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Faith Leaders Urge Soul Searching

Screen shot 2011-01-13 at 12.33.07 PM In the wake of the tragedy in Tucson, Arizona, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith leaders are weighing in. They are urging a time of reflection and "soul searching" when it comes to political dialogue. It's important to note that the letter doesn't suggest that politics or rhetoric prompted the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, 22, to launch his attack. However, the letter takes advantage of an opportunity to address the issue of civility in public debate.

Bishop T.D. Jakes, pastor of The Potter's House; the Rev. Joel Hunter, pastor of Northland Church; and the Rev. Sam Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference are among the 50-plus signatories.

Read the letter below:

Dear Members of Congress,

As Americans and members of the human family, we are grieved by the recent tragedy in Tucson, Arizona. As Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders, we pray together for all those wounded, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords as she fights for her life. Our hearts break for those lives lost and for the loved ones left behind. We also stand with you, our elected officials, as you continue to serve our nation while coping with the trauma of this senseless attack.

This tragedy has spurred a sorely needed time of soul searching and national public dialogue about violent and vitriolic political rhetoric. We strongly support this reflection, as we are deeply troubled that rancor, threats and incivility have become commonplace in our public debates.

We appreciate the sacrifices you make and risks you incur by accepting a call to public service, and we urge you to continue to serve as stewards of our democracy by engaging ideological adversaries not as enemies, but as fellow Americans.

In our communities and congregations, we pledge to foster an environment conducive to the important and difficult debates so crucial to American democracy. In our churches, mosques and synagogues, we come together not as members of a certain political ideology or party, but as children of God and citizens called to build a more perfect union. We pray that you do the same.

Naeem M. Baig Executive Director Islamic Circle of North America Council for Social Justice

Dr. Carroll A. Baltimore, Sr. President Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.

The Rev. Geoffrey Black General Minister and President United Church of Christ

Bishop John R. Bryant Senior Bishop African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church

Dr. Zahid H. Bukhari President Islamic Circle of North America

Rev. Jennifer Butler Executive Director Faith in Public Life

Simone Campbell, SSS Executive Director NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby

Bishop Minerva Carcaño Desert Southwest Conference United Methodist Church

The Rev. Canon Peg Chemberlin President National Council of Churches

Rev. Richard Cizik President New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good

Nathan J. Diament Director of Public Policy Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

Faithful America

Rev. Jan Olav Flaaten Executive Director Arizona Ecumenical Council

Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson General Secretary Reformed Church in America

Simon Greer President and CEO Jewish Funds for Justice

Dr. David P. Gushee Board Chair New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good

Rabbi Steve Gutow President and CEO Jewish Council for Public Affairs

Rev. Dr. Derrick Harkins Senior Pastor Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, Washington, DC

The Rev. Dr. Katharine Rhodes Henderson President Auburn Seminary

The Rev. Anne S. Howard Executive Director The Beatitudes Society

James E. Hug, SJ President Center of Concern

Dr. Joel C. Hunter Senior Pastor Northland - A Church Distributed

Bishop T. D. Jakes The Potter's House

Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon General Secretary National Council of Churches

Chris Korzen Executive Director Catholics United

Leadership Team of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Eileen Campbell, RSM Anne Curtis, RSM Pat McDermott, RSM Mary Waskowiak, RSM Linda Werthman, RSM

Rabbi John A. Linder Temple Solel, Paradise Valley, AZ

Marie Lucey, OSF Associate Director for Social Mission Leadership Conference of Women Religious

Rev. Steven D. Martin Executive Director New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good

Brian McClaren Author/Activist

T. Michael McNulty, SJ Justice and Peace Director Conference of Major Superiors of Men

Rev. Peter Morales President Unitarian Universalist Association

Bishop Paul Morton International Presiding Bishop Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship

Muslim Public Affairs Council

Stanley J. Noffsinger General Secretary Church of the Brethren

Dr. Walter L. Parrish III General Secretary Progressive National Baptist Convention

Rev. Gradye Parsons Stated Clerk Presbyterian Church (USA)

Nancy Ratzan President National Council of Jewish Women

Rev. Meg Riley Board Chair Faith in Public Life

Dave Robinson Executive Director Pax Christi USA

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez President National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference

Rev. Gabriel Salguero President National Latino Evangelical Coalition

Rabbi David Saperstein Director Religious Action Center

Dr. William J. Shaw Immediate Past President National Baptist Convention USA, Inc.

Dr. T. DeWitt Smith, Jr. Immediate Past President Progressive National Baptist Convention

Rt. Rev. Kirk S. Smith Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Arizona

Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed National Director, Office for Interfaith & Community Alliances Islamic Society of North America

Rev. Dr. Stephen J. Thurston President National Baptist Convention of America, Inc., Intl.

Rev. Jim Wallis President and CEO Sojourners

Rev. Dr. Sharon E. Watkins General Minister and President Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Rev. Heyward Wiggins, III PICO National Network Camden Bible Tabernacle Church

Jim Winkler General Secretary United Methodist General Board of Church & Society

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Newsweek: Faces of the Christian Right

Screen shot 2010-12-09 at 9.43.04 AM Newsweek writes: "For all the attention given to Jeremiah Wright, the minister who’s closest to President Obama these days is probably Joel Hunter, who leads the 12,000-member Northland Community Church in Orlando. He led the closing benediction of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, delivered a blessing before Obama’s inauguration, and serves on the president’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. None of this is to say that Hunter is a Wallis-style liberal. After all, his 2008 book was called A New Kind of Conservative, and he remains staunchly anti-abortion and anti-gay-marriage. But he’s willing to talk, slow to condemn, and is a potential bridge to white evangelicals—which, when combined with an apparent personal bond between Hunter and Obama, endears him to the president ... He’s a prime pastor to watch in 2012 and beyond."

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  •   Interfaith Dialogue, Public Square   •  

Advent Advice: Prepare for a Divine Interruption (Editorial for The Huffington Post)

Screen shot 2010-11-28 at 10.18.51 AM

The Christmas story sounds strangely familiar, not just because it is well known history but because it is in part our story, too. Who of us has not experienced shocking interruptions of what we had hoped would be a predictable course of events?

More than 2,000 years ago, no one was prepared for God to actually do what had been long predicted by the prophets. It was easier to believe that a Messiah, a Savior, would come some day than to think that it could happen in their lifetime.

A baby? Did the angel say "child?" Was that an angel? Who was ready for a baby?

Reactions to surprise varies between believing it is from God and immediately submitting, like Mary, or deciding to quickly dispense with the discomfort, assuming someone has done something wrong, like Joseph's first reaction to Mary's condition.

Part of the surprise was the original cast of characters God chose. Mary was an unwed teenager who had "never known a man." She likely thought of herself as a poor prospect for motherhood. Joseph was a descendant of religious leaders, surely expecting the propriety of a traditional marriage before fatherhood. Herod was a paranoid political figure. The Magi were foreigners, educated scientists of the day, who were not a part of the Jewish faith. The shepherds were just regular working folk, unlikely to be esteemed in religious circles because they could not keep all the ceremonial laws. Who out of that cast would expect to be chosen?

And circumstances were just as inconvenient. A pregnant woman traveled 80 miles walking or on a donkey to give birth in a stable for animals because the government had passed a decree demanding a census. An angel, then a host of angels, announced the arrival of the baby who would be God's presence on earth. In this story, God does not come in the form of a conquering hero. In fact, His answer to our hopes and fears is a baby that needs human care and patient attention before He saves us from our own destructive ways. How odd it is to demand that humans expend energy to help God.

No one in the Christmas story can receive Him without some adjustment to their regular lives. In fact, as they receive Him, their lives are not just regular anymore. Now they will live in adjoining worlds -- the baby who will become a great teacher, and give his life as a sacrifice, is the door to heaven. Those who receive him experience an access to heaven while living on earth because heaven came to earth in him.

Of course learning to bridge two worlds is a risky and uncomfortable business. Joseph and Mary become refugees to escape the political figure's attack. The Magi return to their home by a way that will avoid contact with those who demand destruction of the competition. The shepherds return to the field, praising God but wondering how what they have seen relates to their everyday lives.

God came in a way that would reconcile the differences and distances between groups. If shepherds and Magi, if a poor couple and the Roman Caesar, if stars and animals and crowds unaware can be combined in the story of God's special arrival, then cooperation among different groups for the good of all would seem to be God's way.

Once upon a time, God interrupted the lives of people to make them part of a special story. Those of us who commemorate the story are also part of it. During Advent we prepare for Christmas not merely as a ritual but as a hoped-for divine interruption. We look to recognize in the interruption of our routines a chance to see God's arrival again. We are hoping that He will use us with groups that would ordinarily not be in the same story. We are hoping that as our families get together, as we personally ponder in our hearts (as Mary did) all the facets of the Christmas story, God will use us to do something extraordinary in the world again.

The "Glory to God in the highest [is] on earth peace among men [as in male and female humankind] with whom He is pleased" (Luke 2:14).

During this solemn season of Advent, the preparation to re-live the birth of Jesus, we have a choice: We can focus on decorations and gifts and food, some of it fun and bonding. Or we can focus on the door, once a baby, adjoining heaven and earth. We can get ready to worship God in such a way that we will be ongoing agents of reconciliation. We can long for and work for a world where different and distant groups are all a part of the same story -- His.

FIND THIS ARTICLE AT: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joel-c-hunter/advent-preparation-after-_b_788157.html

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  •   Public Square   •  

Obama: 'I'm a Christian by choice'

President Barack Obama was forced to open up about his Christian faith on Tuesday when an woman asked him why he was a Christian.

"I'm a Christian by choice," he responded.

It was a "hot topic question," the woman said during an informal conversation on the economy. Obama was meeting with families in the front garden of the home of Andy and Etta Cavalier in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when the question was posed.

Providing a brief account of how he grew up, Obama said his family members "weren't folks who went to church every week."

"My mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn't raise me in the church," he said.

Obama became a Christian later in life.

What drew him to Christianity were "the precepts of Jesus Christ" which spoke to him in terms of the kind of life he wanted to lead, he explained.

These precepts included "being my brothers' and sisters' keeper; treating others as they would treat me."

He continued, "I think also understanding that ... Jesus Christ dying for my sins spoke to the humility that we all have to have as human beings – that we're sinful and we're flawed and we make mistakes; we achieve salvation through the grace of God."

In terms of how he's living out his Christian faith, he said he strives and prays to "see God in other people" and "help them find their own grace."

"I think my public service is part of that effort to express my Christian faith," he said.

Only about a third of Americans believe the president is a Christian, a Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life revealed last month. Last year, nearly half held that perception. Meanwhile, some 18 per cent say Obama is a Muslim and the rest do not know his religion.

Following the release of the poll, the White House and several pastors who advise Obama defended the president's faith and assured the public that he is committed to Christ. Florida pastor Joel C Hunter recommended that the White House be more public about what Obama does to be an active Christian.

A few weeks later, Obama and his family made a rare appearance at church for Sunday worship. They attended St John's Church near the White House.

After responding to the question about his faith on Tuesday, Obama added that as the president of the United States, he also believes that "part of the bedrock strength of this country is that it embraces people of many faiths and of no faith."

"Their own path to grace is one that we have to revere and respect as much as our own and that's part of what makes this country what it is," he highlighted.

"We were founded on freedom ... the freedom of religion. That's how this country got started. That's why people came here. We have to constantly, I think, reaffirm that tradition even when it sometimes makes us uncomfortable."

Briefly addressing another "hot topic question" asked by the same woman, Obama reiterated his stance on abortion.

Abortion should be "safe, legal and rare", he said.

The decision should be made by the families and the women involved and not the government, he said.

Regarding late-term abortions, he noted that there are "a whole host of laws on the books" in which the interests shift after a certain period so that there are some restrictions, and "appropriately so."

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