Blog from the Capital

Time Magazine profiles Orlando pastor Joel Hunter, who gave the closing benediction at the Democratic National Convention, and apparently prayed with Senator Obama hours before election results came in on Tuesday. He is described as a "new evangelical", at odds with the tactics of James Dobson. I'm most interested in this paragraph describing his first conversation with the President-Elect:

Hunter says he got to know Obama last spring during a long phone conversation. During the call, Hunter made a pitch for the expansion of faith-based partnerships between government and church. Of course, says the preacher, "that was an easy sell, because [Obama] really does want to call forth the American people to do volunteer service." He is aware that Obama's support of faith-based projects currently includes an important post-Bush caveat: programs receiving government money can't restrict their employees to co-religionists. Hunter opposes the restriction but maintains, "if we look hard enough, we can find suitable arrangements that really do protect both sides." He adds: "If you don't get into conversations that have never been entered into before, you will not win the kind of progress that has never been made before."

I have to admit, I'm not entirely sure what that last part means, but then I only read it 15 times trying. If this is an indication that Obama is open to ways to bridge the gap between those who oppose discrimination with tax dollars and those who support it for religious organizations - however one finds common ground there - it will bear watching. This will be a key issue for the (supposedly wounded) Religious Right going forward. His early statement in opposition to their position was fairly direct, I thought. Stay tuned.