Presidential Forum at Saddleback Church Canceled

A meeting between President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney at , once planned for this week, has been canceled.

As Patch reported in mid-July, to bring the two politicians to the Lake Forest megachurch.

Instead, Saddleback's main pastor announced Wednesday that he no longer would hold the forum but instead invite religious leaders to a September meeting at the church.

Warren cited the negative tone of both campaigns as his reason for not holding the event. Planning had been taking place for months.

"We created the civil forums to promote civility and personal respect between people with major differences," Warren said in an interview with the Orange County Register. "The forums are meant to be a place where people of goodwill can seriously disagree on significant issues without being disagreeable or resorting to personal attack and name-calling. But that is not the climate of today's campaign. I've never seen more irresponsible personal attacks, mean-spirited slander, and flat-out dishonest attack ads, and I don't expect that tone to change before the election."

The well-known pastor hosted then-Sens. Obama and John McCain in 2008 at his first such forum at the church.