Oh come all ye faithful?

Oh come all ye faithful? Oh come all ye faithful? Obama rarely seen in church, but advisers say his beliefs remain strong.

President Barack Obama rarely goes to church and has spent just one Christmas morning of his presidency in the pews.

But that’s not for lack of faith, members of his small circle of religious confidants say. While church isn’t a regular part of Obama’s life, prayer and reflection are, whether he’s meeting with ministers in the Oval Office or spending a few minutes reading an inspirational passage. And, if anything, they argue, his connection with God has intensified during his time in the White House.

“The president’s faith has deepened in the second term; he’s said as much,” said Joshua DuBois, a longtime spiritual adviser to Obama who led the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships during the president’s first term.

“The president’s Christian faith is not connected to or dependent upon anyone else’s beliefs about him, any particular policy issue, any moment in the news cycle or anything else,” DuBois said. “The president’s faith existed long before the While House and will continue after he closes the door to the White House for the last time.”

Critics say that wouldn’t be readily apparent from watching his public comings and goings. After disavowing his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and leaving Wright’s Chicago church during the 2008 campaign, Obama was widely expected to seek out a church in Washington that he’d attend with some frequency. Instead, he’s attended Sunday services only occasionally, visiting a patchwork of congregations 19 times in all since taking office, according to a POLITICO analysis of White House pool reports.

But the president embraces his faith in other ways, people who see this private side of him say.

DuBois, an ordained Pentecostal minister, and Joel Hunter, a Florida megachurch pastor, are Obama’s two closest religious advisers. A larger circle — which includes evangelical activist Jim Wallis and civil rights movement leader Joseph Lowery, among others — marks the president’s birthday each year, and many in the same group attend the Easter Prayer Breakfast and other White House events throughout the year.

Keeping up a practice that DuBois began during the 2008 campaign, they also send Obama daily devotionals — prayers, poems and other messages — that he reads on his BlackBerry.

“Reading scripture every day yields a certain amount of personal growth, and he’s done this every day for years,” Hunter said. At prayer breakfasts and other gatherings, Hunter has seen “a man who really enjoys talking about his faith” and who “seems at home.”

“It’s a good indication that he is growing in his faith,” he added.

Though Obama rarely discusses his faith, he has made clear that, if nothing else, being president has made him more attentive to it.

“I’m far more mindful of my own failings, knowing exactly what [Abraham] Lincoln meant when he said, ‘I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that I had no place else to go,’” he said at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, drawing on a quotation attributed to the 16th president, though Lincoln may not have actually said it.

“The pressures of the office tend to lead presidents toward prayer. Those who have a reservoir of piety and theological understanding will draw on that, dip into that,” said Randall Balmer, a professor of religion at Dartmouth College and author of “God in the White House: How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush.”

Jimmy Carter, for one, would pray several times each day while in office, sometimes whispering to himself between meetings, Balmer said.

Early on in his term, Obama’s spiritual focus was on being the best possible president, Hunter said, but over the past few years he’s broadened his perspective, thinking more of his role not just as commander in chief but as a father and as a man.

“He has more paid attention to who he needs to be as a man and who other people need him to be as a person who is always trying to do the right thing but will always be blocked politically,” Hunter said.

“You never give up, you always try for political solutions, but you become increasingly aware … there isn’t a killer app, there’s not gonna be a huge move,” he added. “When problems get solved, they’re gonna be incremental, simply because that’s the only way things are being done these days in Washington.”

In addition to spending time reading and mulling over his daily devotionals, Obama occasionally talks by phone or meets in person with his spiritual advisers. There’s no formal schedule to when these conversations take place, just whenever the president wants them, advisers said.

“Every time we pray, I’ll ask him, ‘What do you want to pray for?’ And he says, ‘Well, let’s pray for the country,’” Hunter said. “The country is so on his mind. It’s not, ‘Let’s pray just for this group or just for this cause,’ it’s, ‘I want to pray for the country.’ That’s encouraging to see.”

In all, Obama has gone to services on about 6 percent of the Sundays of his presidency and just once on Christmas Day, in 2011, which also happened to be a Sunday. George W. Bush, by contrast, went to church on close to 30 percent of Sundays during his eight years in office.

All of this stokes criticism on the right, with some arguing that Obama’s professed Christian faith is a sham — or at least an overstatement — meant to make him more palatable to voters.

In an interview last fall, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly pushed DuBois on why the president “doesn’t go to church more often” and wondered whether there was any link between Obama’s departure from Wright’s church and the infrequency of his public worship. DuBois defended the president, saying Obama “leads with his relationship with Jesus” and goes to church several times a year.

One factor is that the first family is busy and prefers to use its free time to bond together at home.

“We try to go to church as much as possible, but when the kids get older, you know, Sunday is some kind of practice, rehearsal, birthday party, you know. So getting us all together on a Sunday is becoming more difficult now that the girls are getting older,” first lady Michelle Obama said in an interview on “Live with Kelly and Michael” timed to the annual White House Easter Egg Roll this year.

“But if we’re not going to church, we really try to use Sunday as family downtime where we can kind of breathe and catch up and maybe take a little nap every now and then if we’re not working,” she said.

But the key reason the president doesn’t go to church more often, DuBois and others close to him said, is because he worries that his presence detracts from other worshipers’ experience.

Obama found out how difficult it would be for him to go to church before he even became president, when he and his family were swarmed by well-wishers and photo-takers at Washington’s Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, one of the nation’s oldest black churches, on the Sunday before his 2009 inauguration.

“When folks see the line forming outside, a lot of folks who don’t attend that congregation go in,” DuBois said. “It displaces a lot of people who are members of that church or at least interrupts them.”

More than five years later, on Easter Sunday this year, the crowd at Nineteenth Street Baptist — located 3 1/2 miles up 16th Street from the White House — was enthusiastic but not overwhelmed by the Obamas’ presence. Still, the first family faced several minutes of what a reporter described as “crowd crush,” with worshipers jockeying for position as they pulled out their smartphones and tablets.

During the president’s Easter visit to the church — his only one so far this year — senior pastor Derrick Harkins acknowledged the first family’s arrival and offered prayers for them, asking that God give the president “every measure of encouragement” and “wisdom.” He also called on God to “tend to his spirit” under the weight of criticism.

After the first flurry of attention, the congregation was respectful, Harkins said. “Our members have wanted to make sure that the worship experience is one that is meaningful and supportive of [the president] and his family” and not one that overwhelms them.

And the Obamas appreciate it. “The president and the first lady are never hesitant to share that they found the worship time valuable to them,” Harkins said. “It’s absolutely genuine.”

To those who doubt Obama’s dedication to his faith, Harkins, a former adviser to the Democratic National Committee, added: “If we were to judge spiritual depth and fulfillment based on who went to church and who didn’t, there would probably be a lot of surprises. I never try to determine what the spiritual engagement of another person is. It’s an awfully pretentious thing to do about anybody, let alone the president.”

SOURCE: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/president-barack-obama-religion-113791.html

Obama Welcomes Christian leaders to White House for Easter Prayer Breakfast

Pastor Joel C. Hunter offered the opening prayer at the fifth annual Easter Prayer Breakfast at the White House.

Orlando Sentinel: Interfaith prayer service honors Joel Hunter

Interfaith prayer service honors Joel Hunter

One by one, members of different faiths and beliefs stepped forward Tuesday night to light candles in remembrance of loved ones they had lost.

In the procession of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists, Northland Church Pastor Joel Hunter and his wife Becky lit a candle for their son, Isaac Hunter.

In the end, some 70 candles flickered in a small sanctuary of the St. James Catholic Cathedral in downtown Orlando during the hour-long Interfaith Prayer Service for Peace.

"Many of us faced losses this past year or unresolved losses," said Rev. Bryan Fulwider, a Congregational minister. "We are strengthened, we are healed, by standing together, walking together, being together."

Leaders of the major religions as well as representatives of the Sikh, Unitarian and Baha'i faiths, also said prayers.

The service was both an act of empathy for all who lost friends and relatives and a public show of support for Hunter, whose son died by suicide in December.

"This is a service designed to bring comfort to all that have had losses, but it's also a collective embrace of him and his family for their loss of Isaac," said Pastor James Coffin, executive director of the Interfaith Council of Central Florida.

Coffin said the idea of focusing on personal peace following a private tragedy came from Orlando Catholic Diocese Bishop John Noonan, who started the annual interfaith prayer service about three years ago.

Hunter is widely respected within the faith community for his commitment to building relationships with leaders of different religions.

One of his longest friendships is with Imam Muhammad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida.

"He is an evangelical leader who got a lot of flak for going out and meeting with Muslims and other communities," said Musri, who sat beside Hunter.

"The least we can do is be with him and lift up his spirit."

That willingness to join in with other religions might have cost Hunter friends among evangelicals, but his commitment to interfaith cooperation is the natural extension of his Christian faith, said Fulwider, president of Building US, a nonprofit diversity consulting and training organization.

"He has become a friend to those in other faith communities because this is who Jesus calls him to be," Fulwider said.

"He is not a person who cuts off relations because you have a difference of understanding or belief or thoughts. To me that is the heart of the Christian gospel."

jkunerth@tribune.com or 407-420-5392.

SOURCE: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2014-01-14/news/os-joel-hunter-peace-prayer-20140114_1_isaac-hunter-joel-hunter-interfaith-council

Barack Obama’s Church Attendance: An Interview with Dr. Gary Smith

Editor’s note: The “V&V Q&A” is an e-publication from The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College. In this latest edition, Dr. Paul Kengor, the executive director of the Center for Vision & Values, interviews Dr. Gary Scott Smith, Grove City College professor and author of the acclaimed, Faith and the Presidency: From George Washington to George W. Bush, published by Oxford University Press.

Kengor: Dr. Smith, you are one of the country’s leading experts on faith and the presidency. Reporters frequently come to you for comment. In that spirit, the New York Times interviewed you last week on the notable fact that President Obama didn’t attend religious services this past Christmas. That’s quite unusual for a president, isn’t it?

Smith: Yes, it is.

Kengor: Do you know of any other president skipping religious services at Christmas?

Smith: Some probably did not attend religious services at Christmas, but I do not know of any specifically. The media was not omnipresent before the 1960s, so it was easier for presidents’ non-attendance to go unnoticed. However, most presidents have attended church faithfully while in office, including George Washington, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. Others who claimed to have a strong Christian faith but attended infrequently while president include Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Ronald Reagan. Obama did issue a Christmas message, as he has done every year as president, in which he encouraged Americans to serve others. “For families like ours,” he declared, “that service is a chance to celebrate the birth of Christ and live out what He taught us—to love our neighbors as we would ourselves; to feed the hungry and look after the sick; to be our brother’s keeper.” Obama has used this latter phrase more than 60 times in his presidential addresses and proclamations.

Kengor: Yes, he uses that phrase constantly. Did President Obama give a rationale for not attending church this Christmas? What’s the explanation?

Smith: He apparently has not offered an explanation for not attending Christmas services. He did vacation in Hawaii for five days where he spent time with his family, played golf three times, attended a basketball game, and visited a military base. On Christmas Eve, the president called U.S. armed forces members who are stationed around the globe to wish them a Merry Christmas.

Kengor: Moving away from this Christmas example, what about Obama’s attendance at church generally? The New York Times quotes an “unofficial White House historian” who calculates that Obama has attended church 18 times during his nearly five years in the White House, while his predecessor, George W. Bush, attended 120 times during his eight years in office. Is Obama a member of a church?

Smith: Obama does not currently belong to any congregation. After attending St. John’s Episcopal Church and 19th Street Baptist Church in Washington a few times, he decided instead to worship primarily at the Evergreen Chapel at Camp David. However, he rarely spends weekends at Camp David.

Kengor: Does Obama have a formal religious affiliation? He’s no longer with the denomination that housed Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s church, is he?

Smith: Since ending his relationship with Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ Church in Chicago during the 2008 campaign, Obama has not joined a church.

Kengor: Has Obama explained his lack of church attendance? You and I both have written on President Ronald Reagan’s faith. Reagan stopped attending church regularly after the assassination attempt, though (to my knowledge) he always attended Christmas and Easter services. Reagan gave a host of reasons for his infrequent attendance as president. (He returned to church regularly again after the presidency.) Has Obama addressed this? Reagan was constantly asked to address it, and did.

Smith: Obama has seldom commented on why he rarely attends church. His basic explanation is that he dislikes being on display when he worships (many people have snapped pictures of him with their cell phones and some pastors have spoken directly to him).

Kengor: In the Times article, you’re quoted as saying, “I would argue that Obama’s faith has been one of the most misunderstood of any president.” What do you mean by that?

Smith: From 2008 until now, many Americans (as high as 20 percent in some polls) have identified Obama as a Muslim despite the controversy over his membership in Wright’s church and his many professions of Christian faith. Because of his connection with Wright, others have labeled him an advocate of black liberation theology. Many political and religious conservatives complain that Obama’s claim to be a Christian is disingenuous and entirely politically motivated. Obama has been labeled “the most explicitly Christian president in American history” by historian John Fea and America’s “Most Biblically Hostile” president by evangelical author and activist David Barton. Many conservative Christian books and websites argue that Obama is trying to destroy the nation’s Christian heritage and cannot possibly be a Christian because of his stances on abortion, gay marriage, and government redistribution of wealth. On the other hand, liberal Protestants and Catholics and some evangelicals praise Obama’s concern for aiding the marginalized, oppressed, and poor. Some younger evangelicals support Obama because of his commitment to social-justice issues like overcoming racism, combating poverty, and tackling global issues like AIDS.

Kengor: As you note, conservatives who don’t like Obama argue that his faith is not genuine, while liberals who do like Obama argue otherwise. Others take a position somewhere in between. What’s your take?

Smith: I believe that Obama’s faith is genuine. He has testified to it many times on both the campaign trail, at National Prayer Breakfasts, and in other settings. Obama has repeatedly declared that Jesus is his savior and Lord and that he bases his life on Christ’s teachings. He has frequently affirmed his belief in Christ’s divinity, bodily resurrection, and atoning death on the cross. Obama insists that he prays and reads the Bible regularly. He meets and prays regularly with ministers of various denominations and theological traditions. Evangelical pastor Joel Hunter, Obama’s closest spiritual mentor, asserts that the president is “born again” and “has trusted in Jesus Christ with his whole heart.”

Obama’s faith is difficult to decipher, however, because various streams—the African-American church, the Social Gospel movement, mainline Protestantism, and evangelicalism—have all shaped it. On the other hand, as Stephen Mansfield contends, Obama’s “big-tent approach” to religion and spirituality “is perfectly in step with the country he now leads.” Like the vast majority of Americans, he believes that many paths lead to God and that all religions contain fundamentals truths. Similarly, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat asserts that Obama embodies America’s “uncentered spiritual landscape” because like 44 percent of Americans, the president switched his religion as an adult, and because he is part of one of America’s fastest-growing religious constituencies—the “unchurched Christian” bloc.

Kengor: Dr. Smith, thanks for your time. I strongly encourage readers to pick up a copy of your outstanding book on faith and the presidency.

Smith: My pleasure.

Dr. Gary Scott Smith chairs the history department at Grove City College and is a fellow for faith and the presidency with The Center for Vision & Values. He is the author of “Faith and the Presidency From George Washington to George W. Bush” (Oxford University Press, 2009) and “Heaven in the American Imagination” (Oxford University Press, 2011).

SOURCE: http://www.ammoland.com/2014/01/barack-obamas-church-attendance-an-interview-with-dr-gary-smith/#axzz2pjmtCxYU

Son of “Orlando’s Favorite Pastor” Named “Orlando's Best Eye Surgeon”

Father and son honored by readers of Orlando Business Journal and Orlando magazine.

ORLANDO, Fla. (OCT. 18, 2013) — Like father like son … readers of Orlando Business Journal have named the son and namesake of nationally known pastor Rev. Joel C. Hunter as “.” Rev. Hunter was recently honored as “Orlando’s Favorite Pastor” by Orlando magazine.

Joel Hunter, M.D. opened the area’s most-advanced LASIK facility back in 2010 at the RDV Sportsplex—offering state-of-the art, bladeless laser vision correction and laser cataract surgery. This year, Hunter Vision expanded its services to include general eye care.

As a distinguished fellow at the most prestigious refractive surgery center in the world, Dr. Hunter had his choice of jobs, but chose instead to create a new and better kind of medical practice in his hometown of Orlando.

Using a new generation of diagnostic and surgical equipment, Dr. Hunter is able to perform some of the finest and most-precise vision correction procedures in the field, including 3D LASIK and laser cataract surgery—a procedure he is helping to pioneer at Hunter Vision.

Dr. Hunter concludes, “My family has been grateful to serve the central Florida community for nearly 30 years. Hunter Vision is committed to continuing that tradition.”

Crowds recall the faith that animated MLK’s unfinished dream

WASHINGTON (RNS) Fifty years to the day after Martin Luther King Jr. knocked on the nation’s conscience with his dream, religious leaders gathered in a historic church to remind the nation that he was fueled by faith.

Later, in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial where King thundered about America’s unmet promises, King’s children joined the likes of President Obama and Oprah Winfrey to rekindle what Obama called a “coalition of conscience.”

At Shiloh Baptist Church, where King preached three years before his 1963 “I Have A Dream” speech, Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh clergy summoned King’s prophetic spirit to help reignite the religious fires of the civil rights movement.

King’s daughter, the Rev. Bernice A. King, said at the service that her father was a freedom fighter and a civil rights leader, but his essence was something else.

“He was a pastor,” said King, who was 5 when her father electrified the nation in front of the Lincoln Memorial. “He was a prophet. He was a faith leader.”

“We can never forget as we celebrate, as we remember . . . that it was that faith and the spirit of God itself that fueled, that infused the movement that led to great change and transformation in the 50’s and 60’s.”

The Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Martin Luther King’s own spiritual home, Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, said they had come together to celebrate a servant of God, “whose ministry stretched far beyond the four walls of the church, and whose parish was America and the world itself.”

Other clergy recalled with pride how members of their own faiths joined with King 50 years ago to non-violently challenge racism and demand equal opportunity and jobs.

Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, read from a letter written to King by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who walked shoulder-to-shoulder with him during the freedom march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. in 1965.

“Even without words, our march was worship,” Heschel wrote. “I felt like my legs were praying.”

Schonfeld said that in the years after the Holocaust, King gave Jews in America a spiritual rebirth, a reason to believe that “God had not forsaken all mankind.”

Born in Sudan, Imam Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America, said King’s legacy made it possible for 28 faith communities came to his mosque after 9/11 to pray alongside his congregation.

King taught that “hate cannot drive out hate,” Magid said. “Only love can do that.”

After the morning prayer service, throngs gathered at the site of King’s speech to mark decades of progress but warn that justice remains elusive for some.

“We’re not here to claim any victory. We’re here to say that the struggle continues,” said Andrew Young, a King aide who went on to become mayor of Atlanta, U.N. ambassador and president of the National Council of Churches. “Pray on and stay on and fight on.”

Added King’s eldest son, Martin Luther King III: “No one ever told any of us that our road would be easy. I know that our God, our God, our God would not bring all of us this far to leave us.”

The Rev. Joseph Lowery, one of the last living icons of the civil rights movement, spoke from a wheelchair close to the imposing statue of Abraham Lincoln and challenged the crowd to battle modern-day efforts to deny rights and restrict freedom.

“We come here to Washington to say we ain’t going back,” said Lowery. “We’ve come too far, marched too long, prayed too hard … bled too profusely and died too young to let anybody turn back the clock on our journey to justice.”

By Lauren Markoe and Adelle M. Banks. Source: http://www.religionnews.com/2013/08/28/crowds-recall-the-faith-that-animated-mlks-unfinished-dream/

Can Sanford Pastors' Success Work in Other Cities?

A diverse group of 40 pastors gathered in a Detroit hotel today to hear a remarkable tale: how the pastors of Sanford, Florida, spared their city from the racially charged protests that erupted nationwide last month after a jury acquitted George Zimmerman of murdering Trayvon Martin.

Sanford could have understandably been the epicenter of outrage over the controversial July verdict, which inspired significant protests—some marred by vandalism and violence—from New York to Los Angeles. Instead, this commuter suburb of Orlando weathered the aftermath so successfully that its pastors are now on a mission to spread the progress they've made toward calm and reconciliation to urban centers nationwide.

Already on the list after Detroit: Toledo, Charlotte, New York, Denver, and Minneapolis.

"The timing is absolutely right for this. There is no question about it," said Derrick Gay, pastor of Sanford's Dominion International Church and an organizer of the tour. "We as the church have been given, according to 2 Corinthians 5, the ministry of reconciliation. There's no other institution on earth that has been given this authority—not the government, not the banks, not the education system that we have."

The collaboration, in which pastors across racial, ethnic, and denominational lines meet to eat, pray, and candidly air racial concerns, is even more notable in a city with the historical distinction of being where Jackie Robinson was ousted from minor-league baseball training in 1946.

Leading the charge is Sanford Pastors Connecting (SPC), the interracial, cross-denominational group first organized by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to help the city of Sanford navigate fallout from the shooting death of unarmed, 17-year-old Martin there in February 2012.

The Department of Justice sent veteran mediator Thomas Battles to Sanford to help keep the peace after Martin's death. He, in turn, organized pastors to form SPC. The pastors were given four reserved seats daily in the local courtroom during Zimmerman's trial. The pastors rotated through to witness the proceedings firsthand and to relay what was going on to courthouse crowds and to their own congregations.

SPC pastors agreed to support the jury's verdict, whatever it was, and keep the peace afterward. When the jury acquitted Zimmerman of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges, it seemed it might be a problematic promise to keep.

But solidarity and prayers played a big part in diffusing any violence that might have broken out in Sanford, either during the initial unrest over Martin's death or when Zimmerman was ultimately acquitted, said Joel Hunter, a SPC member perhaps best known as one of President Barack Obama's spiritual advisors.

"We had already built up a very solid core of people who were committed to not just reacting to a verdict, but sifting through how we could improve the community because of this," said Hunter. His congregation, Northland: A Church Distributed, near Sanford is predominantly white, and is the largest evangelical church in central Florida.

Hunter said that sitting together through the somber, racially charged Zimmerman trial ironically helped to bridge some of the long-entrenched disconnect between Sanford's black and white clergy.

Positioned side by side, chatting before and after court proceedings, and having lunch together during breaks "has built a much closer relationship between many of the African-American pastors and Anglo pastors," said Hunter. "You can say talk is cheap. But when you go through something like this and you have an ongoing dialogue, the closeness of relationships that happens is really remarkable."

Despite their different races, genders, and religious backgrounds, 30 to 40 clergy have continued to meet monthly for breakfast at Sanford's Cracker Barrel restaurant since the start of the trial. That's no small feat, given that getting any group of pastors to work together can be "like herding cats," said Jeffrey Krall. The Assemblies of God pastor chairs SPC alongside pastor Valarie Houston, whose Allen Chapel AME Church is regarded as "Ground Zero" for the public outcry over Martin's death.

Krall, lead pastor of Sanford's mostly white Family Worship Center, said the seeds for this momentum were actually sown 22 years ago.

"It's always been racially divided down here," said Krall of his city's 55,000 residents. (Today, 30 percent are African American, 20 percent are Hispanic, 3 percent are Asian, and the rest are white.) In response, he launched the Sanford Ministers Fellowship in 1991. Though the group has been working to cultivate reconciliation in Sanford a lot longer—and is just as steadfast in praying and interceding toward that end—Krall conceded the fellowship never became as large, high-profile, or diverse as SPC has become over the past year.

"I actually feel like Thomas Battles used his leverage to accomplish what I have been trying to do for more than 20 years," Krall said of the DOJ regional director, who is African American. "I'm rejoicing that he got involved. There's just a great humility and fear of God on everybody."

"That doesn't mean that the issues have all gone away. We have a lot of work cut out for us," said Charles Holt, rector of St. Peter's Episcopal Church and School in neighboring Lake Mary. "But what's changed in Sanford is the communication taking place [between] various churches across the spectrum, and between the church and the community. That's a huge step in the right direction."

Another local Christian leader who has been very ambitious in mobilizing pastors to seek racial reconciliation is Steve Strang, founder and CEO of Charisma Media. From his headquarters in Lake Mary, a city barely more than 2 miles from where Martin died last year, Strang has rallied Sanford-area pastors to hold special prayer meetings and forums in the wake of the shooting.

Last year, his company produced Sanford: The Untold Story, a documentary of Sanford-area church leaders speaking out on race relations. In July, Strang brought together 30 faith leaders from around the country to publicly issue a covenant of racial reconciliation. Called The Sanford Declaration, the July 31 announcement at Charisma Media served as a prelude to the National Reconciliation and Relationship Initiative now being mapped out.

"We invited some pastors from different cities that actually came on their own dime to see what's happening in Sanford," said Gay, who is African American. Attendees included Promise Keepers president Raleigh Washington and such megachurch leaders as Touré Roberts of One Church International in Los Angeles, Dale Bronner of Word of Faith Family Worship Cathedral in greater Atlanta, and Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church in suburban Washington, D.C. The plan is now for Sanford pastors to visit these urban centers with their message. The first stop: Gay keynoted Promise Keepers' Reviving Detroit Summit today at the struggling city's iconic Hotel St. Regis.

A former star football player at Florida A&M University, Gay has become key among Sanford ministers in pushing for racial reconciliation. In November 2011, he moved his multicultural, nondenominational congregation to the Sanford area from Altamonte Springs.

"It was a tough decision because in the transition, we probably lost a third of our church," said Gay. "However ... as a 34-year-old, for the first time in ministry, I feel like I'm in the right place and God has ordered this thing. ... When everything began to jump off, I really felt strongly that this city needed someone who was not from this city, and could identify with the people there, particularly the young people."

Despite the enthusiasm SPC pastors have for their undertaking, some counter that there's still a long way to go to forge any kind of lasting, substantive advances in race relations in Sanford, let alone nationwide.

There are still "layers and layers of issues" that need to be addressed, said Bridget Watson. Involved with SPC when it first got off the ground but no longer, she and her husband lead Dunamis Community and Outreach Ministries, a small multiracial church near Sanford.

"I have a 17-year-old son and a 14-year-old son, both who are excellent students and very mannerly," said Watson. "We have to teach them to never appear in such a way as to [seem] threatening. I know my white friends don't have to worry about that."

Parris Baker is not a minister, but the charismatic Northland attendee was invited to work with SPC at its onset. However, the 25-year-old African American said he eventually cut ties with the group, frustrated by their steady calls for meetings about reconciliation, healing, and prayer.

"While I appreciated those efforts, they were inadequate," said Baker, a Sanford actor and rap artist who is studying to become a teacher. "As a young man, I am painfully aware of how young people, by and large, are unchurched. Conscious of how deeply I and other young people were affected by Trayvonʼs killing, I knew we needed to be reached, but it could not be accomplished through church or youth conferences."

But SPC wants to go beyond Cracker Barrel meals. After Zimmerman's acquittal, they started prayer meetings at the Sanford police station and issued a joint proclamation for peace. Next they hope to launch a Swap-A-Pulpit Sunday, a monthly youth worship service, and develop sports programs and other after-school activities so that Sanford youth and law enforcement can interact.

Meanwhile, other faith-based groups are also trying to unite the community. Examples include the Love Sanford Project, headed by community activist Paul Benjamin Sr., and a youth mentoring project for inner-city youth that Benjamin's Central Florida Dream Center is developing with St. Peter's.

Krall says he's finally witnessing the manifestation of a breakthrough he got wind of decades years ago. "I was on a fast when the Lord [revealed to] me that he wanted to do something very, very significant in the city of Sanford," he said. The experience led him to create the older Sanford fellowship. "People would actually fly into our little airport to see what God was doing here." He thinks the cooperation could offer a glimpse of heaven a la Revelation 7:9-10, with "a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and people" praising Jesus.

Gay admits that visions differ a bit between members, just as they differ in other areas. "In all honesty, we may [still] be divided on what we feel justice should be in this situation," he said. "But we're not going to allow this thing to have a negative impact on this city.

"Our feelings were put on the back burner for the sake of this community," he said. "This is the way that we believe Christ would operate, and we've seen tremendous things happen. It is essential for us to now move forward."

By Angela G. King. SOURCE: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/august-web-only/sanford-florida-pastors-reconciliation-trayvon-zimmerman.html?paging=off

Sanford Pastors Commit to 'Seize the Moment'

More than 15 months ago, pastors from around the country gathered near Sanford, Fla., for a historic meeting to attack the spiritual darkness of racism exacerbated by the tragic death of Trayvon Martin. Wednesday, pastors and national church leaders returned to the area to continue the battle less than three weeks after the acquittal of George Zimmerman. Several local pastors who have been working behind the scenes to tackle the issue of race relations in Sanford were present in the offices of Charisma Media along with Promise Keepers President and CEO Dr. Raleigh Washington and Bishop Harry Jackson, senior pastor of Hope Christian Church and a leader of the High Impact Coalition. Pastors from Ohio, California and Georgia also attended the meeting to help start a racial reconciliation initiative.

Washington said the task of bringing racial harmony and unity to Sanford has only begun, and he reiterated his challenge to spiritual leaders to continue to “cross racial lines” to make it happen.

“You, as the leaders of the church here in Sanford, have the opportunity to seize the moment—the moment to establish genuine relationships that will bring about racial reconciliation here,” Washington said. “Establishing genuine relationships across racial lines are what’s going to make a difference. You cannot fall asleep at the wheel. Seize the moment.”

Derrick Gay, pastor of Dominion Church International in Sanford, said the historical roots of racism are why the separation of races continues today.

“Why don’t we talk? Why do we still have an issue with each other? Why don’t we like each other?” Gay asked. “Simply because of history. The answer is we need anointed leadership in place, where everyone will submit to that leadership. We need to make this a lifetime effort to link arms with each other.”

Joel Hunter, senior pastor of Northland Church, said that tide could be broken.

“The inertia of history can only be interrupted by relationship,” Hunter said. “There’s a difference between justice and law. ... Justice is something that only happens through relationship."

Ron Johnson, pastor of One Church in Longwood, Fla., said, referring to racism, “To break this, it can’t happen by default. It has to happen by design.”

While riots and violent protests broke out in spots around the country in the days following the July 13 not-guilty verdict for Zimmerman, only peaceful protests were staged in Sanford.

“People are going to point to Sanford one day and say, 'These people have learned to do it right,'” Washington said. “You, the leaders, have stayed on the battlefield and continued the challenge we gave you. Other cities simply don’t know how to deal with this issue.”

Sanford Pastors Connecting, a group of pastors formed after the initial meeting in April 2012, have met on a monthly basis and are building initiatives to bridge the racial gap in the community. Jackson said he hopes other communities follow Sanford’s lead.

“You are an example and a model. What would happen if we could replicate the concepts you have put in place here?” Jackson asked. “We must continue to pray prayers that will touch black, white, Asian and Hispanic kids that are losing their way everywhere.”

SOURCE: http://www.charismanews.com/us/40461-raleigh-washington-sanford-pastors-must-seize-the-moment

CNN: Pastors aim to keep peace at Zimmerman trial

SANFORD, Florida (CNN) – As opening arguments begin, courtroom seats are at a premium at the trial of George Zimmerman, charged with second degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager.

But in an unusual arrangement, four seats in the second row, just steps from the jury box, have been assigned to a group called “Sanford Pastors Connecting.”

The multi-racial ministerial association has pledged to bear witness to the high-profile proceedings during the trial and to keep the peace afterward.

All of the clergy in the courtroom project have agreed to support the jury’s verdict in the racially-charged case, which sparked large rallies and marches led by civil rights figures like the Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.

As needed, the pastors will report courtroom events to crowds expected to gather outside the courthouse, as well as to their congregations, and have agreed to head off inflammatory rumors.

“Regardless of what the verdict is, we can avoid the violence," said the Rev. Robert K. Gregory Jr., of the Good News Jail & Prison Ministry in Sanford. "If we work together, trust can be built.”

Zimmerman, a member of the Neighborhood Watch in his gated community, is accused of stalking and fatally shooting Martin, who was staying with his father, on February 26, 2012.

The defense claims that Martin, returning from a convenience store, turned on Zimmerman, who then fired in self-defense.

Two dozen media spaces on the courtroom’s polished wooden seats have been assigned by lottery, with an equal amount set aside for the general public. Another twelve spots in the rectangular chamber are reserved for the Zimmerman and Martin families.

The pastoral rotation is the idea of the U.S. Department of Justice's Community Relations Service. A Seminole County Sheriff’s inspector, who is also an ordained minister, handles the scheduling. Among the Christian clergy who have signed up, there are evangelical and mainline congregations; tiny, urban parishes and suburban megachurches.

“We’re looking at providing leadership, to comfort people through the word of God and prayer,” said the Rev. Sharon Patterson, of Getting Your House in Order Ministries, a small African-American congregation.

“We want our presence to encourage them to understand that as long as God is in control, everything will work out all right,” the pastor said.

Patterson brings a particular past to her courtroom witnessing. She once aspired to be a lawyer herself, spending summers when she was first teaching public school, and had no air conditioning at home, going from trial to trial.

While most Sanford-area African-American congregations rallied around the Martin family and their call for justice immediately following the shooting, some predominately white churches and clergy were divided.

The Rev. Alan Brumback, pastor of Sanford’s Central Baptist Church, was one of the first – and few – local white clergy to join the predominately black marches and demonstrations in the wake of the Martin shooting.

However, Brumback, whose congregation is multi-racial, said he would not be a part of the courtroom program.

“I am calling my church to pray for our city and to share the only news that can bring reconciliation,” he said, “the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is my only agenda.”

Whatever it is, the verdict will be God’s will, said the Rev. Lowman J. Oliver III of St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in Sanford.

“We pray that the outcome will be just and fair to all parties,” he said. “How will it look? I’m not able to answer that. Our roles are as peacemakers. It’s more important that we send a message that we sustain the peace.”

However, Oliver said, peaceful acceptance of a verdict does not mean people will have to agree with it. They can certainly have “a righteous response,” as long as it is nonviolent.

“There is a history of division in this community, and there is a history involving violence against black youth” that must be addressed, said the Rev. Joel Hunter, of Northland Church in Longwood, Florida. A prominent evangelical, Hunter is also a close confidant of President Obama's.

After a long, tedious day of sitting together during jury selection, Hunter, Oliver and Gregory were finishing each other’s sentences.

Laughing, they admitted that they were unused to sitting still and silent in unpadded pews for so long – while others did the talking.

SOURCE URL: http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/24/pastors-aim-to-keep-peace-at-zimmerman-trial/?iref=allsearch

Orlando Sentinel: Dr. Joel C. Hunter Is a "Different Breed of Evangelical"

The paper reports: "Hunter has established himself as a different breed of evangelical. He works with leaders from other faiths. He advocates for environmental stewardship, help for the poor and assistance during natural disasters rather than focusing on abortion and gay marriage. His church, Northland, a Church Distributed, plays a prominent role in most every issue confronting Central Florida from the shooting of Trayvon Martin to homeless schoolchildren. Hunter gained national prominence by becoming the spiritual adviser to President Barack Obama but asserts his leadership locally by providing a reasoned, compassionate voice that resonates across religious, economic and racial lines." View the Sentinel's complete list of "Orlando's Power Brokers."