and McCain have said no to Warren? Why wasn't a Jewish rabbi, Catholic priest, Islamic repsentative not invited to test the candidates? What about other reps in their religions? What does Warren hope to gain from testing each candidate? And as this is a history making event in politics and religion, will it be a continued part of future decision making for presidential hopefuls?

Just from the onset I see this as merely another ploy of the Right Wing evangelicals(Fundamentalists-Extremists) to get an assured place in either party. But the utmost priority is their defeating Obama. Is Warren their hitman? And I see both Obama and McCain's agreement to such non-separation of church and state as handing over the rights of citizens in their freedom from religion (in this case freedom from the Right Wing religion) and creating a new standardized form to be catered to in the future.

Your observations or thoughts on the matter?

My thoughts? Doesn't bother me at all that they would agree to this venue. However, I will have a problem if another religious leader with similar influence makes a similar request and they turn it down or the media refuses to give it similar coverage. (Don't forget, however, the media is out to make money, so I think MSNBC's main reason for covering this event is advertising revenue.)

Ah, remember the good old days when polititions just had to kiss sticky babies.

I think this test is creepy beyond all belief. Creepy and sickening. If they fail they lose 70 million votes - if they win they have sold out on truth and courage.

It was courageous of Obama to walk into that fundy church!

Do you think McCain was playing to the choir when he said he'd appoint Supreme Court justices who would BAN abortion?

I didn't watch it. I resent the idea of fundegelicals and their power trip.

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The news clips I'm seeing indicate that it was shallow and ridiculous.

So.....no point in watching.

No point in watching ANY of the political news, is there?

Trying to predict the outcome is hopeless, so we just wait, vote for Obama and hope for the best.

Pax!

Rick Warren charged $500-2000 per ticket to attend the forum, and it was limited to church members.

I agree jedi. I didn't watch it. Foolishness!

Sola, the days of kissing sticky babies is history. From now on we'll see the advanced kissing Right Wing ass strategy.

And yes, it is creepy and sickening. Stinks to high heaven as the saying goes.

If you watched closely, did you note the joyous enthusiaism of the Right Wingnuts when McCain suddenly jumped track and said he'd follow BL into hell to kill him? The man has a psychotic streak in death.

Did you note how the cameras swung to the Right capturing all the tear filled eyes as their hero McCain played on his Vietnam experience? And I thought the Right Wingers would absolutely just die in their seats when McCain called on the name of their God, Ronald Reagan. These Right Wing extremists just can't get over their worship of Ronnie. So McCain played to their sacrilege, their hypocrisy, their death cult mentality. And the body language of Warren was in devotion to McCain's willinginess to please the Right.

So what it amounted to was a setup, imo. A setup to show that McCain was a better Christian than Obama. Even so much so as to show that Obama didn't even qualify to be "a Christian". ( Doesn't everyone know that his background is Islamic? )

Now, how much money is Warren putting into the HIV/AIDS problem in Rwanda? How many children has the Right Wing adopted into their "family"? His 23 million+ in book sales, this money being tax free cash in his pocket, plus all the millions he receives from his members, he should have lots of billions to speed the health of the Rwandans along. But does he have a health care plan that covers his church membership, all 20,000+ members? If not why not?

But he's wanting tax dollars from people who do not even believe his religion, and that he can control and spend on his pet projects, not to mention he wants to hire only Right Wing Christians while using those tax-payer funds. What's wrong with this picture? Maybe no accountability under religion? It's amazing what these Right Wing Christians will try to get by with. Don't they know that pick-pocketing is a dangerous career choice? "If thy Right hand offends thee, cut it off and cast it from thee". And the prophet said, "there will be pick-pockets" among you as there were pick-pockets among the prophets before you."