Joel Hunter

‘Pro-life Evangelicals for Biden’ signers face a fiery blowback

By Mark I. Pinsky — October 23, 2020
ORLANDO (RNS) — After Joel Hunter recently announced support for former Vice President Joe Biden, a local Christian radio station cancelled Hunter’s devotionals, hosts withdrew (or postponed) speaking invitations and a social media hostility barrage erupted.

Why evangelicals are applauding California’s governor for halting executions

By Heather Beaudoin — March 15, 2019
(RNS) — As evangelicals, we are taught to examine the systems around us and to call out those that are unfair and unjust. The death penalty is exactly that. It is arbitrary, biased and immoral.

Joel Hunter to step down from Orlando megachurch

By Mark I. Pinsky — August 2, 2017
ORLANDO, Fla. (RNS) — For the past two decades, Hunter urged his fellow evangelicals to move toward more moderate, center-right positions on issues such as climate change, immigration and LGBTQ people.

Notable Christians who’ve had a change of heart on LGBT issues

By Madeleine Buckley — July 12, 2017
(RNS) These 10 people have publicly broken with Christian hard-line positions against same-sex marriage.

Frances FitzGerald on how evangelicals lost their way

By David P. Gushee — April 12, 2017
(RNS) When religious folk get entangled with secular politicians in the political arena, the politicians always win.

How some abortion opponents get ‘pro-life’ radically right

By Marcia Pally — June 28, 2016
(RNS) Reducing abortion as much as possible is a universal goal with broad consensus about how to achieve it.

Joel Hunter on nightclub shooting: ‘I’ve got to go back and examine my own heart’

By Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons — June 14, 2016
(RNS) The senior pastor of the 20,000-member, nondenominational Northland Church shared his thoughts on the intersection of LGBT discrimination and religion in light of the shooting.

Isaac Hunter, son of Obama spiritual adviser Joel Hunter, dead in apparent suicide

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey — December 10, 2013
(RNS) Isaac Hunter, 36 and father of three, had resigned from his megachurch pulpit after he admitted that he had engaged in an affair with a staff member.

Crowds recall the faith that animated MLK’s unfinished dream

By Lauren Markoe and Adelle M. Banks — August 28, 2013
WASHINGTON (RNS) "We can never forget as we celebrate, as we remember ... that it was that faith and the spirit of God itself that fueled, that infused the movement that led to great change and transformation," said the Rev. Bernice King.

Joel Hunter pays a price for political activism

By Mark I. Pinsky — July 7, 2013
(RNS) Over the past decade, Hunter and a cohort of younger, evangelical leaders have called on others to lower their voices and shift the political center of gravity from the far right to the pragmatic center-right. Ten percent of his church members left.

Melissa Rogers new head of White House faith-based office

By Adelle M. Banks — March 13, 2013
(RNS) Church-state expert Melissa Rogers will be the new director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Obama’s use of Scripture echoes Lincoln, King

By Daniel Burke — January 16, 2013
(RNS) President Obama will take oath of office on Bibles that once belonged to Abraham Lincoln and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Obama's own use of Scripture echoes his two heroes. By Daniel Burke.

Friday’s Religion News Roundup: gay baptism; gay marriage in Maryland; black atheists `come out’

By Kevin Eckstrom — February 24, 2012

There's a new kind of Mormon baptism (and Salt Lake City likely won't be amused) and a tragic kind of baptism at an Indiana church. Fidel Castro may come back to Mother Rome, and Southern Baptists say "no thanks" to a BUBBA name.

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