America was founded on Judeo-Christian beliefs.

Question: Are you worried about the prospect of a Mormon president?

Rick Warren: America was founded by Judeo-Christian beliefs. But we are a pluralistic society. We do not believe in separation of faith and politics. We do believe in separation of church and state.

Those are two different issues. You cannot separate faith and politics, because faith is simply a worldview. You have a Christian worldview, or you have a dozen different Christian worldviews. Or you have a dozen different Jewish worldviews. Or a dozen different Muslim worldviews, okay? Not all Muslims are alike. Not all secularists are alike. All humanists are not alike, and that’s the worldview.

So nobody can say, “Well I’m not going to let my worldview affect my decisions.” Of course it will. A secularist will let his secular worldview influence his decision. So it’s simply ingenuous and not honest to say that my faith or my worldview will not affect my leadership. It will.

And when you vote for a candidate, you’re voting for their worldview also. Now the thing about America is, nobody wins all the time. I think that’s a good thing, you know? And the fact is, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. And it works on the area of if I got my way all the time, well then I’m sure I’d get it wrong on some stuff. And so the checks and balances are a good thing.

Recorded on: December 11, 2007