I watched Rick Warren’s forum with Barack Obama and John McCain the other night. I agreed with both on different issues, and found a lot of their responses telling. When Warren asked Obama how he stood on abortion, he said he was pro-choice, but made the following comment. “One of the things that I’ve always said is that on this particular issue, if you believe that life begins at conception, then — and you are consistent in that belief, then I can’t argue with you on that, because that is a core issue of faith for you.” I’m one of those individuals who believes in the sanctity of human life from conception, and I’ve spent the last few years trying to work out in my own belief what that means beyond the singular issue of abortion.
That inner-struggle is played out in the question on evil and responses by both presidential candidates. In this case I find Obama’s response much more founded on Christian beliefs than McCain’s.
WARREN: Does evil exist? And if it does, do we ignore it? Do we negotiate with it? Do we contain it? Do we defeat it?
OBAMA: Evil does exist. I mean, I think we see evil all the time. We see evil in Darfur. We see evil, sadly, on the streets of our cities. We see evil in parents who viciously abuse their children. I think it has to be confronted. It has to be confronted squarely, and one of the things that I strongly believe is that, now, we are not going to, as individuals, be able to erase evil from the world. That is God’s task, but we can be soldiers in that process, and we can confront it when we see it.
Now, the one thing that I think is very important is for to us have some humility in how we approach the issue of confronting evil, because a lot of evil’s been perpetrated based on the claim that we were trying to confront evil.
[WARREN: In the name of good.]
In the name of good, and I think, you know, one thing that’s very important is having some humility in recognizing that just because we think that our intentions are good, doesn’t always mean that we’re going to be doing good.
Now here’s John McCain’s response to Warren’s question:
MCCAIN: Defeat it. A couple of 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. I will do that. And I know how to do that. I will get that done. (APPLAUSE). No one, no one should be allowed to take thousands of American — innocent American lives.
Of course, evil must be defeated. My friends, we are facing the transcended challenge of the 21st century — radical Islamic extremism.
Not long ago in Baghdad, al Qaeda took two young women who were mentally disabled, and put suicide vests on them, sent them into a marketplace and, by remote control, detonated those suicide vests. If that isn’t evil, you have to tell me what is. And we’re going to defeat this evil. And the central battleground according to David Petraeus and Osama bin Laden is the battle, is Baghdad, Mosul, Basra and Iraq and we are winning and succeeding and our troops will come home with honor and with victory and not in defeat. And that’s what’s happening.
And we have — and we face this threat throughout the world. It’s not just in Iraq. It’s not just in Afghanistan. Our intelligence people tell us al Qaeda continues to try to establish cells here in the United States of America. My friends, we must face this challenge. We can face this challenge. And we must totally defeat it, and we’re in a long struggle. But when I’m around, the young men and women who are serving this nation in uniform, I have no doubt, none.
What really stands out to me is Obama’s assertion that America can do evil, whereas McCain focuses almost wholly on Islam and “those people over there.” Obama brings up humility, and false righteousness in an effort to battle evil, reminding us that evil has been perpetrated in the name of good. McCain wholeheartedly guarantees that he will hunt down Osama bin Laden if he has to chase him to the gates of hell. There’s a huge gap between the worldviews of Obama and McCain. In this case I think Obama gave the more intelligent, thoughtful, and Christian response.
by Joe Kennedy
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