Oh come all ye faithful? Read more…
Monday, April 14, 2014Obama Welcomes Christian leaders to White House for Easter Prayer Breakfast
Pastor Joel C. Hunter offered the opening prayer at the fifth annual Easter Prayer Breakfast at the White House.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014Orlando Sentinel: Interfaith prayer service honors Joel Hunter
Interfaith prayer service honors Joel Hunter
Tuesday, January 7, 2014Barack Obama’s Church Attendance: An Interview with Dr. Gary Smith
Editor’s note: The “V&V Q&A” is an e-publication from The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College. In this latest edition, Dr. Paul Kengor, the executive director of the Center for Vision & Values, interviews Dr. Gary Scott Smith, Grove City College professor and author of the acclaimed, Faith and the Presidency: From George Washington to George W. Bush, published by Oxford University Press.
Kengor: Dr. Smith, you are one of the country’s leading experts on faith and the presidency. Reporters frequently come to you for comment. In that spirit, the New York Times interviewed you last week on the notable fact that President Obama didn’t attend religious services this past Christmas. That’s quite unusual for a president, isn’t it?
Smith: Yes, it is.
Kengor: Do you know of any other president skipping Read more…
Friday, October 18, 2013Son of “Orlando’s Favorite Pastor” Named “Orlando's Best Eye Surgeon”
Father and son honored by readers of Orlando Business Journal and Orlando magazine.
ORLANDO, Fla. (OCT. 18, 2013) — Like father like son … readers of Orlando Business Journal have named the son and namesake of nationally known pastor Rev. Joel C. Hunter as “.” Rev. Hunter was recently honored as “Orlando’s Favorite Pastor” by Orlando magazine.
Joel Hunter, M.D. opened the area’s most-advanced LASIK facility back in 2010 at the RDV Sportsplex—offering state-of-the art, bladeless laser vision correction and laser cataract surgery. This year, Hunter Vision expanded its services to include general eye care.
As a distinguished fellow at the most prestigious refractive surgery center in the world, Dr. Hunter had his choice of jobs, but chose instead to create a new and better kind of medical practice in his hometown of Orlando.
Using a new generation of diagnostic and surgical equipment, Dr. Hunter is able to perform some of the finest and most-precise vision correction procedures in the field, including 3D LASIK and laser cataract surgery—a procedure he is helping to pioneer at Hunter Vision.
Dr. Hunter concludes, “My family has been grateful to serve the central Florida community for nearly 30 years. Hunter Vision is committed to continuing that tradition.”
Thursday, May 16, 2013Orlando Sentinel: Dr. Joel C. Hunter Is a “Different Breed of Evangelical”
The paper reports: “Hunter has established himself as a different breed of evangelical. He works with leaders from other faiths. He advocates for environmental stewardship, help for the poor and assistance during natural disasters rather than focusing on abortion and gay marriage. His church, Northland, a Church Distributed, plays a prominent role in most every issue confronting Central Florida from the shooting of Trayvon Martin to homeless schoolchildren. Hunter gained national prominence by becoming the spiritual adviser to President Barack Obama but asserts his leadership locally by providing a reasoned, compassionate voice that resonates across religious, economic and racial lines.” View the Sentinel’s complete list of “Orlando’s Power Brokers.”
Wednesday, March 20, 2013White House Names New Faith-Based Office Director
The White House announced today President Obama’s appointment of Melissa Rogers to serve as the new director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and special assistant to the president.
In this capacity, Rogers will provide President Obama with spiritual support and guidance, and assist the Administration in its efforts to collaborate with faith-based and nonprofit organizations throughout the country.
Rogers previously chaired the president’s Inaugural Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. In this capacity, Rogers collaborated with members of the Council to adopt consensus recommendations regarding ways in which the federal government could strengthen its partnerships with religious and secular nonprofit organizations that serve people in need.
Joel Hunter, senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed in Florida and who was a member of President Obama’s inaugural Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, said of Rogers, “She worked diligently [as Council chair] to find common ground. Melissa has a gift for Read more…
Monday, February 11, 2013White House Director of Faith-Based Office Is Leaving His Post
President Obama announced on Thursday morning at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington that Joshua DuBois, the young pastor he appointed four years ago to lead the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, would step down on Friday.
Mr. DuBois played a central role when Mr. Obama was making his first run for the presidency, cultivating relationships on his behalf with religious leaders of many faiths. Mr. DuBois, 30, has also served as an unofficial in-house pastor to Mr. Obama, sending the president an e-mail each morning with Bible passages intended to Read more…
Friday, February 8, 2013Rev. Joel Hunter: Obama’s National Prayer Breakfast Message Marks a Shift
President Obama struck a humble tone at the National Prayer Breakfast, the Rev. Joel Hunter said on Thursday [Feb. 7, 2013]. The senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed said the President spoke less of his own faith as he has in the past and more about the role of humility in leadership. “We must keep that same humility that Dr. King and Lincoln and Washington and all our great leaders understood is at the core of true leadership,” Obama said in his speech. The president began his address by announcing that his head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Joshua DuBois, will leave his position on Friday. Ben Carson, a pediatric surgeon at Johns Hopkins University and a Seventh Day Adventist, was the keynote speaker at the breakfast.
Video from Odyssey Networks.
Monday, January 21, 2013WASHINGTON POST: Obama’s use of Scripture has elements of Lincoln, King
President Obama will publicly take the oath of office with Bibles once owned by his political heroes, Abraham Lincoln and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. One Bible was well read, but cited cautiously. The other granted scriptural sanction to the civil rights movement.
When Obama lifts his hands from the Bibles and turns to deliver his second inaugural address on Monday (Jan. 21), his own approach to Scripture will come into view. Characteristically, it sits somewhere between the former president and famous preacher.
His faith forged in the black church, Obama draws deeply on its blending of biblical narratives with contemporary issues such as racism and poverty. But like Lincoln, Obama also acknowledges that Americans sometimes invoke the same Bible to argue past each other, and that Scripture itself counsels against sanctimony.
Obama articulated this view most clearly in a 2006 speech, saying that secularists shouldn’t bar believers from the public square, but neither should people of faith expect America to be one vast amen corner.
“He understands that you can appeal to people on religious grounds,” said Jeffrey Siker, a theology professor at Loyola Marymount University in California who has studied Obama’s speeches. “But you also have to be able to translate your case into arguments that people of different faiths, or no faith, can grasp.”
Florida megachurch pastor Joel Hunter, a close spiritual adviser to the president, said Obama Read more…
Tuesday, January 1, 2013Pastor Joel Hunter Named to Orlando Sentinel’s “25 Most Powerful” List of Leaders
” … 15. Joel Hunter, senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed. (Last year: Not ranked.) Hunter, 64, is the first religious leader to ever make this list. He’s widely respected locally. And nationally, he’s known for having prayed with presidents Obama and Bush. Hunter’s thoughtful and serious approach to faith continues to attract thousands every week to his Longwood-based congregation.”
READ MORE: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/os-scott-maxwell-most-powerful-people-20130101,0,4516284.column
Monday, October 29, 2012In Obama’s First Term, an Evolving Christian Faith and a More Evangelical Style
VIEW FULL ARTICLE AND PICTURES AT: http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/27/in-obamas-first-term-an-evolving-christian-faith-and-a-more-evangelical-style/
Washington (CNN) - President Obama’s prayers for a strong first debate may not have been answered, but that doesn’t mean the prayers weren’t happening.
Before he stepped onto a Colorado stage earlier this month to face off with Mitt Romney for the first time, Obama joined a conference call with a small circle of Christian ministers.
“The focus of that prayer was, ‘Oh, Lord, you know precisely what the president needs to say,’” says Kirbyjon Caldwell, a Methodist megachurch pastor from Texas who helped lead the call. “‘You know what this country needs during the next four years.’”
“‘And so I would pray that your primary will and words that you want the president to say will fall from his lips,’” Caldwell goes on, recalling his prayer. Read more…
Tuesday, June 26, 2012How Christians Might Think About the President’s Faith
The 2012 campaign has placed evangelicals in a paradox. A recent PRRI/RNS poll reveals that white evangelicals support a Mormon presidential candidate over Obama by an overwhelming 49% margin, but are simultaneously the religious group most likely to say it is important for a presidential candidate to share their religious beliefs (67%).
While there are plenty of legitimate policy reasons that evangelicals might support Governor Romney, their willingness to overlook their desire for a coreligionist candidate may also have at least something to do with the fact that 24% of them—higher than any other religious group—believe Obama is a Muslim, and even more are unaware (or unconvinced?) he’s a Protestant. What if more evangelicals knew Obama largely shares their religious beliefs?
That the true religious identity of the world’s most famous, most powerful man could remain a mystery to so many is itself a mystery. Before and especially during his presidency, Obama has been extraordinarily open on matters of faith, providing ample evidence for his repeated claim to be a devout Christian. The evidence may even suggest Obama is our evangelical-in-chief.
In his excellent religious biography of the President, The Faith of Barack Obama, author Stephen Mansfield spends several pages exploring whether Obama has been “born again.” Mansfield’s interviews with the President’s spiritual advisors suggest so.
“I know he’s born again,” said Joshua DuBois, head of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, in an interview with Mansfield. A pastor’s kid who served briefly in a Pentecostal pastorate himself, DuBois has queried the President about his faith and found that he “believes what the majority of Christians believe.”
Joel Hunter, pastor of Florida’s 15,000-member Northland Church and Obama’s closest spiritual mentor, is even more emphatic. “There is simply no question about it: Barack Obama is a born again man who has trusted in Jesus Christ with his whole heart.”
These assertions of Obama’s “born again” status are instructive but only tell us so much. The Christian experience of spiritual rebirth is internal, subjective, and thus difficult to disprove. Moreover, it constitutes only one dimension of what it means to be an evangelical.
Admittedly, the meaning of evangelicalism is contested, and in the United States the term has become loaded with political baggage. Evangelicalism is an exceedingly diverse and diffuse global movement, lacking a unifying political agenda, institutional structure, or doctrinal basis (that’s why the e in “evangelical” is usually not capitalized). Yet we can identify core features shared by evangelicals across all continents.
The most widely accepted definition of evangelicalism comes from British historian David Bebbington. According to Bebbington, an evangelical is a Christian marked by four distinct emphases: “conversionism, the belief that lives need to be changed; activism, the expression of the gospel in effort; biblicism, a particular regard for the Bible; and what may be termed crucicentrism, a stress on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.”
If Obama is an evangelical, we should expect to find him in alignment with at least this minimalist “Bebbington Quadrilateral.” Let’s look at how he squares with each of the four elements.
Conversionism: Barack Obama has a conversion story, if not an entirely traditional one. In his bestseller, The Audacity of Hope, Obama recounts how he warmed to Christianity, and the black church tradition in particular, while attending Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. One Sunday, Obama writes, “I felt God’s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth.” Obama’s eventual decision to be baptized “came about as a choice and not an epiphany; the questions I had did not magically disappear.”
Only years later would Obama attach salvific significance to his embrace of the gospel. “I believe that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life,” he told Christianity Today in 2008. His more recent statements sound even more evangelical. At the 2011 National Prayer Breakfast Obama spoke of Jesus, in typical evangelical idiom, as “my Lord and Savior.” Still, the President acknowledges that his “faith journey has had its twists and turns”—a testimony that comports with a younger generation of evangelicals who are more likely to conceive of conversion as a process rather than a specific point in time.
Activism: For evangelicals, the experience of conversion naturally spills over into action, both evangelism and social witness. The President has addressed Christian activism on many occasions, and his latest National Prayer Breakfast speech was an extended meditation on how Christian faith compels charity and the pursuit of justice. “The Bible,” Obama said, “teaches us to ‘be doers of the word and not merely hearers.’We’re required to have a living, breathing, active faith in our own lives.And each of us is called on to give something of ourselves for the betterment of others—and to live the truth of our faith not just with words, but with deeds.”
Biblicism: Obama begins each day with a brief Scripture reading, and quotes frequently from the Bible. He clearly has a “special regard” for the Bible, though it’s unclear if he holds to biblical inerrancy or infallibility. In 2007 Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times, “There are passages of the Bible that make perfect sense to me and others that I go, ‘Ya know, I’m not sure about that.’” That was five years ago. More recently, he sounds surer about the Bible. Whereas his first Prayer Breakfast speech in 2009 had just one biblical reference—the Golden Rule, the politically safest biblical citation possible—his 2012 address offered several biblical quotations and allusions, indicating a growing respect for and reliance on the sacred text.
Crucicentrism: Obama has shared his reflections on the cross of Christ at his annual Easter Prayer Breakfast—a new White House tradition he started in 2010. At the 2012 event in April, the President described Holy Week as an opportunity to remember “all that Christ endured,” to “give thanks for the all-important gift of grace,” and to “celebrate that glorious overcoming, the sacrifice of a risen savior who died so that we might live.” That’s a summary of Easter all evangelicals can embrace.
We are accustomed to hearing politicians offering guarded generalities about the goodness of faith. It’s quite another thing for the President of the United States to personally affirm the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Obama is a secret Muslim, he’s really good at making his closet Islamic beliefs sound a lot like crucicentric Christianity.
So, is Obama our evangelical-in-chief? When a reporter asked Obama point blank in 2007 if he was an evangelical, the Illinois senator gave a nuanced, noncommittal answer:
Gosh, I’m not sure if labels are helpful here because the definition of an evangelical is so loose and subject to so many different interpretations. I came to Christianity through the black church tradition where the line between evangelical and non-evangelical is completely blurred. Nobody knows exactly what it means. Does it mean that you feel you’ve got a personal relationship with Christ the savior? Then that’s directly part of the black church experience.
Five years later, his answer would likely be more definitive. As President, Obama has surrounded himself with evangelical spiritual advisors and has regularly interacted with the evangelical community. His public statements and private devotions point to a deepening faith—a path commonly tread by American heads of state. Obama’s “experience of the presidency,” says DuBois, “is strengthening his Christian muscles, making him a calm, confident, certain believer in Jesus Christ.”
Hunter explained to Mansfield that Obama’s theologically equivocal statements about sin, heaven, and other topics before entering the White House were those of a man with little biblical training. “He would not hold most of those views now,” says Hunter. “He is very much in transition.”
Hunter’s point is crucial. Critics can piece together dated quotes from the President to paint a picture of a hesitant, heterodox Christian. That is unfair as it fails to account for Obama’s progression from the highly unconventional, liberationist Christianity of Jeremiah Wright to the more mainstream evangelicalism of Hunter and DuBois.
But what about the President’s policies? Hasn’t his “evolution” on gay marriage, for example, gone in the opposite direction of his “transition” on faith matters? Obama may have become more conservative theologically, but he is still liberal politically—placing him somewhere on the Christian Left.
Obama’s liberal positions don’t sit well with most American evangelicals, and for some his views prove the insincerity of his religious claims. But relating Christian faith to public life is enormously complicated, and every believer must continually examine how he applies changeless truths in a changing world. We are all in “transition” to some degree. Obama deserves grace as he continues to work out what his maturing faith means for his policies.
Evangelicals may evaluate Obama’s policy record and find ample grounds to give their vote to Mitt Romney. But in evaluating Obama’s personal faith no credence should be given to groundless insinuations and graceless mischaracterizations.
Obama is clearly not a secret Muslim or anything other than what he claims to be: a committed Christian. For evangelicals, the commander-in-chief is a brother in Christ.
Judd Birdsall is a graduate of Wheaton College and a Ph.D. candidate at Cambridge University. From 2007 to 2011 he served at the U.S. State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom and was founding chairman of the Forum on Religion & Global Affairs.
The 2012 campaign has placed evangelicals in a paradox. A recent PRRI/RNS poll reveals that white evangelicals support a Mormon presidential candidate over Obama by an overwhelming 49% margin, but are simultaneously the religious group most likely to say it is important for a presidential candidate to share their religious beliefs (67%).
While there are plenty of legitimate policy reasons that evangelicals might support Governor Romney, their willingness to overlook their desire for a coreligionist candidate may also have at least something to do with the fact that 24% of them—higher than any other religious group—believe Obama is a Muslim, and even more are unaware (or unconvinced?) he’s a Protestant. What if more evangelicals knew Obama largely shares their religious beliefs? Read more…
The National Association of Evangelicals has developed and released a “Code of Ethics for Pastors” document and is asking church leaders across denominational lines to sign and uphold its outlined principles in their lives as ministers.
“This is to remind people who they are in ministry and how important their personal integrity, their personal conduct and lifestyle really are for what they are trying to accomplish,” Dr. Joel C. Hunter, senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed in Longwood, Fla., told The Christian Post. Read more…
Tuesday, May 29, 2012Pastor Hunter to Hometown Church: “You’re the Reason I’m In Ministry”
SHELBY — He is one of the top pastors in the world, and in 2011 was named one of the “50 Most Powerful People in Orlando.”
Since graduating from Shelby High School in 1966, the Rev. Joel Hunter also has become one of President Barack Obama’s spiritual advisers, but he said little of it would have been possible without the foundation he received from his hometown.
Hunter is senior pastor at Northland Church, in Longwood, Fla., a church where he grew membership from 200 to more than 15,000.
Hunter, who was invited to preach Sunday morning at his home church, The Shelby First United Methodist Church, took the podium around 10 a.m. He started by asking the congregation to excuse him if he happened to cry during the sermon.
Few held back their own tears as he reminisced about his days growing up in Shelby, and shared what the 18 S. Gamble St. church means to him.
“It is so, so good to be back in this church,” he said. “Thank you for welcoming me back. This is a big deal to me. A very big deal. I hope you’ll all indulge me in a few moments of nostalgia.” Read more…
Friday, May 25, 2012Obama’s Spiritual Adviser Speaks in Shelby, Ohio
SHELBY — Last week he was sitting comfortably in the Oval Office, but the Rev. Joel Hunter said returning to Shelby this weekend will be an exciting honor, too.
Shelby, his hometown, will keep him busy.
Friday night, the spiritual adviser to President Barack Obama spoke at Shelby High School’s graduation. Hunter is a 1966 Shelby graduate. At 9:15 a.m. Sunday, he will preach at the First United Methodist Church, where he grew up.
“I went there every Sunday with my grandmother,” Hunter said. “I’ve been in ministry over 40 years, but always Read more…
Friday, April 20, 2012President Obama’s Other Pastor
A conversation with the Rev. Dr. Joel C. Hunter of Florida about his civil rights testimony, defending President Barack Obama’s faith, and the local ministerial response to the Trayvon Martin case.
FIND THIS ARTICLE AT: http://www.urbanfaith.com/2012/04/the-pastor-the-president-and-civil-rights.html/
The Rev. Dr. Joel C. Hunter grew up in small town Ohio, the son of a widowed mother who loved black jazz musicians. Now he is a spiritual adviser to President Barack Obama and pastor of 15,000-member Northland, A Church Distributed, in Longwood, Florida. “Cooperation and partnership are hallmarks of Dr. Hunter’s ministry,” his church bio says. “Together, he believes, we can Read more…
Thursday, April 12, 2012Trayvon Martin: How Can Christians Respond?
Pastor Joel Hunter talks with CBN News about how Christians can respond to this tragedy.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012President Obama Addresses Q Conference
President Obama Welcomes Q from Q Ideas on Vimeo.
Monday, March 26, 2012The White House: Behind the Scenes
President Obama meets with Pastor Joel Hunter and Josh DuBois, director of the White House Office for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, in the Oval Office.
FIND THIS PHOTO AT: http://www.washingtonpost.com/conversations/the-white-house-behind-the-scenes/2012/03/23/gIQAGNCCWS_gallery.html#photo=1
Tuesday, March 6, 2012The Pastor and the President: A Tale of Faith
The conventional wisdom is that the political left in America is suspicious of stories of presidential faith and the political right is suspicious of stories of presidential faith that involve Barack Obama. What we often lose in the crush between the two are those tender, endearing episodes that sometimes arise from a presidency and become treasured in American memory.
There is such a tale and it deserves to be told. It does reveal something of the spirituality of the current American president but it will not impact an election or change political opinions. Obama’s critics may deny it. His supporters may exploit it. The cynical may doubt it. Yet, the tale is true and it belongs to us.
It begins with Dr. Joel Hunter, the pastor of Northland Church in Orland, Fla., a man unlikely Read more…
Thursday, February 23, 2012Jim Towey Is Wrong About President Obama, by Dr. Joel C. Hunter
The summer before Senator Obama was elected president, he invited 30 Evangelical and Catholic leaders to meet with him in Chicago. The purpose of the meeting was transparency about his faith journey. All of us, including Franklin Graham, heard him share his testimony of how he had come to trust Christ as his Lord and Savior.
Months before that, in a personal conversation with Senator Obama, he asked me what I thought was a good direction for faith communities when it came to government activities. He knew that I am a pro-life evangelical that believes the less need for government the better. That’s why he was talking to me. I said, “The faith communities of this nation have way more resources and relationships than are being engaged right now to address our nation’s problems.” He agreed. He said, “But there are certain problems that are too great for the faith communities to solve.” I agreed. Read more…
Monday, February 13, 2012First Lady Michelle Obama: If You Are Doing Great Work, Tell Me About It
On the third and final day of her Let’s Move 2nd Birthday tour, First Lady Michelle Obama visited Northland Church in Orlando, Florida, to thank faith and community leaders from 120 congregations and organizations who represented 15 different faiths and denominations. Mrs. Obama praised the group, and their congregations, for their tireless efforts in helping fulfill the core mission of the initiative: eliminating childhood obesity in a generation.
The First Lady talked about the emotional role food plays in our lives, acknowledging that it is more than just nourishment for our bodies, it’s how we knit our families and our communities together. But, she told the assembly, finding ways to honor these traditions while making healthy changes is the essence of what Let’s Move is working to do:
“We know that government doesn’t have all the answers; know that there’s no one-size-fits all program or policy that will solve this problem. Every family and every community is different. Each of us needs to make the changes that fit with our budgets, our beliefs, and our tastes.”
Mrs. Obama called on the group of leaders as role models to children, reminding them that if they get excited about this mission, then kids will embrace it as well. And in an effort to celebrate the great work that faith and community groups have already done to promote healthy lifestyle changes, the First Lady announced a new Let’s Move video challenge , telling the crowd, “whatever you do, I want to know about it.”
Monday, February 13, 2012CHRISTIAN POST: Michelle Obama Visits Fla. Church; Urges Religious Groups to Fight Obesity
First lady Michelle Obama Saturday visited the Florida megachurch where one of President Obama’s spiritual advisers is the pastor. She encouraged faith-based groups to join her campaign against obesity, saying “your bodies are temples given to you by God.”
“Sometimes folks won’t do it if it wasn’t said right here,” she said, speaking to about 3,000 people from more than 120 congregations and organizations, representing over 15 faiths and denomination s, at Northland, A Church Distributed in central Florida.
The Rev. Joel Hunter, a spiritual adviser to President Barack Obama and who serves as senior pastor of the Northland church, introduced Mrs. Obama as a “talented, caring, a very physically fit first lady” who is most proud of being “Malia and Sasha’s mom.” She was in Orlando on the last day of her three-day tour to mark the second anniversary of her “Let’s Move!” initiative to fight childhood obesity.
“You serve as a beacon for those who are lost, a refuge for those who’ve been forgotten,” she told religious individuals and groups. “And our faith communities don’t tend only to folks’ spiritual health but to their emotional and their physical health as well,” she said. Read more…
Friday, February 3, 2012Obama Reflects on Faith in Prayer Breakfast Speech
President Barack Obama spoke of his personal faith Thursday as he delivered remarks for the third year in a row at the National Prayer Breakfast.
In addition, Obama used the platform in front of religious dignitaries and politicians to express his vision of how faith and government intersect and can work together.
President Barack Obama spoke of his personal faith as he delivered remarks for the third year in a row at the National Prayer Breakfast. In his speech the President made specific mention of his calls, visits and prayers with noted pastors Joel C. Hunter and T.D. Jakes.
“From time to time, friends of mine, some of who are here today, friends like Joel Hunter or T.D. Jakes, will come by the Oval Office or they’ll call on the phone or they’ll send me an e-mail, and we’ll pray together, and they’ll pray for me and my family, and for our country,” Mr. Obama said.
Click To View The Entire Speech