No Progressives Among Obama's "Circle of Five" Pastors

Ever since Barack Obama was obliged to distance himself from Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. (and all the right-wing hyperventilating that entailed), our President has been lacking a home church.  To fill that vacuum Obama has embraced five pastors, presumably to dispense spiritual wisdom and not, one would hope, stick their evangelical noses into politics.  Four of those pastors blindly follow fundie "values," while the fifth might be described as only mildly progressive since he loudly disassociates himself from "left-leaning" churches.

Rev. Eugene F. Rivers, politically active pastor of Azusa Community Church in Boston, insists, "These are all centrist, social justice guys. That’s real. The community organizing stuff is real."  Real that "stuff" may be, but  calling these men "centrist" is disingenuous at best.

Wayne Besen at Truth Wins Out writes:  These holy men are: Rev. Joel Hunter, former head of the Christian Coalition; anti-gay Bishop T.D. Jakes; the ex-gay loving Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell; and Jim "waffling" Wallis, a protean progressive. The only Obama shaman who isn’t shameless is the civil rights era preacher Rev. Otis Moss Jr.  Rev. Jakes refers to homosexuality as "brokenness" and has claimed that he wouldn’t hire a sexually active gay person... Wallis, the chief executive of Sojourners, a Christian magazine, holds “traditional” views on homosexuality and abortion, according to the Times article. Although Wallis has taken some affirmative steps on GLBT equality, he prides himself on not being a part of "the religious left."  Rev. Caldwell has endorsed Metanoia, an ex-gay ministry designed to "help homosexuals understand with God’s help that ‘change [is] possible."  When the GLBT community worked to elect Obama, this is not what we thought he meant when he promised "change." 

As long as this "Circle of Five" keep to their prayers and hallelujahs, progressives will be disinclined to protest Obama's choice of spiritual advisors, unappealing as those advisors might be.  But when this gang of conservative clerics starts straying into public policy (which is not unlikely, given the nature of the beast), you can expect a hue and cry to arise that will make the response over Rick Warren's inaugural invitation seem downright tame.  There are so many forward-thinking ministers Obama could have chosen.  But he bypassed them for these Christian curmudgeons.

Besen sums up:  It is disconcerting that such a cool and rational leader keeps returning to the theological armpit to fill his pulpit.  (I would have used a different part of the anatomy for comparison, but whatever.)