Obama, McCain vie to win religious votes

LAKE FOREST, California (Reuters) - Barack Obama cited his youthful experimentation with drugs and John McCain noted his failed first marriage as their greatest moral failings on Saturday at a forum on faith that both U.S. presidential candidates used to appeal to religious voters.

Democrat Obama and Republican McCain met briefly on stage between their respective appearances at the forum hosted by evangelical pastor Rick Warren, an opportunity for both candidates to reach out to religious voters who will be a key voting bloc in the November election.

"I had a difficult youth," Obama said when Warren asked about his greatest moral failing. "There were times when I experimented with drugs."

More broadly, Obama said one of the country's biggest moral failings involved its treatment of the poor.

Answering the same question, McCain said: "My greatest moral failing, and I am a very imperfect person, is the failure of my first marriage."

As to America's moral failings, McCain said: "Perhaps we have not devoted ourselves to causes greater than our self-interest, although we've been the best at it."

Both candidates have struggled to garner support in the religious community.

Evangelicals account for one in four U.S. adults and have been a significant conservative base for the Republican Party, with a strong focus on opposition to abortion and gay rights and the promotion of "traditional" family values.

Asked about those touchstone issues, Obama, an Illinois senator, said he supported a woman's right to have an abortion but wanted to work to reduce the number of such procedures, while McCain cited his opposition to abortion.

McCain, who grew up Episcopalian but now attends an evangelical Southern Baptist church, has had trouble winning over conservative evangelicals because of his past support for stem cell research -- which he reiterated in Saturday's forum -- and his blunt criticism of the movement's leaders in 2000.

But the Arizona senator's opposition to abortion has redeemed him in the eyes of many in that religious community.

Such issues delivered almost 80 percent of the white evangelical Protestant vote to President George W. Bush in 2004, but the movement is more fractured and restless this year though it remains largely in the Republican camp.

Obama, a Christian who would be the first black president, has had to repeatedly debunk rumors that he is Muslim and was forced to distance himself from a controversial former pastor.

Describing his religious beliefs, McCain, a former prisoner of war in North Vietnam, recalled a story he often recounts on the campaign trail about a prison guard who scratched a cross in the dirt on Christmas Day during his imprisonment.

"For a minute there, it was just two Christians worshiping together. I'll never forget that," he said.

(Additional reporting by Ed Stoddard; Editing by Eric Beech)