Columnist Jesse Jackson
At his Saddleback Church presidential forum, Pastor Rick Warren posed the same questions – grounded in his evangelical faith – to each candidate. Barack Obama was thoughtful; John McCain punchy. Not surprisingly, the pundits mostly gave the “edge” to McCain.
The Bible defines faith as the “substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things unseen.” Pastor Warren was seeking to reveal the public manifestation – in policy – of the private faith of these candidates.
One of his initial questions was to ask each candidate what he thought was the “greatest moral failure of America.”
Obama invoked a central teaching of the Christian faith. “We still don’t abide by that basic precept in Matthew that whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me.”
His political advisors were probably feeling their ulcers. Concern for “the least of these” may be at the center of Christian teaching, but it is virtually unmentionable among the political pros, who believe talking about the poor will have voters holding onto their wallets.
McCain, in contrast, chose simply to spoon out the thin gruel of the career politician: “Throughout our existence, perhaps we have not devoted ourselves to causes greater than our self-interest, although we’ve been at the best at it of everybody in the world.” (sic)
America’s greatest moral failing is something we are more moral about than everybody in the world? Real gutsy, Senator.
Later, Pastor Warren asked whether evil exists in this world and what we should do about it.
“Evil does exist,” said Obama, seeing it “in Darfur,” and “sadly on the streets of our cities,” or “in parents who viciously abuse their children.” It has to be confronted, he said, and we can all be soldiers in that effort.
But he cautioned, it is “very important for us to have some humility in how we approach the issue of confronting evil, because a lot of evil has been perpetrated based on the claim that we were trying to confront evil.”
McCain stuck with his talking points. “One, if I’m president of the United States, my friends, if I have to follow him to the gates of hell, I will get bin Laden and bring him to justice. We are facing the transcendent challenges of the 21st century – radical Islamic extremism.”
Obama understands that evil is something that must be confronted each day. It isn’t eradicated by killing bin Laden. He understands that humility is vital if we are not to become what we most despise.
For McCain, there is only an evil enemy, requiring endless fighting “throughout the world.”
The forum was revealing. We learned that maturity isn’t simply a matter of age, that zealotry is not the measure of faith.