Last night both candidates appeared on the same stage together for the first time during this campaign. Well, they were only actually together for a few seconds. But then they took turns to be interviewed by Rick Warren, the founder and pastor of Saddleback Church in California. Saddleback isn't any old church. It's the most prominent of the new 'megachurches'; the Saddleback congregation numbers 22,000. Warren and his church represent the future of mainstream Evangelical Christianity in America.
As you can see below, Warren - who has sold over 25 million books - is no Jerry Falwell. He's not a demagogue. He doesn't preach hell fire, or declare that gays and liberals are God's enemies. He's not even remotely angry. He's more like an affable geography teacher than a televangelist. He projects reasonableness and good will and talks about how it's important not to demonise people you disagree with.
Warren is undoubtedly a social conservative. He's implacably anti-abortion and opposes gay marriage, for instance. But his instincts are consensual. Most significantly, he believes his church shouldn't have party political affiliations - that it should welcome people from across the political spectrum.
He's the embodiment of a transformation in American Evangelicalism that some argue spells long-term decline for the Republican Party.
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