Obama Religious Adviser Steers Clear of Politics

Innovative Republican minister turned down Christian Coalition

By Katherine Thompson, Newser Staff

Posted Apr 12, 2009 11:26 AM CDT

(Newser) – Having idolized Martin Luther King Jr. as a child, Joel Hunter felt especially proud when America's first black president tapped him as one of his top spiritual advisers. Never mind that the Rev. Joel Hunter is an evangelical Republican: He has taken an Obama-like approach to ministering without polarizing, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports in a profile of a man who has publicly criticized the "cottage industry of hostility."

Hunter's method is to focus not on culture wars and religious rhetoric, but on "compassion issues." That tack has brought him into alliances with Catholics, Jews, and Muslims, and led to an innovative closing benediction at last summer's Democratic Convention in Denver. Hunter drew evangelicals' ire by encouraging the attendees to employ the blessings of their own faiths. Said a fellow Florida pastor: "Jesus said the way is narrow."

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In this Dec. 14, 2006 file photo,Rev. Joel Hunter poses in the sanctuary of the Northland, A Church Distributed in Longwood, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

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Hunter talks to PBS's Religion & Ethics program about religion's role in the 2008 presidential election and the political and religious interests of a new generation of young evangelicals. (andrescik)

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Obama Religious Adviser Steers Clear of Politics