Rick Warren making sense November 13, 2007
Posted by Zack in Missouri , trackbackThis is from a couple weeks ago, but I just saw it. This is a really interesting watch. It makes me wonder—what would happen if Obama went all out for the Evangelical vote, not by changing any of his positions, but by speaking to them on the issues he shares with them: U.S. and global poverty, HIV/AIDS, health care, fixing education…
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Now, Im pretty familiar with Rick Warren, his purpose driven model and some of what he does out at Saddleback. I am not normally one to agree 100 percent with the guy on all fronts, however; man he hit the nail on the head!
Zach thanks for bringing this up! Its so refreshing to hear someone who isnt worried about what the “evangelicals” will say.
Now on to your take on the video. Obama I think would be pretty wise to take up some of the other issues and highlight/explain his position on them, such as AIDS, poverty, education etc. However, Im not 100 percent sure that ALL evangelicals would vote for him, even if those all matched up. There are a couple of reasons for it: 1. He’s democrat, hate to say it but for some conservative Christians they have been “trained” to vote only republican blindly. 2. His abortion stance, like it or not that it is a big hang up for alot of people I know in the Christian community. and lastly 3. Not alot of people that evangelicals trust are endorsing him, or just even casting him in a positive light ie, Dobson, Fallwell, take your pick.
Is that unfair?! Sure! Should Christians only vote for whom Dobson tells them to? NO absolutely not, I think in this election you will see a shift for evangelicals, where lots more will be crossing party lines, or at the very least voting on their own. However, will it be a big enough shift for it to make a difference in the outcome? Hard to say but I would probably say no, NOT YET.
Zack, keep up the good work! Thanks for that!
I liked what Warren had to say about the relative impotence of politics. If you want to really cause meaningful change, you need to operate upstream of politics. That’s why I’m training to be a pastor.
It also seems to me that many of us who follow politics closely often forget this lesson. We think there needs to be a political solution to everything. If there’s poverty - the government should do something. If people don’t have health care - the government should provide it. If schools are broken - the government should give more money. And since the government holds the answer to all of our problems, picking the right elected officials, especially the President, becomes all important. If we really want to fix the problems in society we need act ourselves instead of leaving it that mysterious all-powerful entity known as “the government.” (And by act I mean do something more than voting for someone who says they will fix the problem.)