The Battle of the Megachurches

Ring Announcer: "And in the red corner, from Riverside, CA, weighing in at 40,000+ live attendees for each of three nights At Anaheim Stadium, plus an indeterminate number of radio and TV viewers - HARVEST CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP AND THE HARVEST CRUSADE! "


*wild applause*


"And in the blue corner, from Lake Forest, CA, weighing in at 5,000 live attendees including some of whom paid $2,000 to be there to snooze to the old, cranky and crotchety John McCain or bask in the aura of the kind, compassionate and caring Obamessiah, plus a live cable audience of millions and untold more in broadcast excerpts - SADDLEBACK CHURCH AND THE CIVIL FORM ON COMPASSION AND LEADERSHIP!"


*tepid clapping*

In terms of real impact on their local communities, I'd have to give this match to Harvest by a first round knockout.

Of course, this isn't a real battle and the churches aren't in competition with each other for audience. Both events have their purpose and goals (though I'm still not sure what, if anything, we're going to learn from Saddleback's event given the carefully scripted nature of the answers I expect to hear from McCain and Obama). Saddleback will get all the publicity, but at the end of the day, Harvest will change lives.

(Saddleback fans - don't get mad at me. I know that Saddleback Church is responsible for millions of changed lives too, but they're not going to do it this weekend with this high profile event.)

Let me make a TV ratings prediction. They haven't announced which candidate will go first at the Forum, but if it's McCain, ratings will spike at the beginning of the broadcast, tail off rapidly only to spike again at the beginning of the 2nd hour. Ratings will remain fairly high for the rest of the show.

If Obama goes first, ratings will spike at the beginning and remain there until Obama completes his turn, at which point the ratings will dive into MSNBC territory. Since the candidates will never appear together, there won't be much crossover between each candidate's fans.