Rick Warren cancels his Presidential Forum

Well, we won't have a Christian debate with Rick Warren this year. The megachurch leader has called off the presidential forum because of the negative campaigning between the two candidates.

But there are other reasons:

"It appears that the event was canceled because neither the Romney nor Obama campaigns thought it was in their interest to do," the strategist continued, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a delicate political matter.

A source close to the Romney campaign said that the former Massachusetts governor hadn't planned on attending Warren's event: “We were never going, ever. We offered to do a video.”

During the 2008 election, Warren played host to both major party candidates at his Saddleback Church in Southern California, in what he called Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency.

Warren told the Orange County Register this week that this year's civil forum had been scheduled to take place this week and that there was interest from both campaigns and from the media.

This is no big loss. Their 'religious' views should not be the focus anyway... Moving on.

Rick Warren?? ... Ugh ...

Lovingly stolen from DCup at Politits.

Jerry Falwell in a Hawaiin Shirt

I've been mulling over the Pastor Rick Warren brouhaha. Why does it bother me? Well, in case you missed it, here's an excellent explanation by Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State on Countdown last night.

I love what Melissa at Shakesville has to say about it. (h/t Quaker Dave) I especially love what she says about expansion of rights versus the limitation of rights. This has always been the difference between liberalism and conservatism in my view. Because susan-brightside is absolutely correct in the comments on this post. We need to get this separation of church and state thing right. Now.