"How do we respond to evil in the world?"

Rick Warren at Saddleback Church

When asked the same question, Obama replied:

Evil does exist. I think we see evil all the time. We see evil in Darfur. We see evil -- sadly -- on the streets of our cities. We see evil in parents who viciously abuse their children. And I think it has to be confronted. It has to be confronted squarely. And one of the things that I strongly believe is that we are not going to -- as individuals -- be able to erase evil from the world. That is God's task. But we can be soldiers in that process. And we can confront it when we see it.

Now, the one thing that I think is very important is for us to have some humility in how we approach the issue of confronting evil. Because a lot of evil has been perpetrated based on the claim that we were trying to confront evil. (Warren: "in the name of good.") In the name of good. And I think one thing that's very important is having some humility in recognizing that just because we think our intentions are good doesn't mean we are going to be doing good.