{"id":469,"date":"2009-03-15T14:20:26","date_gmt":"2009-03-15T14:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2009\/03\/president-obama-and-his-pastor.html"},"modified":"2009-03-15T14:20:26","modified_gmt":"2009-03-15T14:20:26","slug":"president-obama-and-his-pastor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/03\/president-obama-and-his-pastor.html","title":{"rendered":"President Obama and his Pastors – Listen to Religious Women for a Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The New York Time reports that President Obama has his circle of five pastors<\/a> who offer him
\nmoral and spiritual guidance.\u00a0
\n<\/span>Given his history of being burned by Rev. Wright it is not surprising
\nthat the President is hesitant to hitch his wagon too close to any one religious
\nhorse.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>So for the time being, instead of a congregation he has created a cadre of spiritual advisors.\u00a0 <\/span>The group is a good one:\u00a0\u00a0Ottis Moss, Jr, Joel Hunter, T.D. Jakes, Kirbyjon Caldwell, and Jim Walis.\u00a0<\/span>I have had the pleasure of meeting
\nthree\u00a0<\/span>out of the five and know
\nthem to be good and honorable Christian men.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But men and Christian are the descriptions that stand
\nout.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Perhaps I might humbly
\nsuggest that President Obama may wish to expand the circle a bit and listen to
\nreligious women, and even some who are non-Christians.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>The advice and spiritual succor our President will get from
\nthis other half of the world’s population may provide him with the holistic
\nhealing for himself and our nation that he and all of us are seeking.<\/p>\n

Here is my list of five:<\/p>\n

Sister Joan Chittister<\/a>, Benedictine Sister and spiritual
\nsojourner for justice and peace in the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ruth Messenger<\/a>, President of American Jewish World Service
\nwho brings the prophetic Jewish tradition to the entire globe and to America.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ingrid Mattson<\/a>, President of the Islamic Society of North
\nAmerica and a profound and compelling interlocutor for the Muslim faith.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Susan Thistlewaite<\/a>, Professor and former President of Chicago Theological
\nSeminary and a fearless fighter for women’s rights inside the church, the home
\nand the public square.<\/span><\/p>\n

Emilie Townes<\/a>, Professor of Religion at Yale Divinity and a
\ncompassionate intellectual powerhouse for African American religion from the
\nwoman’s perspective. <\/span><\/p>\n

What religious women or men do you think should be offering spiritual advice to the President at this time? \u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Time reports that President Obama has his circle of five pastors who offer him moral and spiritual guidance.\u00a0 Given his history of being burned by Rev. Wright it is not surprising that the President is hesitant to hitch his wagon too close to any one religious horse.\u00a0\u00a0 So for the time being,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion-in-the-public-square"],"yoast_head":"\nPresident Obama and his Pastors - Listen to Religious Women for a Change - Progressive Revival<\/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\/progressiverevival\/2009\/03\/president-obama-and-his-pastor.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"President Obama and his Pastors - Listen to Religious Women for a Change - Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The New York Time reports that President Obama has his circle of five pastors who offer him moral and spiritual guidance.\u00a0 Given his history of being burned by Rev. 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Paul B. Raushenbush is the moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University. .An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and institutes around the country including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, and the New America Foundation. Rev. Raushenbush has served at Seattle First Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Columbia University and as College and Young Adult Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN. He has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for Beliefnet.com. His first book, Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths (HCI) was released in the Fall of 2004. He is the editor of the 100th Anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book Christianity and the Social Crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c In the 21st Century (HarperOne). His work at Princeton includes strengthening the interfaith community on campus. He is the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. Rev. Raushenbush studied religion at Macalester College before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated with distinction.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/praushenbush"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}