Pastor Joel Hunter Prays with President Elect Obama

November 8, 2008 by Randy
Filed under Christianity, Church, Current Affairs

My former Pastor and friend gets the honor of praying with Obama (more thoughts after the jump.)

As Joel Hunter explains it, his telephone prayer session with Barack Obama on Tuesday, roughly 10 hours before Obama was declared winner of the presidential election, was not intended to be as intimate as it ended up. Obama, says Hunter, “just wanted to pray with some folks,” and his religious liaison arranged a conference call with Hunter, Dallas pentecostal megapastor T.D. Jakes, the Houston Methodist minister (and George Bush favorite) Kirbyjon Caldwell and and Otis Moss II, the retired pastor of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland. But Obama was delayed, Jakes had to go on live TV, and Caldwell had to get onto a plane, explains Hunter; so the candidate ended up praying with just Moss and Hunter.

Hunter won’t divulge the prayer’s content other than to say that Obama “trusts God and the American people and just wanted to commend himself to each.” The 60-year-old champion of what some call the New Evangelicalism also downplays the session’s possible importance for his own status, noting that Obama has always been “very good about keeping religious leaders in the loop.” Though he says he has prayed with Obama twice before, Hunter adds, “I find it hard to believe that I’m in the inner prayer circle.”

…

Hunter shares his movement’s typical pro-life and anti-gay-marriage social commitments. But he became best known to the mainstream press in 2006 when an arrangement for him to take over as head of the Christian Coalition, the Pat Robertson-founded political machine, imploded as it became clear that Hunter intended to steer it into more moderate waters. He has since made a name (and fundamentalist foes) combating global warming, championing comprehensive immigration reform and extolling a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Less ambiguously than any other leader (including Purpose-Driven Life author Rick Warren, who hedges more bets) Hunter is the avatar of the New Evangelicalism, which is increasingly contesting the priorities of classic religious right figures such as James Dobson. Given all this, it was not surprising that Hunter delivered the closing benediction at the Democratic convention in August, or was asked to join in Tuesday’s prayer circle.

[From Here@Northland » Blog Archive » Time Magazine Asks: “Who is Joel Hunter, and Why Is Obama Praying With Him?”]

I went to Northland for a year and a half before moving to Grace Church three years ago. I didn’t leave Northland for *any* negative reasons. It was just that my relationships and community was developing with more members at Grace Church than at Northland. I love Northland and Pastor Joel.

Now when I call him a friend it isn’t like we hang out or even see each other regularly. However, when I was a member of his church I did go meet with him on two different occasions regarding some very serious personal issues and he was *very* kind, wise and gracious. Over the years he has been very supportive when we have stopped each other in passing at various events or meetings.

He even likes my artwork.

The picture in this post is one I took of Joel and a local group of Christians praying for Senator Mel Martinez and his wife as he was running for his Senate seat.

I know Pastor Joel has gotten some serious flack for praying at the DNC. A couple of times over the past couple of years I have been like … “huh?” and then I hear his reasons and it’s like “oohhh… that’s cool.”

I love that Pastor Joel had the opportunity to pray with Obama. I will pray that the Lord will continue to use Pastor Joel to speak words of Life and blessing to Obama.