Christianity Today reported that Joel Hunter will be praying at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday following Obama's nomination acceptance speech.Apparently some conservative evangelicals are appalled by this decision, using "guilt by association" as the reason that this is horrible. One comment on the CT article essentially says that the ONLY thing Obama stands for is is partial birth abortion and that because Joel will be praying on the same stage as Obama, Joel is therefore taking a stand in support of partial birth abortion.
Wow.
It all makes me want to argue and defend. I'm trying to not do so much of that as pray myself...for Joel, for us.
I do understand those who are concerned about the possibility that the DNC is using Joel to try to improve their own reputation among Evangelicals for the sake of winning the election. But think aobut it. Isn't that why everyone who is on the platform at the DNC is on the platform? Isn't the DNC (like the RNC next week will also be) just one giant commercial?
But just because politicians and pr folk are "using" Joel, does that mean Joel should not do what Pastors do? Speak truth and point people to God? Pray? Shine light in darkness?
Preach! Sorry, I'm just glad we share the same soapbox. :-)
ReplyDeleteBit of a 'delayed response' here, but that's my style.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read your blog I interpreted it (incorrectly) as saying that the CT article was suggesting that Joel is 'not a true evangelical' because of his decision to pray at the DNC convention. Only when I took the time to actually read the article did I find that the derrogatory comments were coming from readers who were resonding to the article. How quickly we jump to conclusions. I wonder how many of those people actually took the time to find out (if possible) Joel's motivation, or - oh shock! - allow for the possibility that perhaps God led him to accept the invitation for His own eternal purposes.