What's so "pressing" on your schedule Sen. McCain?
My hat-tip to Kevin Tracy for making me aware of this … I really needed something to irritate me this afternoon!
So, here’s the scoop:
The Compassion Forum
Messiah College has been selected to host The Compassion Forum, an unprecedented bipartisan presidential candidate forum dedicated to discussing pressing moral issues that bridge ideological divides within our nation. Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama have accepted the invitation to participate in the Forum. Senator John McCain has thus far declined the invitation, which is still open. The Compassion Forum is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Sunday, April 13, in Brubaker Auditorium, and will be covered by mainstream media and religious media outlets alike. CNN is the exclusive broadcaster of The Compassion Forum and will televise and stream the event live from 8-9:30 p.m.
The Compassion Forum will provide the opportunity for candidates to discuss how their faith and moral convictions bear on their positions on these important issues. (details)
Just in case you missed it in the above, let me repeat it for you:
Senator John McCain has thus far declined the invitation!!
Well now, isn’t that special?
You need to re-arrange your schedule Senator and get yourself to Pennsylvania on April 13th. Mike Huckabee would have been there and Obama and Clinton would have been very, very worried about it.
Even less willing to vote for John McCain.
OneMom
Compassion issues aren’t working for McCain right now, he’s barely had time to recover from getting booed at the Martin Luther King speech. But considering that he was just recovering from having to do damage control about callous statements on the home mortgage crisis, McCain responded to the boos with better-than-normal control of his temper, not repeating such past speaking mistakes as calling a teenaged questioner “you little jerk”.
I still remember how Mike Huckabee showed up for the 2007 Tavis Smiley Republican All-American Presidential Forum when McCain, Romney, Thompson, and Giuliani didn’t. A real leader and uniter, Mike Huckabee.
Messiah College is affiliated with the small evangelical Brethren in Christ denomination which has a long history as one of the historic “peace” (conscientious objectors to taking part in warfare).
denominations. They have combined elements of the Pietist, Anabaptist, Wesleyan movements. While I am not affiliated with this small denomination and do not agree with all their viewpoints of both past and present, I do appreciate their historical devotion to Christ and the Scriptures and to devout living.
My comments on the “Compassion Forum” to be held at Messiah College and which apparently will receive national attention as a forum at an Evangelical college are from my perspective of one who has long generally identified with the conservative political/cultural specturm and particularly with the great moral/social issues of the religious right such as represented by Dr. James Dobson. (I became active in the Right to Life movement in 1972 and have been involved with other issues both before and since that time.)
I tend to see this upcoming forum with the presence of the two very liberal Democrat presidential candiates as another opportunity for the liberal-humanistic-socialist left to further seduce elements of evangelical Christianity into the orbit of issues promoted by the Democrat party and a quiet abandoment of committment to both Christian orthodoxy in doctrine and practice. I think this has been going on in some of the mega churches where pastors are afraid to take a Biblically “prophetic” message and want to be more accepted by the powers and zeitgeist of our times. This compromise toward the evangelical “left” seems to be rather prominent in the so-called
“emerging” church. It is all somewhat a repetition of the history of the late 19th and early 20th century when old mainline evangelical denominations of that time became engaged in both denial of essential Biblical Christian doctrines and in the promotion of a social gospel that often left behind the basic essentials of the Christian faith.
With all the above said, I do not know if it really matters all that much whether John McCain is or is not present at this “Compassion Forum”.
Senator McCain, while certainly superior in his voting record to Obama or Clinton, has never in his life or political career shown any special concern for either Biblical doctrines or Biblical ethics and values. He has never been (and I don’t think would be at this forum)
a Republican Party spokesman for the values that religious or social conservatives hold important.
Although I have been a supporter of Mike Huckabee since August 2007 and was an active volunteer in the Iowa caucuses, I sometimes thought that Governor Huckabee compromised too much with some of the “liberal” views of our times, including what I see as the bogus
“global warming” issue. With all this said, I certainly wish that Governor Mike Huckabee were the Republican presidential nominee.
I think he would attend this forum at Messiah College and for the most part represent both Biblical and common sense conservative views.
Mccain finds it ridiculously hard to say or do anything that may declare the hand of his spiritual identiy…
It’s puzzling, because even the democrats can do it for ‘political’ expediency… you’d think he could ‘fake it’ if he had to for the GOP.
His apparent terror about placing himself in a place where he will have to confront God expectations of him, smacks to me of a Jonah experience.
He apparently attends a large baptist church in phoenix, so he knows the truth.. we know that the Word will not return void.
He needs to stop running.
Wow, wow, wow, after viewing the video of McCain’s questioning Petraeus, maybe McCain’s just trying not to talk period. For him, that’d be a good idea. . He suggested Al-Qaeda was Shi’ite and that it was a “sect.” Shocking, just shocking. Obama, as much as I dislike him, asked very incisive questions. It’s a good thing Huckabee only suspended his campaign, McCain is speaking incoherently again, perhaps he is not well.
Hi Onemom -
I may be wrong, but if my memory serves me correctly, McCain has bailed out on every “Christian” sponsored debate. Remember the one with Mike and the rest of the presidential candidates in Florida last year, McCain just didn’t show up! I think this is more about his dislike of the “religious” right then it is about a scheduling conflict.
On the question of Mike suspending his campaign. If something were to happen to McCain and he wasn’t able to continue on, could Mike step back in?
Remaining Steadfast,
Dominique
Hey OneMom -
Just wanted to let you know I added you to my favorite blogs on my website!
Thanks Dominique. I added you earlier today as well.
Amazing, McCain in trying to wiggle out of his ignorant statements at the Petraeus hearing, went on Fox today and made it worse! He said “the Sunni and al-Qaeda are closely related” and that al-Qaeda’s not “just a sect.” Seeing as how Huckabee’s teleconference is hosted by Stephen Strang, might I suggest that McCain would do well to request instruction from one of the author’s whose books are put out by a Strang company (Frontline)–Mark A. Gabriel, who not only possesses in-depth knowledge (Al-Azhar degreed) and personal experience (ex-Muslim imam in Egypt), but who is brilliant in ability to convey it to the average layperson. Perhaps McCain should start with Gabriel’s “Journey Into the Mind of an Islamic Terrorist.” He needs to get up to speed before the debates!
Dominique beat me to it.
I was going to point out the Values Voter Debate last year, the one that Giuliani, McCain, Romney, and Thompson couldn’t be bothered to attend. Ron Paul showed up and took the challenge of answering some hard questions, but the people who take social voters for granted couldn’t be bothered.
I’m looking at Gene Amondson, maybe Joe Schriner right now. I know they won’t win, but at least I’ll feel good about having voted for someone I actually respect.
Wickle – Bob Barr is another possibility. I’m doing some research on him now (former rep. congressman from Georgia, seeking the Libertarian nomination for President) … he is most definitely pro-life. Hoping to do a post on him next week sometime.
“Compassion” as expressed by our elected “representatives” is soooooo over-rated.
onemom- Not Bob Barr! He co-sponsored the Defense of Marriage Act to protect that sanctity of marriage, but he’s been married 3 times! He says he is anti-abortion, but he supported his (then) wife’s decision to have an abortion! He is a hypocrite.
Tammy, I have heard those things, but I am still researching as two sites I have found so far claim the liberal site “Mother Jones” as their source (hardly trustworthy). Also, the DOMA is to protect marriage between a man and a woman, it doesn’t mention divorce. I am not saying I like that he has been married 3 times, just that the DOMA can’t really be used in that discussion.
I’d also have to check into his three marriages. I’m actually married for the second time, and I don’t think that my stand on lifetime marriage is any the weaker for it (but maybe that’s a topic for my own blog, not OneMom’s comments section).
The abortion does bother me. If he’s trying to pull a Romney on us, I’m not buying, but if his “support” was acknowledging that he couldn’t, ultimately, force his wife to do something, then that might be a different story.
Wickle – yes, the marriage thing can’t be the bottom line for me. I am after all my husband’s second wife (he never wanted a divorce, but alas that is a tale for another time perhaps). The abortion is tough, and I’m not sure if we’re going to be able to glean out the truth on that one. Truly much more research is needed.