{"id":926,"date":"2009-03-14T18:22:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-14T18:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/03\/obamas-pastors.html"},"modified":"2009-03-14T18:22:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-14T18:22:00","slug":"obamas-pastors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/03\/obamas-pastors.html","title":{"rendered":"Obama’s pastors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anyone curious about where Barack Obama turns for spiritual guidance might want to check out this intriguing item<\/a> from Saturday’s New York Times: <\/p>\n

President Obama has been without a pastor or a home church ever since he cut his ties to the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. in the heat of the presidential campaign. But he has quietly cultivated a handful of evangelical pastors for private prayer sessions on the telephone and for discussions on the role of religion in politics.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>All are men, two of them white and three black \u2014 including the Rev. Otis Moss Jr., a graying lion of the civil rights movement. Two, the entrepreneurial dynamos Bishop T. D. Jakes and the Rev. Kirbyjon H. Caldwell, (seen at the left) also served as occasional spiritual advisers to President George W. Bush. Another, the Rev. Jim Wallis, leans left on some issues, like military intervention and poverty programs, but opposes abortion.<\/p>\n

None of these pastors are affiliated with the religious right, though several are quite conservative theologically. One of them, the Rev. Joel C. Hunter, the pastor of a conservative megachurch in Florida, was branded a turncoat by some leaders of the Christian right when he began to speak out on the need to stop global warming.<\/p>\n

But as a group they can hardly be characterized as part of the religious left either. Most, like Mr. Wallis, do not take traditionally liberal positions on abortion or homosexuality. What most say they share with the president is the conviction that faith is the foundation in the fight against economic inequality and social injustice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are all centrist, social justice guys,\u201d said the Rev. Eugene F. Rivers, a politically active pastor of Azusa Community Church in Boston, who knows all of them but is not part of the president\u2019s prayer caucus. \u201cObama genuinely comes out of the social justice wing of the church. That\u2019s real. The community organizing stuff is real.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pastors say Mr. Obama appears to rely on his faith for intellectual and spiritual succor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile he may not put \u2018Honk if You Love Jesus\u2019 bumper stickers on the back of his car, he is the kind of guy who practices what he preaches,\u201d said Mr. Caldwell, the senior pastor of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston. \u201cHe has a desire to keep in touch with folk outside the Beltway, and to stay in touch with God. He seems to see those as necessary conditions for maintaining his internal compass.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can continue at the link<\/a> for the rest.<\/p>\n

PHOTO:<\/b> by David J. Phillip\/Associated Press<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anyone curious about where Barack Obama turns for spiritual guidance might want to check out this intriguing item from Saturday’s New York Times: President Obama has been without a pastor or a home church ever since he cut his ties to the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. in the heat of the presidential campaign. But…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-and-politicians"],"yoast_head":"\nObama's pastors - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/03\/obamas-pastors.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obama's pastors - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Anyone curious about where Barack Obama turns for spiritual guidance might want to check out this intriguing item from Saturday’s New York Times: President Obama has been without a pastor or a home church ever since he cut his ties to the Rev. 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