UNITED STATES:Pastor Rick Warren's astonishing influence is evident in a campaign coup - a McCain/Obama joint appearance, writes Duke Helfandin Lake Forest, California
WHEN JOHN McCain and Barack Obama appear on the same stage today at the sprawling religious campus of Saddleback Church, their presence will vividly underline the reach that has made pastor Rick Warren among the most significant evangelists of his generation.
But the joint appearance - one of Warren's highest-profile endeavours - also will underscore a tension that is central to his role.
Warren has been called perhaps "America's most influential pastor", an evangelical megastar who leads the nation's fourth-largest church, influences thousands of ministers and crusades against poverty and Aids. That globe-trotting work - and his successful book, The Purpose Driven Life - have propelled him into the vanguard of a movement that inspires young and socially conscious Christians.
But Warren's willingness to soft-pedal political issues once central to US evangelicals, such as opposition to abortion, has opened him to criticism that he has strayed from his calling to spread the Gospel.
Both fans and critics will be watching closely when Warren hosts the two contenders at his complex in Lake Forest, home to 22,000 weekend worshippers.
The presumptive nominees will make a brief joint appearance, their first of the campaign, and Warren will interview each separately about the constitution, poverty, Aids, human rights and other subjects.
"America has a choice. It's not between a stud and a dud this year," Warren says. "Both of these men care about America. My job is to let them share their views."
In 2004, nearly eight in 10 white evangelicals supported Bush. They accounted for a third of the president's total votes. In a poll of registered voters last month, McCain led Obama 67 per cent to 25 per cent among white evangelical Protestants. Obama's campaign is hoping to entice young more liberal evangelicals.
Many evangelicals believe that Warren's growing profile, and his willingness to welcome Obama to his pulpit, are evidence that he has emerged as the most pivotal figure in US evangelicalism.
The 54-year-old, they say, is emblematic of a new breed of evangelicals who put social justice ahead of partisan politics.
"He's a guy whose message has met the right moment," said Richard Land, a leading authority with the Southern Baptist Convention, the denomination to which Warren's church belongs.
Warren said that three Republican and three Democratic presidential candidates contacted him during the primaries: "You know that I never endorse, nor campaign for, political candidates.
"Neither is it my role to give political advice. But I am a cultural observer and I do understand the unique stresses and responsibilities of public leadership, so I try to help leaders when asked."
But detractors see Warren as a spiritual entrepreneur who has built his religious empire on what they call generic self-help ideas found in his book. "For many evangelical leaders, Rick Warren is either a little too naive or a little too shrewd," said the Rev Rob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council, a Washington Christian lobby group.
"He is threatening to water down the essential message of evangelical Christianity," Schenck said. "And that is what causes people to grow a little insecure and concerned, and maybe even disconcerted."
Warren faced criticism in 2006 when Obama spoke at his church for a global Aids summit. Last year Hillary Clinton appeared at another Aids conference at the church.
"Jesus told us to love our neighbour," Warren says, "even if they don't agree with you." With that message Warren has built a formidable religious network.
His church features nine types of weekend services, including one in the cavernous "worship centre", with seating for about 3,000 and Warren's image beamed on jumbo screens.
More than 180,000 church leaders subscribe to his weekly "ministry toolbox" e-mail.
The Purpose Driven Life, published in 2002, helped create this reach.
"It's not about you," Warren writes in the opening of the book, which has sold 35 million copies. "The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfilment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness . . . If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God."
Warren now wants to mobilise one billion Christians to attack what he calls "five global giants": spiritual emptiness, corrupt leadership, poverty, disease and illiteracy. His church has dispatched more than 7,000 volunteers to dozens of developing countries.
Warren is playing an increasingly prominent role on the international stage. Tony Blair is scheduled to speak at Saddleback Church next month. And Warren plans to visit Kenya, at the invitation of its parliament, to conduct a training session.
His growing portfolio has attracted criticism.
"It's not our business to make friends with all of the political leaders of the world," said Bob DeWaay, an evangelical minister from Minnesota. "We have a message about how people get right with God, not about how the world is going to get rid of its problems," DeWaay said.
Warren insists that he is doing God's work, if on a scale that most churches can only imagine.
"As a pastor, if you love people, they will follow you," he said. "I believe that Jesus Christ changes lives."
- (LA Times-Washington Post service)