I think I've been wrong about Rick Warren and may owe him an apology.

I accused Warren beforehand of soft-balling questions to presidential candidates at the Saddleback forum.

But he did not. His "at what point does a baby get human rights" query to Barack Obama was simple yet expertly phrased and elicited an answer that may have cost Obama the election.

I've also accused Warren of being one of those whom we've been told is a new breed of evangelical -- moving the abortion battle down their list of priorities in lieu of sexier wars to wage, like AIDs in Africa.

It appears I was duped by liberals and MSM. In this week's World magazine...

And what frustrating misconceptions by his secular observers would Warren like to correct?

At the top of that list... is "that the expansion of the evangelical agenda doesn't mean a rejection of what we've held all along."

Many in the mainstream media - including the Aug. 18 Time cover story - have made it a point in recent months to speculate that evangelicals are replacing "sin issues" like abortion and homosexual marriage with more trendy challenges.

Warren shows his irritation at such either-or positioning. "If I believe that life begins at conception, which I do believe because of Psalm 139, I'm not going to walk away from that for [the issues of] poverty, disease, and illiteracy.... I want the secularist to know that just because we're adding other issues does not mean that we're walking away from the biblical truth and the moral positions we've held all these past years....

I was also heartened by the WSJ column I posted yesterday, "Obama is losing support among moderate evangelicals." My read is that these evangelicals weren't moderate at all, just duped for a time by Obama's Jesus talk.

The possibility that Obama may sink on the issue of abortion, that evangelicals and our leaders are still as committed to the sanctity of life as ever, and McCain's pick of Palin has made this a good week. I am encouraged. This all may be fleeting, but I'm savoring the moment.

I'm not sure of a question to formulate. Perhaps just asking your thoughts on all this will have to do.

[Photo courtesy of Getty]

The new poll question is up:

Has the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's VP changed your vote?

Last week I asked what was your take on McCain's pick of Palin...

Bearing in mind Vizu only tracks the most recent 500 votes, it appears liberals sandbagged early votes but conservatives rallied. Internationals appear not to be impressed by Palin...

As always, make comments to either this or last week's poll here, not on the Vizu website.