On August 16 at Saddleback Church in California, Pastor Rick Warren did an overall good job of facilitating questions to candidates McCain and Obama about a ride range of issues.  In the media, the clear winners of the evening were McCain and Warren.  Warren would be a strong choice to moderate another debate in the fall instead of a traditional news anchor. 

The trouble was that Warren sounded at times too much like a traditional news anchor.  He asked too many questions about abortion, the Supreme Court and American foreign policy that allowed the candidates to give their well prepared stump speeches.  We don’t need Warren to ask traditional questions.  The best moments of the debate were when Warren asked unusual questions, such as about difficult moral choices, moral mistakes the candidates had made, the appearance of evil in the world and the three people they'd rely on to help them make decisions.  Those were questions Warren had a unique perspective on.  I wish he had focused solely on non traditional questions and allowed his status as moral leader to drive the candidates to bear their souls for a full hour.