Obama's GOP Prayer Partner

Obama's GOP prayer partner [Excerpts]

He teaches that the Bible mandates Christians combat so-called global warming and even helped to make a tool kit to aid pastors in preaching about "climate change."

He works with a left-wing think tank seeking a common-ground "third way" between progressives and evangelicals on issues such as abortion and stem cell research. Meet Joel Hunter, a member of President Obama’s faith council.

Hunter is the senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed, a congregation of 15,000 that worships at four sites in Central Florida and at more than 1,000 sites worldwide via interactive webcast, iPhone, and Facebook. In 2006, Hunter was named president-elect of the Christian Coalition of America, but he immediately stepped down, saying the group resisted his efforts to broaden its agenda to include "social justice" as well as fighting "global warming."

In 2007, Hunter was among more than two dozen scientific and evangelical leaders who met secretly at a retreat in Thomasville, Ga., to draft a joint statement calling for immediate action on so-called climate change.

After that meeting, Hunter worked with a group, Conservation International, to draft a tool kit titled "Creation Care: An Introduction for Busy Pastors" to send to evangelical leaders.

They produced a package of Bible passages and information on scientific findings to promote action on "climate change."

He is part of a group of evangelicals and progressives who organize under the auspices of the left-leaning "Third Way" organization. There, he helped draft a new position paper, "Come Let Us Reason Together: A Fresh Look at Shared Cultural Values Between Progressives and Evangelicals," that calls for common ground on abortion, same sex marriage, and stem cell research, among other social issues.

"Third Way" is an ideology first promoted as an alternative to free markets by Mikhail Gorbachev after the collapse of the Soviet Empire. The "Third Way" of governing would be neither capitalist nor communist, but something in between.

George Soros has been a major proponent of "Third Way" economic policy.

Besides reaching out to progressives, Hunter has led multiple initiatives on U.S.-Islamic outreach.

He was a delegate to the recent U.S.-Islamic World Forum held in Doha, Qatar, seeking to build a dialogue between Muslim and Christian communities.

He has spoken at numerous interfaith forums, including a 2009 Georgetown University panel, "A Common Word: Religious Pluralism in the 21st Century."

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