Sign of the Times?
The Washington Post reports that for the second time in one year, the Christian Coalition has named a new a leader and then removed him before he took office:
The Rev. Joel Hunter, pastor of a nondenominational megachurch in Longwood, Fla., said he resigned as the coalition’s incoming president because its board of directors disagreed with his plan to broaden the organization’s agenda. In addition to opposing abortion and same-sex marriage, Hunter, 58, wanted to take on such issues as poverty, global warming and HIV/AIDS.
“My position is, unless we are caring as much for the vulnerable outside the womb as inside the womb, we’re not carrying out the full message of Jesus,” he said in a telephone interview yesterday. “They began to think this might threaten their base or evaporate some of their support, and they said they just couldn’t go there.”
In a related story, Rick Warren is drawing a lot of heat from fellow evangelicals for his decision to invite Barack Obama, “the antithesis of Biblical ethics and morality,” to speak at Saddleback for the second annual Summit on AIDS and the Church.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Democrats-Obama.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
What differences are we able to set aside to work together to heal the world?
My favorite line out of that is “they said they just couldn’t go there.”
“Where were you when I was hungry, when I was sick, when I was cold and in need?”
“We just couldn’t go there.”
I always get really depressed when Catholics want to buddy up with the evangelicals and fundies who hammer on relentlessly about gay marriage, abortion, their chastity rings and the “Left Behind” series.
So I was heartened to see that Rev. Hunter wanted to take the CC in a more, well, Christian, direction. Even though he’s out, the article I read noted that the CC’s base is getting smaller. Which means some people in conservative Protestant circles are trying to think about social justice issues in a broader way.
So, yay!
Some moderates and liberals who make a practice of speaking in the Red States are certain that the grass roots people do not thing like the CC. The same is true of the Catholic Theocons.
Happily, there are many more Joel Hunters out there.