A Christian political activist says a popular California pastor is missing a good opportunity to confront President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger.
Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California has canceled a civil forum that would have featured President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney. The Orange County Register reports that Warren canceled the event because of the uncivil discourse between the Obama and Romney campaigns.
But Lawrence Hebron of the Alliance of Christian Patriots thinks the pastor is making a mistake.
"He created the civil forums to promote civility, Pastor Warren said. But what better way to promote civility than to address the issue head-to-head with its worst offenders? It has been said that a good pastor comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. One of the most important functions of a pastor is to confront and change bad behavior," Hebron contends. "If Warren believes that these two influential people are misbehaving, it seems like he is missing a good opportunity to confront these two candidates face-to-face and challenge them to do better."
Warren's event, which would have been the second presidential forum, would have given each candidate 50 minutes with the California pastor. In 2008, Warren hosted his first-ever presidential forum with then-Senators John McCain and Barack Obama.