• Public Square •
Dr. Hunter is on the Board of Directors (and Northland is a member) of the National Association of Evangelicals. With a membership of 30 million, it is the most influential evangelical voice in the United States of America. You can visit the Public Affairs page of the NAE website and read “For the Health of the Nation,” our signature statement on participation in the public square.
The crisis of biblical proportions in Haiti has brought out the full spectrum of the faithful to offer emergency aid. Now, a start-up group of progressive Protestants is launching itself with a campaign to erase Haiti's debts so the crippled nation can focus on rebuilding.
The New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good -- led by marquee activists, academics, seminar profs and pastors such as Rev. Richard Cizik -- was originally going to launch later this month but stepped up to the publicity megaphone to call attention to Haiti's need beyond emergency relief. Their release says, "We believe that Jesus calls us to work together to set free those who are held captive by debt."
You remember Cizik from headlines in 2008, when the long-time head of governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals resigned under fire for hinting support for gay unions in a radio interview.
Evidently, Jesus doesn't call people who disagree about the Bible to work together on issues. Cizik's outspoken concern for global climate change issues had already made him a target with big name conservatives such as Focus on the Family founder James Dobson. But, in recent years, the e-word (evangelical) banner, once owned by Christians with conservative views on politics, economics and biblical morality, has become a flag flown by any Protestant with a social justice focus and a contemporary focus on the Gospel.
Partnership executive director Rev. Steven Martin, formerly with Partnership co-founder David Gushee's group, Evangelicals for Human Rights, says they didn't want to wait to campaign for debt forgiveness. Although two thirds of Haiti's debt, held by other governments and major institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, has been forgiven already, the remaining billions could cost Haiti as much as $50 million a year to service. That's money Haiti needs for rebuilding, says Martin.
Their release quotes Gushee calling the Partnership, "a new way to bear witness to the love of God in Jesus Christ. We have yearned to offer a better model for how Christians address public issues; to be known for always standing up for those whom God loves but the world or the church often mistreat or neglect."
Don't look for Dobson or any other megawatt megachurch conservatives (with the exception of Rev. Joel Hunter, of Northland Church in Orlando, who also serves on President Obama's Council for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships) on the list of signators.
The Partnership's website's includes its stands -- often written with highly nuanced phrasing -- on hot issues such reproductive rights, gay marriage and environmentalism. For example:
We stand against the collapse of marriage and for stronger family life. We are involved in efforts to strengthen the fading institution of marriage and thereby protecting and enhancing the well-being of children. We do not believe that denigrating the dignity and denying the human rights of gays and lesbians is a legitimate part of a "pro-family" Christian agenda, and will work to reform Christian attitudes and treatment of lesbian and gay people.
This time, no one's going to shove Cizik out the door for saying so.
Find this article at: http://www.usatoday.com/topics/post/Events+and+Awards/In-depth+Coverage/Haiti+Earthquake/16364.blog/1
• Poverty •
Haiti Without Borders Prayer Vigil from Northland Church on Vimeo.
Pastor Hunter joins with Haitian pastors at a prayer vigil in Crane's Roost Park in Florida, on January 27, 2010.
• Culture Wars •
By Bill Schneider, Distinguished Senior Fellow and Resident Scholar at Third Way
Will the culture wars ever end? We have now had three Presidents in a row who promised to unite the country. They all failed.
Bill Clinton said in 2004, ``If you look back on the sixties and, on balance, you think there was more good than harm in it, you're probably a Democrat. And if you think there's more harm than good, then you're probably a Republican.''
The sixties were a long time ago. That was when China had a Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and the United States had a Great American Cultural Revolution. China got over its trauma. The U.S. never did.
Why not? One word: religion. The United States experienced a ferocious backlash to the cultural changes of the 1960s. It's a backlash that happened nowhere else. It happened because of the uniquely powerful role of religion in American public life. Religious observance is now the defining political difference between Democrats and Republicans. Regular churchgoers vote Republican (55 percent for John McCain in 2008). Irregular churchgoers vote Democratic (60 percent for Barack Obama).
Can anyone heal the divide? A group of centrist evangelicals and progressives is trying. Their project is called ``Come Let Us Reason Together.''
A group of moderate evangelicals has joined forces with Third Way, a Washington think tank, (I should note here I am a Distinguished Senior Fellow & Resident Scholar at Third Way) ``trying to change the nature of our engagement in public debate in the United States,'' according to David P. Gushee, professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University and president of Evangelicals for Human Rights.
``There's a real weariness of the politics of division,'' Robert P. Jones, president of Public Religion Research says. ``This project is about trying to find a politics of common ground.'' Jones estimates that 54 percent of white evangelicals in the U.S. can be described as ``centrist" (40 percent) or ``modernist'' (14 percent). Among younger white evangelicals, the total rises to 61 percent. These are churchgoing Americans who, Jones says, ``have increasingly found that the most loud and public voices in evangelical life are not speaking for them.''
In the past leaders who have tried to heal the cultural divide have taken two paths: either compromise or avoidance. But cultural issues are not easy to compromise. They're about values, not interests. Interests can be compromised. Values -- matters of right and wrong -- can not. In 1992, Bill Clinton said abortion should be ``safe, legal and rare.'' Anti-abortion forces believe abortion is murder. Should murder be ``safe, legal and rare''?
Barack Obama has followed the path of avoidance for the most part. In his first year, Obama hasn't said much about God, guns and gays, although his supporters believe he will eventually deliver. Same with immigration reform. The President says he will deal with it -- eventually.
``Come Let Us Reason Together'' recommends a different approach: common ground. According to Rev. Joel Hunter, senior pastor at Northland Church in Florida, ``There's a world of difference between compromise and cooperation. On the one hand, you are somehow giving up your agenda. On the other hand, you are even more likely to achieve your agenda through things that you can still do together. Each side is getting part of what they always wanted.''
Jones argues that what makes this effort unique is that ``it has put the more difficult issues front and center and tried to see what kind of conversations we can have about those, rather than pretending they're not in the room.''
Is there really common ground on abortion? The project's guide for pastors talks about reducing the number of abortions by preventing unwanted pregnancies and by supporting pregnant women who want to give birth. Surely progressives and evangelicals can agree on that.
Is there common ground on gay rights? The guide talks about protecting gays and lesbians from employment discrimination and hate crimes. Nothing about same-sex marriage. In Dr. Gushee's view, ``Civil unions don't seem to be a solution that is satisfying to a lot of people in either the gay community or the Christian community, but to me, it seems like it could be a space for common ground.''
The project is not looking for dramatic breakthroughs. It's promoting the experience of working together for shared values. Maybe they'll like it. Maybe they'll learn to trust each other a little more. ``We now have entire industries and organizations that profit from polarization,'' Dr. Hunter observed.
Can evangelicals be drawn away from the path of militancy? Dr. Gushee thinks they can because of the nature of their faith. He calls militancy ``a violation of our own values . . . where commitment to a certain position on an issue has overridden core teachings of our faith and the example of Jesus.'' Rev. Hunter says, ``I would like to build into the evangelical part of the church a broader approach to controversial or divisive issues so that we can both be peacemakers and advance those values that we think are biblical values.''
Doesn't the Bible say, ``Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God''?
Find this article at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-schneider/what-would-jesus-do_b_441944.html
• Disabilities •
Faith & Disability Conference from Northland Church on Vimeo.
Dr. Hunter talks about the necessity for including every part of the Body of Christ, including people with disabilities.
• Poverty •
WASHINGTON (ABP) -- A new organization of progressive evangelicals has formed, calling for complete cancellation of Haiti's foreign debt in order to aid an already-fragile economy devastated by a Jan. 12 earthquake.
The Jan. 22 announcement of the New Evangelical Partnership for Common Good marks the full return into public life of Rich Cizik, former vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals.
Cizik, who resigned the post in 2008 following an outcry after he said on National Public Radio that he no longer opposed civil unions for gays, is one of three founding leaders of the new religious non-profit.
Cizik will work with David Gushee, a professor at Mercer University and regular columnist for Associated Baptist Press, and Steven Martin, a minister, filmmaker and activist who previously worked with Gushee as executive vice president of Evangelicals for Human Rights.
"We have founded this organization to bear witness to the love of God in Jesus Christ," Gushee said in a statement. "We have yearned to offer a better model for how Christians address public issues; to be known for always standing up for those whom God loves but the world or the church often mistreat or neglect."
Gushee said the trio did not plan to launch the organization so soon, but after the earthquake they decided "that now is precisely the right time to get started, and this is the right issue."
The founders said Haiti has been saddled with crippling debt since its beginning as a nation founded by former slaves who overthrew their French masters during Napoleonic times. Corrupt former heads of state -- like "Papa Doc" and "Baby Doc" Duvalier -- racked up huge national debts, lining their own pockets while leaving little to help Haiti's people.
In 2009 the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank forgave $1.2 billion of Haiti's $1.9 billion in aggregate debt. With the earthquake piled on top of everything else, the New Evangelical Partnership says it is time to finish the job.
In the newest effort, 66 Christian leaders signed a petition urging "all nations and institutions that have made loans to the Haitian government to quickly and completely forgive these debts."
The petition calls for disaster-assistance and reconstruction payments to come to Haiti in the form of aid and not loans, "so the cycle of borrowing and repayment that has so crippled the nation of Haiti since its independence will not begin anew."
Official signers include Joel Hunter, senior pastor of Northland Church in Longwood, Fla.; author, speaker and activist Brian McLaren; and Jim Wallis, president and CEO of Sojourners.
Several Baptist clergy and academicians added their names to the list. They include Charles Foster Johnson, interim pastor at First Baptist Church in Brownwood, Texas; Bill Leonard, dean and professor of church history at Wake Forest Divinity School; Larry McSwain, an associate dean and professor at McAfee School of Theology; Jonathan Merritt, a Southern Baptist author and activist from Georgia; Elizabeth Newman, a professor at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond; Roger Paynter, pastor of First Baptist Church in Austin, Texas; Julie Pennington-Russell, pastor of First Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga.; Guy Sayles, pastor of First Baptist Church in Asheville, N.C.; Glenn Stassen, a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary who taught previously at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Joe Trull, editor of Christian Ethics Today; and Brett Younger, a professor at McAfee School of Theology.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press. Find this article at: http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/4761/53/
Evangelical leaders have identified the greatest moral issues facing America today and topping the list is abortion. Moral relativism and mistreatment of others followed closely behind.
Evangelical leaders have identified the greatest moral issues facing America today and topping the list is abortion.
"The moral scandal of abortion tops my list…not because murder is worse than other moral evils, but because of the massive numbers of this killing field and intentionality of so many to put self-gratification, greed and political advantage above life itself," said Jeff Farmer of the Open Bible Churches in Des Moines, Iowa.
Abortion, moral relativism and mistreatment of others almost came in a three-way tie as the top concerns among America's evangelical leaders, according to the survey released Monday by the National Association of Evangelicals.
While abortion has traditionally remained a major moral concern, the recent push by Congress for health care reform and the possible coverage of abortions with federal dollars have prompted new opposing efforts and louder voices among prominent evangelical leaders.
Pastors such as Joel C. Hunter from Florida and groups like the Evangelical Church Alliance have released statements urging members of Congress not to violate the sanctity of human life in allowing abortion to be funded by tax dollars.
Following abortion, moral relativism was listed as the second greatest moral issue facing America. NAE board member Ron Carpenter said the problem is "a non-belief in Absolute Truth which permeates every other arena of our society.”
Many of the surveyed evangelical leaders cited the Old Testament passage Judges 17:6 (“every man did that which was right in his own eyes”) as they identified moral relativism as a major concern.
Mistreatment of others was third on the list.
"The greatest moral issue in America today is our blindness and silence to injustices here and around the world," said Sammy Mah, president of World Relief, according to the report on the survey. "Social ills like poverty, malnutrition, homelessness, human trafficking, and so many more are rooted in injustices that must be fought."
Other moral issues named by evangelical leaders included secularization, homosexuality and pornography.
The Evangelical Leaders Survey is a monthly poll of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Evangelicals. They include the CEOs of denominations and representatives of a broad array of evangelical organizations including missions, universities, publishers and churches.
Audrey Barrick Christian Post Reporter FIND THIS ARTICLE AT: http://bit.ly/5UNrJP
• Public Square •
The Rev. Peg Chemberlin, president of the National Council of Churches, and Dr. Joel C. Hunter join Minnesota Public Radio's "Midmorning" to talk about how the future of religion will be affected by new churches and technology. Dr. Hunter joins the program 28 minutes in.
• Public Square •
Sojourners Magazine, 12/1/2009, By Dr. Joel C. Hunter
Recently, my church's board of elders and I were discussing people who had left our fellowship because of their perceptions of my "political activities." As I handed them an outline of what I believe the Bible says about various social issues (creation care, immigration, peacemaking, poverty, etc.), I said, "We know this is not about politics. This is about expressing the Christian witness in the public square as a part of what it means to be a mature Christian." To their credit and my encouragement, they said, in essence, "We agree. And we will take the lead, but it can't be political or partisan."
Most of us went into ministry because we wanted to be both voices and vessels of God's love to others through Jesus Christ. But there is congregational pushback when we tie voices and vessels to votes. And that link is not only a danger, but a necessity to make "witnessing" distinct from "politicking."
For pastors to be involved in addressing the social issues of the day in a prophetic and compassionate way, we must make three decisions:
1. We must decide we will have courage. Many of our congregation members will misunderstand both our motivations and the need to talk of such things. Jesus didn't do us any great favors when he commanded us to "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and unto God what is Gods" (Matthew 22:21). We'd love to only address the second part because the first part implies complicity with unpopular government. To be perfectly honest, such activity could cost some of us our jobs. But if our fear diminishes the fullness of the gospel's love and concern, if others go on suffering so that we can be more secure, what kind of ministry do we have?
2. We must decide that we will make our voice on social issues one that directly links the Bible and the life of Christ to the issue. Individual Christian citizens are free to have personal opinions; pastors are not. Pastors are always seen as spiritual leaders, so not only must we be informed about what will help the most and cause the fewest unintended negative consequences, but we must be clear that what we are doing is an expression of the gospel.
3. We must not be distracted by personal attacks, personal links, or the temptation to defend ourselves. If the cross teaches us anything, it teaches us sacrifice: "He saved others; he cannot save himself" (Matthew 27:42). Love costs. If you are for creation care, you will be linked to people with whom you would vehemently disagree. If in your judgment one side of an issue is more in line with what Jesus would do, then you will be accused of being "in the tank" for whatever politician takes that side and you will be accused of being against the politicians who don't. We have only one Person that we need to consider; One from whom we long to hear, "Well done."
The pastor's dilemma starts with this question: How can we address the public-square issues as a small part of what we do, and keep it about loving people instead of about "taking a stand"?
The questions many pastors are tempted to ask themselves include, "Is it really necessary that I address our country's responsibility for the needy? And if I do speak out for the vulnerable in risky ways, is my next conversation with the public going to begin with the question, '"Do you want fries with that?"
-Dr. Joel C. Hunter is senior pastor of Northland- A Church Distributed in Orlando, Florida.
• Public Square •
Dr. Hunter talks with On Faith's Sally Quinn about the difference between evangelicals and fundamentalists and what is "base" about the religious right, and about his spiritual advice to President Obama.
Dr. Joel C. Hunter is the Pastor of Community Benefit at Action Church, a multi-site congregation based in Winter Park and his one-minute daily devotionals can be heard worldwide on Z88 radio. He is the Chairman of the Central Florida Pledge campaign; a call to action for residents of Central Florida who are tired of hateful discourse and want to create a safe and inclusive community for all. The pledge asks residents to commit to treating all people with kindness and respect, especially those with whom they disagree. To learn more: https://www.centralfloridapledge.com/
He is a nationally and internationally known advocate for the poor, the marginalized, and those dealing with disabilities. He served a three-year term as the Chairman of Central Florida’s Commission on Homelessness. And, after 32 years as the senior pastor of Longwood, Florida’s Northland Church’s congregation of 20,000, he spent five years leading a non-profit in networking with churches and local charities to locate available resources and benefit the struggling in our community. Orlando Magazine highlighted his efforts naming him as the #1 most powerful voice for philanthropy and community engagement. And listed him among “Orlando’s 50 Most Powerful” six years in a row.
Approaching today’s challenges in a biblical and balanced manner, Dr. Hunter is neither partisan nor politically oriented, but often relates to public officials in a pastoral role; he served as a spiritual advisor to President Obama during his eight years in office.
Dr. Hunter has served in leadership roles of the World Evangelical Alliance, serving more than 600 million evangelicals, and the National Association of Evangelicals, serving more than 40 denominations and thousands of churches.
Married in 1972 to his wife, Becky, he is the father of three sons, grandfather of seven, and great-grandfather of two.
