Obama defends choice of evangelical pastor

Lowery's biography reads like a history of the civil rights movement.

As a young pastor in 1950s Alabama, he helped lead the Montgomery bus boycotts. With the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others, Lowery created the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which anchored the national civil rights movement. In 1965, Lowery played a key role in the bloody, pivotal Selma-Montgomery March. He led a delegation of marchers presenting their demands to then-segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace.

Lowery, a Methodist, expanded his agenda in later years to fight poverty, stop violence and end apartheid. In 2006, he drew criticism — and a standing ovation — at Coretta Scott King's funeral by condemning the Iraq war and poverty in the U.S. as Bush looked on.

Warren, 54, has become the most prominent clergyman of his generation.

His Saddleback Community Church in Orange County, Calif., has grown to more than 22,000 worshippers each week. His book, "The Purpose Driven Life" is one of the best-selling books in the world, with more than 30 million copies sold. He is mobilizing churches around the globe to fight poverty and illiteracy through his P.E.A.C.E coalition.

Last month, he joined forces with Reader's Digest Association Inc., to launch a multimedia juggernaut based on his "Purpose Driven" writing. He and his wife, Kay, have become leading advocates for people with HIV/AIDS. On Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, the Warrens gave Bush an award for creating a multimillion-dollar U.S. fund to combat the virus.

With Warren, "Obama shows he is willing to work with a new breed of evangelical and kind of move beyond the tired figures associated with the religious right," said Randall Balmer, a Barnard College professor of religious history and author of "God in the White House."

In August, before the party conventions, Warren hosted Obama and Republican presidential nominee John McCain at Saddleback, quizzing them separately on issues ranging from personal failures to Supreme Court justices. Obama's campaign had done extensive religious outreach. But he hurt his appeal to churchgoing voters when Warren asked when a baby gets human rights. Obama said it was "above his pay grade" to answer "with specificity."

Still, Obama and Warren, who does not make political endorsements, are friendly, and the two men pray together.

"It's nice to see a conservative evangelical pastor play such a prominent role in such an important event," said Tom Minnery, a senior vice president at Focus on the Family, which has fiercely criticized Obama over his support for abortion rights and other issues. "I think what it does is it underscores the importance of evangelicalism in the country."

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