North Texas church to hold presidential forum

The national spotlight will shine Sunday on Prestonwood Baptist as the church holds a presidential forum.

Prestonwood's pastor, Jack Graham, sees this as a most crucial election, saying America is at a tipping point, and says the voice of the church community must be heard in the choice of the nation's next president.

Graham says 70 percent of those who identify themselves as evangelical Christians did not vote in the last presidential election.

While he doesn’t know why, he knows that he doesn’t want that to happen again.

“The church has a responsibility certainly as a prophetic voice to the community,” said Graham. “…Because an educated, informed voter will make a good decision.”

Candidates will have time to speak and will then be interviewed by Pastor Graham.

“That’s gonna be a long list a list a variety of different subjects for each different candidate; not the same question for each candidate,” said Graham.

Sen. Ted Cruz, former senator Rick Santorum, Carly Fiorina, former governors Mike Huckabee and Jeb Bush are all confirmed, along with Dr. Ben Carson.

“No real Donald Trump?” said FOX 4’s Shaun Rabb.

“Donald Trump decided not to come,” said Graham. “We're disappointed in that. We hoped that he would come. We're disappointed that Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton didn't come. We invited them because this is a non-partisan event…we care deeply about the family and issues regarding marriage and the family, but we also care about issues of justice and wealth and poverty and racial reconciliation. We care about the Middle East and terrorism and whether America is safer and can be safer.”

“Is there a role and responsibility for the church?” said Rabb.

“It’s our responsibility to be salt and light as Christians in the world,” said Graham. “We shouldn't just be preaching to the choir or preaching to ourselves. That’s the prophetic voice of the church in society, in culture…because we're all concerned about the increasing secularism, life without God in America.”

Graham says equally important is the makeup of the man or woman who would be president.

“We want to know among these candidates who endorses our views, our values and the things that we care so deeply about,” said Graham. “Not crossing lines. Again, we're not talking about endorsing candidates here, but educating voters.”

Graham says he is using his voice to call evangelicals to engage again in the political process and he hopes it begins with Sunday’s forum.