Reverend Dr. Joel C. Hunter and Pastor Michael McBride provide differing viewpoints on parenting from an evangelical perspective.

I recently listened to a fascinating conversation about obedience. It began with two provocative questions: Is it more important for a child to be creative or well-behaved? And is self-reliance or obedience more important in a child?

The questioner was Simon Greer, head of the Nathan Cummings Foundation and host of a new Internet video series, “Summits on Tenth,” which the foundation launched to “provoke and disrupt conventional thinking on pressing contemporary issues.” The first episode focused on “evangelicals building a just America” and featured Rev. Joel C. Hunter and Pastor Michael McBride.

In posing his questions, Greer noted that in a recent poll evangelicals were 14 percent more likely than other respondents to value obedience over self-reliance and good behavior over creativity in their children. Both Hunter and McBride are evangelicals. Hunter is white and in his sixties, while McBride is African American and a generation younger.

Greer asked both men why evangelicals place so much importance on obedience. Hunter answered with an example: Learning something new—such as Read more…

“Evangelicals Building a Just America” is the premier episode of Summits on Tenth, a new Internet video series featuring conversations that provoke and disrupt conventional thinking on a wide variety of contemporary issues. The episode explores the role of evangelicals in creating social change and features two dynamic church leaders who defy the public image of evangelicals: Reverend Dr. Joel C. Hunter, Senior Pastor at Northland Church and Pastor Michael McBride, Director of PICO National Network’s Lifelines to Healing Campaign. The conversation was moderated by Simon Greer, president and CEO of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and Lynn Parramore, senior editor at AlterNet.

More videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/SummitsOn10th

As the battle over gay marriage heats up in this election year, one evangelical Christian writer is calling for a truce, fearing that the outspoken opposition to gay marriage among some church leaders could alienate an entire generation of religious youth.

“Evangelicals have been so submitted to these culture wars for so long, so that’s hard to give up,” evangelical writer and speaker Rachel Held Evans, 31, told msnbc.com. But “the majority of young Christians really, really, really want to stop with the political emphasis.” Read more…

Last month President Obama publicly acknowledged his support for same sex marriage in an interview with ABC News. Shortly before the interview, the president called Dr. Joel Hunter, pastor of Northland Church near Orlando and a spiritual adviser to the president, to tell him about his decision. Hunter told the president that he disagreed with his view on marriage, but the decision would not Read more…

The Rev. Joel Hunter of the 15,000-member Northland church, who is often referred to as President Barack Obama’s spiritual adviser, said he is disappointed with the president’s use of the “Golden Rule” to explain his endorsement of gay marriage.

“The Golden Rule is in the Bible but it cannot be used to contradict God’s marriage pattern reaffirmed by Jesus in Matthew 19:4-5,” Hunter shared in an interview with The Christian Post. “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and the two shall become one flesh?’”

FIND THIS ARTICLE AT THE CHRISTIAN POST: http://www.christianpost.com/news/obamas-spiritual-adviser-rebukes-president-on-golden-rule-same-sex-marriage-74745/

Obama affirmed his support for same-sex marriage in an interview with ABC News on Wednesday, which has sparked a great deal of debate in America among supporters of the traditional definition of marriage, and those who want to see gay marriage legalized. Read more…

Dr. Joel C. Hunter, senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed comments on Fox 35 Orlando.

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson stunned “700 Club” viewers Tuesday when he said divorcing a spouse with Alzheimer’s disease was justified.

Robertson, chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network and former Republican presidential candidate, said he wouldn’t “put a guilt trip” on someone for divorcing a spouse with Alzheimer’s disease, calling Alzheimer’s itself “a kind of death.”

The remarks sparked outrage throughout religious and medical communities.

“I’m just flabbergasted,” said Joel Hunter, senior pastor of the 15,000 member Northland Church in Orlando, Fla. “I just don’t know how anyone who is reading Scripture or is even familiar with the traditional wedding vows can come out with a statement like that. Obviously, we Read more…