Obama's Spiritual Adviser Speaks in Shelby, Ohio

SHELBY -- Last week he was sitting comfortably in the Oval Office, but the Rev. Joel Hunter said returning to Shelby this weekend will be an exciting honor, too. Shelby, his hometown, will keep him busy.

Friday night, the spiritual adviser to President Barack Obama spoke at Shelby High School's graduation. Hunter is a 1966 Shelby graduate. At 9:15 a.m. Sunday, he will preach at the First United Methodist Church, where he grew up.

"I went there every Sunday with my grandmother," Hunter said. "I've been in ministry over 40 years, but always think of myself as a kid from Shelby who has a really good foundation."

When he attended Ohio University in the 1960s, Hunter said he never imagined he'd end up in ministry.

"But I was part of the civil rights movement and when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, I felt crisis," Hunter said.

He recalled the words of a former pastor of his Shelby church: "Nothing will be right in the world until you take care of the sin in your own heart."

Hunter began attending the chapel at OU and said he felt a calling from God. He eventually changed his college path, went into ministry and became one of the most prestigious pastors in the country. Hunter is senior pastor at Northland Church, in Longwood, Fla., a church where he grew membership from 200 to more than 15,000.

"I don't really know what to attribute it to," he said. "Every day you go in and try to do the right thing, and God arranges the rest."

Hunter has gained national attention through his relationship with the president.

"About four years ago, I was featured in an article in the New York Times," he said. "Following that article, then-Senator Obama called me and said, 'I want to catch up with you.' He wanted to know what I thought was the right relationship between faith communities and government."

The pair met again at a spiritual event. Afterward, Hunter said, an Obama staff member asked if he would pray for the future president.

"I walked out to a hallway and figured there would be 50 pastors there, but it was just he and I," Hunter said. "Since then, he's asked me to pray for him at major events in his life. The night he was elected president, I was on the phone praying for him."

Since his election, Hunter said, Obama has asked him to write devotions for him every week.

"Our relationship isn't political, it's pastoral. I've simply become a pastoral voice in his life," Hunter said. "I'm very aware of his position and where God has put him in life, but a pastor's life is very simple. Our job is to help anyone who needs to get closer to the Lord. That's my job, no matter who you are.

"Here's the most powerful person in America, but the pastor part of me says, 'Here's just another person who wants to get help.'"

Hunter's Sunday speech is open to the public.

The Rev. Tom Snyder said many local people have fond memories of Hunter.

"This is a great way for the older folks to reconnect and for others to hear from a wonderful man of God," he said.

Hunter will attend the service at 22 S. Gamble St. with his wife, Becky.

"I'm going to talk about lifelong lessons learned from Shelby, Ohio," he said. "I'd like to give people a broader perspective of how God uses us in broader ways than we can think."

FIND THIS ARTICLE AT: http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20120526/NEWS01/205260313/Obama-s-spiritual-adviser-speak-Shelby?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7C%7Cs

President Obama’s Other Pastor

A conversation with the Rev. Dr. Joel C. Hunter of Florida about his civil rights testimony, defending President Barack Obama's faith, and the local ministerial response to the Trayvon Martin case.

FIND THIS ARTICLE AT: http://www.urbanfaith.com/2012/04/the-pastor-the-president-and-civil-rights.html/

The Rev. Dr. Joel C. Hunter grew up in small town Ohio, the son of a widowed mother who loved black jazz musicians. Now he is a spiritual adviser to President Barack Obama and pastor of 15,000-member Northland, A Church Distributed, in Longwood, Florida. “Cooperation and partnership are hallmarks of Dr. Hunter’s ministry,” his church bio says. “Together, he believes, we can accomplish more because of our differences than we would on our own—without giving up our unique identities.” UrbanFaith talked to Hunter about how this kind of cooperation is possible, and about his unique testimony of coming to faith after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., his friendship with the president, and what Sanford area ministers are doing in response to the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

UrbanFaith: You have a unique testimony in that you were involved in the Civil Rights Movement and came to the Lord after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. You also recently wrote an op-ed for Charisma about the Trayvon Martin case. Has racial reconciliation always been a thread in your ministry?

Joel C. Hunter: Yes, it has been. The little town I came from in Ohio didn’t have one ethnicity other than white. I think it was one of those Midwestern towns that had a law about the exclusivity of races. But my mother, who reminds me in some ways of President Obama’s mother, was one of those free spirits who loved everybody and thrived on Jazz: Nat King Cole and all of those great—back in that day they were called “Negro geniuses” with music. And so, when I went to Ohio University, it was a natural thing for me to go to the other end of the spectrum and get involved almost immediately with the Civil Rights Movement. It wasn’t from a faith perspective that that first happened, but when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, I went to Galbraith Chapel, a little generic chapel at Ohio University, and came to Christ. Caring for those who are left out was at the core of my calling to ministry and that’s always been.

Now that there has been an arrest in the Trayvon Martin case, have things settled down in the Sanford area?

We are in the same county and I’m actively meeting with ministers from Sanford, being led by the African American ministers. We have another meeting scheduled for tomorrow night about how we can take our community toward, not just reconciliation and healing, but toward improvement because of what has happened here. We’ve had ongoing meetings together: prayer meetings and brainstorming meetings. We may have a community memorial service with the Martin family. I’m not sure. The publicity has somewhat died down now, but the ministers and spiritual leaders are much more conversant, active, and cooperative than we’ve ever been. So, I’m thinking God is really going to do something wonderful from this.

As a pastor who comes from a relatively humble upbringing, how do you keep being a spiritual adviser to the president of the United States in perspective?

I don’t know how this happens, but it’s really true: people are people to me. The president is a person. He’s great about this; he has a great sense of humor and he’s very personable, so it’s not like this is a lot of work. I realize that to the world, it’s a long way for a kid from Shelby, Ohio (where the largest buildings literally are the grain elevators for the farmers), but to me he’s a person and the job of a pastor is to help the person in front of him or her to get closer to God. And so, that’s exactly what I do.

I remember a time when I had had a conversation and a prayer with the president and within 24 hours I was back at my church talking to a AIDS-infected prostitute who wanted to get closer to the Lord. It struck me that my conversation with her resembled very closely the conversation I had had with the president less than 24 hours previous. To me, that was the ultimate. That’s what a pastor does. Each person has the same value in God’s eyes. I didn’t count one of those conversations more valuable than the other.

When your five-year-old granddaughter Ava passed away from glioblastoma in 2010, the president called you and prayed with you. How do you respond to criticism of his faith when you’ve been so personally engaged with him on a spiritual level?

The president called me when Ava was first diagnosed and then, of course, he called me when she passed away, so it was very tender and kind thing for him to do. I understand that people are ignorant, that is they lack knowledge about his faith walk. I realize there is some political agenda when people accuse him of not being a Christian. I’m not naïve about that, but the president and the candidate Barack Obama chose—even more after he was president—not to make his faith walk very public because he knew it would be politicized and that’s an area of his life he didn’t want politicized.

I always say that nature hates a vacuum and when you don’t have a lot of information, you will fill it in with your latest email. That’s exactly what happens. I know from personal experience and from many personal conversations that they’re wrong. I know his daily practice of reading Scripture. I write many of those devotions. Our prayer times in the Oval Office, over the phone, and on special occasions have been just as sweet and participatory as you can imagine. Of course, there’s always the defensiveness for a friend. I consider the president a friend and any time a friend is wrongly accused, you want to defend them. But, by the same token, I can’t really go much further, because this is the president and I don’t want to give a lot of information that is not directly related to his role and official duties. So, I have to be very careful about not saying too much.

You were on a press call defending President Obama’s faith around the time the Rev. Franklin Graham publicly questioned it. How do you address other Christian leaders who cast doubt on the president’s faith?

I can and do openly tell them about my personal relationship with the president and my personal knowledge of his spiritual life. Sometimes I say I wish most of the people in my congregation were as attentive to reading the Bible every day, praying every day, and trying to put their faith into practice as the president is. Some of them are really taken aback, because they just don’t have the knowledge. It’s not covered in the media by design. That’s fine. I’m very open about my personal knowledge of his walk.

I heard the president debate Sen. John McCain at Saddleback Church in 2008. He seemed more articulate and comfortable talking about faith than McCain then and continues to sound more comfortable and articulate talking about faith than some other candidates now. Do you attribute doubts about his faith to politics or to his policy positions on issues like abortion?

It’s kind of all of the above. I think a lot of it is politically driven. I also think there’s some racism attached in this. I don’t play the race card, but I do think that because his father was from a different country (not faith, because his father wasn’t a man of faith) and with the hyper-sensitivity about Islam, there’s been an effort to paint this man as being very different because he does come from a unique background.

In that particular debate with McCain, he said something that didn’t quite come out right; he was a little too flip about it. When questioned about when life begins, he said, “That’s above my pay grade,” or something like that. Because he is such a respectful thinker in terms of religious questions, he won’t give the reflexive responses. When he didn’t say the axiom that “Life begins at conception,” he was hearkening back to something that is not particularly addressed in Scripture. If we don’t come from a particular faith tradition that says this is the dogma of my church and you simply look to Scripture, “Does life begin at conception?” is an open question. And so, part of this is because he is very careful not to give just the patently religious responses, or the religious platitudes. When people don’t get those, then they begin to say, “Maybe he’s not a Christian like others that have given us boiler-plate Christianity.” I would say to that: he doesn’t pretend to be a theologian, but he really does want to search the Scriptures authentically and personally, and it’s because he takes it so seriously and so personally that he won’t automatically give the response that everybody is looking for.

Is there a level of theological illiteracy on the part of the general public that contributes to this kind of misunderstanding?

Absolutely. In cultural Christianity in general there is, but specifically, the more fundamentalist versions of Christianity have shibboleths: “You have to say the right thing with the right accent or you’re not really one of us.” Part of the problem is not his level of sophistication, but ours, not his level of thinking, but our lack of more broad-based responsiveness to the depths of the theology of Scripture. When you don’t come with automatic or dogmatic sound-bite answers, that’s a good thing. That’s a sign of personal engagement. But because we would rather just have a category of correct belief and many people are satisfied with that, then we are the ones making ourselves upset. It’s not because he’s not answered adequately; it’s partially our discomfort at not having simple answers. That’s part of the unease with his particular faith walk.

The president comes down on the side of keeping abortion legal and you are pro-life. How do you, or anyone else, preserve relationships with other believers when there are such deep disagreements over these kinds of issue?

Abortion is probably the premiere issue where we see this. I am pro-life; therefore I think that’s a baby. I don’t happen to subscribe to “It’s a baby at conception,” because I don’t see that in Scripture, but I do believe that soon after that baby is implanted in a womb, it becomes a person. So I think abortion is homicide. Having said that, the way that I want to work with other Christians who don’t have the same theological presumption that I do about the personhood of a developing fetus is to keep my eyes on the goal. My goal is to have no abortions some day, ultimately because no woman decides to do that.

Other people say, “How can we reduce, by practical common sense, the number of abortions?” I’m on board. Every baby that can be saved, I think, is invaluable. And so, if I talk to somebody who is pro-choice and they say, “A lot of abortions come from feeling financial pressure or because people are afraid they won’t be able to complete their education, and if we could relieve that kind of pressure, they would carry their baby to term,” I’m all over that. I don’t have to have an all or nothing. That’s why the president and I, even though we would disagree probably on who should be able to get an abortion, we still can agree on the reduction of abortion as a very important goal together. That’s kind of how I walk that through.

Trayvon Martin: How Can Christians Respond?

Pastor Joel Hunter talks with CBN News about how Christians can respond to this tragedy.

President Obama Addresses Q Conference

President Obama Welcomes Q from Q Ideas on Vimeo.

The White House: Behind the Scenes

President Obama meets with Pastor Joel Hunter and Josh DuBois, director of the White House Office for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, in the Oval Office.

FIND THIS PHOTO AT: http://www.washingtonpost.com/conversations/the-white-house-behind-the-scenes/2012/03/23/gIQAGNCCWS_gallery.html#photo=1

The Pastor and the President: A Tale of Faith

The conventional wisdom is that the political left in America is suspicious of stories of presidential faith and the political right is suspicious of stories of presidential faith that involve Barack Obama. What we often lose in the crush between the two are those tender, endearing episodes that sometimes arise from a presidency and become treasured in American memory.

There is such a tale and it deserves to be told. It does reveal something of the spirituality of the current American president but it will not impact an election or change political opinions. Obama's critics may deny it. His supporters may exploit it. The cynical may doubt it. Yet, the tale is true and it belongs to us.

It begins with Dr. Joel Hunter, the pastor of Northland Church in Orland, Fla., a man unlikely to be part of a story like Barack Obama's. Hunter was a political conservative who had once been asked to head the Christian Coalition, the advocacy group founded by Pat Robertson. Yet, when Hunter responded publicly and favorably to Obama's "A More Perfect Union" speech in 2008, Obama heard of it and sent the pastor a note. "I'd like to catch up with you someday," he said.

A friendship developed. Hunter found himself praying with Obama before a campaign debate and then, later, praying at the Democratic National Convention. When Obama was elected, Hunter also agreed to be on a team of spiritual advisors for the new president. He may not have been entirely aligned with Obama's politics but he knew when he felt God's call and he certainly felt the call to minister to this young leader. Not everyone was pleased. Opposition came. Still, Hunter knew what he was meant to do.

This story, though, is not about Hunter's ministry to Obama. Instead, it centers on Ava, Hunter's granddaughter. In June, 2010, when she was only 5, Ava was diagnosed with a rare form of brain tumor -- glioblastoma multiforme. It is extremely rare in children -- and deadly. Losing Ava became a haunting possibility.

The day after Hunter learned the news, his phone rang. It was the White House operator. "Dr. Hunter, will you stand by for a call from the president."

"Yes."

And then, in a moment, "Joel, this is Barack. I just heard about Ava. I just had to call and tell you that Michelle and I are praying for you. If there is anything we can do we want to do it."

Unable to meet Obama's informality, Hunter replied, "Thank you, Mr. President. That's very kind. We have checked and there is no traditional treatment that has proven effective. We're at a loss. But I appre......."

"No. Stop that." Obama interrupted impatiently. And then, gently, "I really mean it, Joel. Anything I can do I want to do."

Hunter could take no more, and began to weep.

Then began the reversal. The man who had pastored the president now sat silently in tears as the president became, for a few moments, the pastor Hunter needed. "Joel, I want you to remember that God has got you here. He's not going to let you go. He will walk all the way through this with you. You remember this. God isn't going to let go of you. We've got to hold on to our faith in God." This continued for many minutes and then, finally, Obama said, "Please tell your family that Michelle and I are praying for them and our heart goes out to them."

"Thank you, Sir," Hunter said, and the two hung up.

What followed were some of the worst weeks of Joel Hunter's life. His granddaughter underwent a grueling surgery to remove the tumor. There was hope for a season and then the tumor grew back larger than before. On Sept. 4, the little girl died. Hunter was undone.

That same day the phone rang. "Dr. Hunter, will you stand by for a call from the president." The pastor was surprised. He was sure the president could not already know.

"Yes, I will stand by," he told the operator.

Soon, the president came on the line, obviously brokenhearted. "Joel, this is Barack. I've just heard. I'm so sorry. You will be in my prayers. Michelle and I are with you. We are trusting God to go through this with you."

"You are so kind, Mr. President. Thank you. This means a great deal to me."

Then, as before -- as Hunter's words failed him -- the president began to encourage. Again, the bits of scripture and assurances of God's grace. Again, the faith of a president offered to his friend.

Finally, "Your concern touches me, Mr. President. Thank you for calling."

"We are praying for you, Joel," Obama said before hanging up. "I am with you in this. You are not alone."

Hunter was grateful for what had been said, grateful that it helped to lift the pain. He would never forget how a president became, for a moment, a pastor and a grieving pastor could only receive and the lines between the political left and right were dissolved by the greater force of faith.

It will not impact an election or change political opinions, but it is a story we ought to know.

FIND THIS ARTICLE AT: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-mansfield/president-obama-pastors-joel-hunter_b_1311348.html

Jim Towey Is Wrong About President Obama, by Dr. Joel C. Hunter

The summer before Senator Obama was elected president, he invited 30 Evangelical and Catholic leaders to meet with him in Chicago. The purpose of the meeting was transparency about his faith journey. All of us, including Franklin Graham, heard him share his testimony of how he had come to trust Christ as his Lord and Savior.

Months before that, in a personal conversation with Senator Obama, he asked me what I thought was a good direction for faith communities when it came to government activities. He knew that I am a pro-life evangelical that believes the less need for government the better. That’s why he was talking to me. I said, “The faith communities of this nation have way more resources and relationships than are being engaged right now to address our nation’s problems.” He agreed. He said, “But there are certain problems that are too great for the faith communities to solve.” I agreed.

After what I assume were many more conversations with other faith leaders, the newly elected president decided to expand the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives started by President Bush and transform it from a fair-funding administrative program to an effort engaging religious communities via their counsel and their service to our citizens.

Cynical people have interpreted this as political positioning, such as Mr. Towey who has called the president's faith-based office a “farce.” Let me tell you why I am of the opposite view.

As a member of the inaugural Advisory Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, we had a unique opportunity to advise the president in how to best move forward in creating successful faith-based and community partnerships. The president and his staff have gone out of their way time and again to consult with religious leaders and advisors with whom they do not always agree. The Advisory Council was just one example of that.

I have been thrilled to see thirteen agencies in this administration through their Offices of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships seek the input of and partner with faith communities to serve those in need. Through these efforts the administration has taken significant strides to partner with faith-based communities to assist people most in need, such as helping local congregations put their social capital to work by establishing and expanding employment ministries or “job clubs.”

They have also launched a new program to get faith-based and community groups engaged in disaster response, the first time the government has a comprehensive strategy in this area, effectively teaming with faith groups to provide aid to victims and rebuild communities.

Additionally, the administration has vastly expanded efforts to engage faith-based communities as partners in feeding hungry kids in the summer, when so many who rely on meals they get at school struggle to meet their nutritional needs. The Partnership Center at USDA has boasted of adding 200 additional summer feeding sites at congregations around the country literally feeding tens of thousands of kids due to their efforts.

Recently we were honored to host First Lady Michelle Obama at our church along with over 4,000 diverse faith and community leaders to celebrate the anniversary of the Let’s Move initiative. Through this effort congregations around the country are fighting to reverse the trend of childhood obesity and increase health and wellness activities.

These are just a few of the many examples of engagement and partnership under the Obama administration’s Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnership Initiative.

Many persons during an election season judge the faith of leaders simply by their policy stance. And there always will be issues upon which we disagree.

However, demonizing the president, implying a nefarious conspiracy, and ignoring the tremendous advancement that has taken place in faith communities partnering with the government in answering people’s needs is mis-informed and incorrect.

Just a few months after President Obama was elected, he invited me to write devotions (a passage out of the Bible with a brief explanation) for him every week. I am a pastor, so I am delighted whenever there is an opportunity to help someone more personally engage the Bible and know the Lord better. I have prayed and talked with our President consistently, always privately and without publicity. When we are together, we do not talk about politics or policy. We talk about his life, his family, his faith and serving others.

I can tell you that what President Obama is doing through his Administration’s Offices of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, is not about promulgating support for a specific policy initiative or political agenda, instead it is a testimony to his belief in the importance of partnering with religious institutions to improve the lives of families and communities across the country. And that is exactly what his faith-based office is doing.

FIND THIS ARTICLE AT: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/212255-jim-towey-is-wrong-about-president-obama

First Lady Michelle Obama: If You Are Doing Great Work, Tell Me About It

On the third and final day of her Let's Move 2nd Birthday tour, First Lady Michelle Obama visited Northland Church in Orlando, Florida, to thank faith and community leaders from 120 congregations and organizations who represented 15 different faiths and denominations. Mrs. Obama praised the group, and their congregations, for their tireless efforts in helping fulfill the core mission of the initiative: eliminating childhood obesity in a generation.

The First Lady talked about the emotional role food plays in our lives, acknowledging that it is more than just nourishment for our bodies, it's how we knit our families and our communities together. But, she told the assembly, finding ways to honor these traditions while making healthy changes is the essence of what Let's Move is working to do:

"We know that government doesn’t have all the answers; know that there’s no one-size-fits all program or policy that will solve this problem. Every family and every community is different. Each of us needs to make the changes that fit with our budgets, our beliefs, and our tastes."

Mrs. Obama called on the group of leaders as role models to children, reminding them that if they get excited about this mission, then kids will embrace it as well. And in an effort to celebrate the great work that faith and community groups have already done to promote healthy lifestyle changes, the First Lady announced a new Let's Move video challenge , telling the crowd, "whatever you do, I want to know about it."

CHRISTIAN POST: Michelle Obama Visits Fla. Church; Urges Religious Groups to Fight Obesity

First lady Michelle Obama Saturday visited the Florida megachurch where one of President Obama's spiritual advisers is the pastor. She encouraged faith-based groups to join her campaign against obesity, saying "your bodies are temples given to you by God."

"Sometimes folks won't do it if it wasn't said right here," she said, speaking to about 3,000 people from more than 120 congregations and organizations, representing over 15 faiths and denomination s, at Northland, A Church Distributed in central Florida.

The Rev. Joel Hunter, a spiritual adviser to President Barack Obama and who serves as senior pastor of the Northland church, introduced Mrs. Obama as a "talented, caring, a very physically fit first lady" who is most proud of being "Malia and Sasha's mom." She was in Orlando on the last day of her three-day tour to mark the second anniversary of her "Let's Move!" initiative to fight childhood obesity.

"You serve as a beacon for those who are lost, a refuge for those who've been forgotten," she told religious individuals and groups. "And our faith communities don't tend only to folks' spiritual health but to their emotional and their physical health as well," she said. "Think for a moment about the scripture that tells us that your bodies are temples given to you by God. That is a core teaching of so many of our faiths – a teaching that calls us to honor and nourish the bodies we've been blessed with, and to help others do the same."

She said one-third of children in America are overweight or obese and therefore at risk for serious conditions like diabetes, cancer and heart disease "that undermine their health, that diminish their prospects, and they cost our economy billions of dollars each year."

While Michelle Obama might like to keep her campaign separate from politics , her tour, which comes months before the presidential election, boosts the president's image. Reporters asked her about her husband's re-election bid while she was touring in Dallas on Friday, to which she replied, "I want him to be my president for another four years." She added that her approach to campaigning is, "This is the time that I have to give to the campaign and whatever you do with that time is up to you, but when it's over, don't even look at me... No calls. No anything."

While Obama's talk at the church on Saturday drew a lot of cheering and laughter, her arrival at the church campus was marked by anti-abortion protests. Activists held up placards declaring abortion as murder, but didn't mention her husband's administration by name.

The first lady praised Pastor Hunter's megachurch, which has a congregation of 15,000. It's no accident, she said, that the Northland church hosts classes to "help folks lead healthier lives."

"It's no accident that, long before we ever started 'Let's Move,' so many congregations were already sponsoring health ministries and fitness classes, hosting food pantries and summer nutrition programs for our kids."

Obama also mentioned the National Council of Churches, which she said had joined with Ample Harvest, an organization that helps gardeners donate fresh produce to 4,700 of their local food pantries. "The National Baptist Convention is aiming to have health ambassadors at all of their nearly 10,000 churches by September," she added. "And some of their churches have already created "no fry" zones in their congregations."

She said all faith communities were promoting a healthy lifestyle. "Muslim community leaders are hosting sports tournaments to encourage young people to get active," she said. "The Jewish Community Centers Association is working with JCCs around the country to grow gardens, and to get fresh food into underserved areas, and they're [creating] early child wellness programs."

She told the crowd that members of Let's Move Faith and Communities, which was created to partner with faith-based groups, had sponsored more than 1,000 summer nutrition sites providing millions of healthy meals for children in need. "So just imagine what we could achieve if every single organization and every single congregation in America got involved in this way… Imagine how many children we could feed… Imagine how many lives would be transformed."

The first lady recalled the days when she was growing up, saying, "You might not even understand how life was back then. Most of us led reasonably healthy lives. We walked to and from school every day – rain or shine." But the times have changed. "How many of us find ourselves looking forward to that fried chicken and mac and cheese, pound cake, after church on Sunday?" she asked. "Some people come to church just for the fried chicken."

She also underlined the need to revive the tradition of cooking and eating in the kitchen. "We still do that at the White House. It's a little, bitty kitchen – big, old house, everybody sitting in the kitchen. No matter where – you're sitting in the kitchen. I'm not cooking, but … but we still like the kitchen. Dirtying every pot, cooking everyone's favorite dishes, talking, laughing, sharing stories late into the night. That's family."

Obama said the government doesn't have all the answers. "There's no one-size-fits-all program or policy that will solve this problem. Every family and every community is different. Each of us needs to make the changes that fit with our budgets, our beliefs, and our tastes."

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post contributor.

FIND THIS ARTICLE AT: http://www.christianpost.com/news/michelle-obama-visits-fla-megachurch-urges-religious-groups-to-fight-obesity-69275

A Bitter Pill?

Joel Hunter was an unlikely ally of Barack Obama’s in the 2008 election. The Christian evangelical, who leads a mega-church in central Florida, had backed fellow pastor Mike Huckabee in the Republican primary that year. At Obama’s inauguration, Hunter found himself sitting next to Muhammad Ali in the 12th row.

Obama’s outreach to the faithful during the 2008 campaign—unprecedented for a Democratic candidate—paid off. He did 8 percentage points better than 2004 nominee John Kerry had among voters who worship weekly or more, although he lost regular worshippers overall to Republican John McCain. With strong support from minorities, Obama beat McCain by 9 percentage points among Catholics (who favored George W. Bush over Kerry by 5 points in 2004) and made smaller inroads among evangelicals such as Hunter.

Those gains are now in jeopardy, according to Hunter and other religious leaders fuming over the Obama administration’s requirement that church-affiliated institutions such as hospitals, schools, and charities cover birth control in their employee health insurance plans.

“The boundaries of religious freedom and identity are being trespassed,” said Hunter, who still writes weekly devotions for Obama and visited the Oval Office last week; he said he keeps his spiritual guidance separate from any policy recommendations he funnels to the president. “I do think this will have political repercussions in the religious community,” Hunter added. “This has the potential to be a breaking point.”

Obama’s Republican challengers certainly hope so. Newt Gingrich has accused Obama of waging a “war against religion.” Rick Santorum, a devout Catholic who has put issues such as abortion and marriage at the center of his campaign, used his victory speech after the Missouri primary to accuse Obama of steamrolling the First Amendment.

Campaigning earlier this week in Colorado, front-runner Mitt Romney, said sharply, “We must have a president who is willing to protect America’s first right, a right to worship God.”

The issue is potentially advantageous for Romney, a Mormon who once held moderate positions on abortion and gay marriage, because it allows him to align himself with the social conservatives who have resisted his candidacy. (Both Gingrich and Democrats, however, have called Romney a hypocrite on the birth-control issue. As governor of Massachusetts, he enforced a rule requiring Catholic hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims, after the Legislature overrode his veto of the measure.)

On Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner put the dispute at the center of his party’s agenda, taking to the House floor to condemn “an unambiguous attack on religious freedom in our country.” He vowed to overturn the provision stemming from Obama’s sweeping health care reform plan. The fight over that legislation has already sorely tested the president’s relationship with religious leaders, who feared that it would allow taxpayer dollars to cover abortion.

To the extent that Republicans succeed in framing the current debate as one over religious liberty, the controversy over the so-called conscience clause could damage Obama at the polls. A perceived threat to religious freedom could pull more-casual churchgoers, who typically lean Democratic, closer to regular churchgoers, who tend to vote Republican, said John Green, a University of Akron political-science professor who specializes in the intersection of religion and politics.

In 2008, exit polls showed that the more frequently white Catholic voters went to church, the less likely they were to favor Obama. He got the votes of only 41 percent of white Catholics who attended church weekly or more; 47 percent of those who attended a few times a month; and 54 percent of those who attended a few times a year or never.

The relationship of religion and politics could influence the outcome of the 2012 election in battleground states with large Catholic communities, including Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, Green added. “The real problem for the Obama administration would be if the [birth-control] issue moved some of those less religious Catholics,” Green said. “The issue might also move the regular Mass-attending Catholics to vote even more Republican.”

But if Democrats win the message war and frame the issue as a matter of public policy that involves women’s health and access to contraception, Republicans may find themselves on the losing side of the argument. In a survey by the Public Religion Research Institute, 52 percent of Catholic voters agreed that employee health plans should cover birth control. The Obama administration is also touting a Guttmacher Institute study that found 98 percent of Catholic women have used birth control.

“Obviously, this is not a war against the Catholic Church. I’m Catholic, and I don’t find that there’s a war against me at all,” said Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former Maryland lieutenant governor and a member of one of the nation’s most prominent Catholic families. “This is about women’s health and protecting the rights of all citizens. If Republicans want to fight about contraception being available for women, I think they will be on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of women’s health.”

A Wall Street Journal column this week by three Democratic senators—Jeanne Sheehan of New Hampshire, Barbara Boxer of California, and Patty Murray of Washington—tied critics of Obama’s policy on contraceptive coverage to the decision by the Susan G. Komen Foundation to cut funding to Planned Parenthood. A massive public outcry forced the breast-cancer charity to reverse itself. “Once again,” the senators wrote, “they are trying to force their politics on women’s personal health care decisions.”

Young voters, women, and independents helped to elect Obama in 2008. If Republicans overreach on contraception, those voters will help offset any support the president loses from religiously devout voters, who lean Republican anyway. But if the GOP succeeds in wrapping the issue in the mantle of religious liberty, Obama will struggle to rebuild the diverse coalition that put him in the White House.