Obama's Spiritual Adviser Pastor Joel Hunter Speaks Out About the President’s Backing of Same-Sex Marriage
Following his announcement Wednesday that he is in support of same-sex marriage, President Obama called one of his spiritual advisers for guidance.
Pastor Joel Hunter joined America Live to discuss their conversation and provide his reaction to the president’s remarks.
Pastor Hunter described the phone call he received, saying, “He wanted to tell me his reasoning and how he arrived at this conclusion. I had a couple of concerns that I wanted to talk with him about. One was that I couldn’t get there from the Scripture that I read […] The second one was I wanted for him to be aware that this might be perceived as another attack on religious liberties, perceived from the standpoint of conservative Christians.”
He continued, “The president sometimes thinks with his heart. He really has a great compassion for people, especially those who are left out. And so as he interprets scripture, he interprets it through that filter.”
Hunter said that several aspects of the president’s announcement alarmed him including the fact that it seemed that Obama may have been pushed into the announcement after Vice President Biden’s comments on Meet the Press. He wanted the president to arrive at this decision for personal reasons, rather than political ones, which he believes, in the end, the president did.
Of those who say that the Scriptures are out-of-date, Pastor Hunter said, “If you understand how to interpret scripture, you know the eternal moral principles apart from the cultural context of the day and that’s very important. The Ten Commandments will always be in effect, the laws prohibiting us from eating shrimp – not so much.”
Pastor Hunter addressed his own belief that marriage should remain between a man and a woman and the criticism from some that that’s a bigoted way of thinking. The pastor said, “I don’t believe that people who have a moral, compelling understanding of Scripture – if they love homosexual people, if they prize them as being made in the image of God, if they respect them – are bigots just because they disagree on who ought to be able to get married.”
