God & Country

White House to Announce Rest of Faith Council. Any Predictions?

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March 27, 2009 RSS Feed Print
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By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

I hear that the White House is about ready to announce the 10 remaining members of the President's Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Aides are just waiting on sign-off from the president himself. An announcement could come today or Monday.

In the meantime, post your predictions on who will be named to the council—and your hopes for who should be. Here's the lineup so far:

Judith N. Vredenburgh, president and chief executive officer, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America, Philadelphia

Rabbi David N. Saperstein, director and counsel, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Washington; noted church/state expert

Frank S. Page, president emeritus, Southern Baptist Convention, Taylors, S.C.

Father Larry J. Snyder, president, Catholic Charities USA, Alexandria, Va.

Otis Moss Jr., pastor emeritus, Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, Cleveland

Eboo S. Patel, founder and executive director, Interfaith Youth Corps, Chicago

Fred Davie, president, Public/Private Ventures, a secular nonprofit intermediary, New York

William J. Shaw, president, National Baptist Convention USA, Philadelphia

Melissa Rogers, director, Wake Forest School of Divinity's Center for Religion and Public Affairs, Winston-Salem, N.C.; expert on church/state issues

Joel C. Hunter, senior pastor, Northland, a Church Distributed, Lakeland, Fla.

Arturo Chavez, president and CEO, Mexican American Cultural Center, San Antonio

Rev. Jim Wallis, president and executive director, Sojourners, Washington

Vashti M. McKenzie, presiding bishop, 13th Episcopal District, African Methodist Episcopal Church, Knoxville, Tenn.

Tags:
Obama administration,
religion,
politics,
White House

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Personally, I'd love to see an ethicist like David Gushee on the council, but it looks like evangelicals are already pretty well-represented so far.

Martin Marty, Richard Mouw, Ron Sider, Gary Haugen or Jim Skillen would also be excellent choices.

Dan S. of HI 6:32PM April 02, 2009

Jim Winkler has worked very hard for the United Methodist Church's stance against the Iraq war and torture. Even though Bush was a member of a UMC, he wrote letters to Bush and spoke out against the war.

The UMC is an inclusive church, although specific church go from left to right, most are moderate. As a result, individuals on the right have formed a group called IRD to attack moderate to liberal churches. A terrible example of for reaching the unchurched.

"They ask that because when they think of Christians, they tend to think of people who are narrow-minded, judgmental, arrogant, and angry."

The above quote is very important. It turns people away from ever wanting to attend a Christian church.

Rick Warren said mainline churches were "Marxist in Christian clothing"

I hope the choices are people that believe the Brian McClaren quotes.

Our church has many outreach programs outside of church hours to make a less threatening environment. For example, divorce recovery and opening the gym to the public for basketball. We try to be a good example rather than proselytizing.

The word of God is included in the divorce recovery in a suttle non-threatening way. Never any divorce makes you are a forever evil sinner. As a result, many started attending the singles Sunday school class. Some attended mostly from being lonely. Many eventually joined the church. A woman in her early 50s that had never attended church became a pastor.

The last I heard, Obama was reconsidering the rule on hiring decisions. I think it would be too difficult to enforce.

I am against heavy had proselytizing. For example, getting to stay free at a time share, but having to listen to a sales pitch.

I read a good example of a Catholic man and his son being at an Boy Scout event at a Baptist church. At the end, the pastor said a few words and asked who wanted to be saved. The Catholic boy raised his hand.

I pray that people calling themselves Christians will learn to act according to the teachings of Christ.

Julie of CO 3:30PM March 29, 2009

I don't know much about Brian McClaren. While I don't know much about his theology, I do like this excerpt from an interview that Brian McClaren gave to Christianity Today in 2001:

Q: What questions might people ask of Christians?

A: Many would ask, "Is Christianity good, and can it make me into a better person, or will it make me a jerk?" They ask that because when they think of Christians, they tend to think of people who are narrow-minded, judgmental, arrogant, and angry. And they think, "Wow, I really want God, and I'd rather be a Christian than a Buddhist or a Muslim, but Christians look like jerks. I don't want to become like that."

Q: How can churches be more welcoming to postmodern non-Christians or new believers?

A: To become this kind of church, we may have to accept people who don't dress right, don't talk right, don't smell right, and don't think right. If we're not willing to let them belong before they believe, they will never believe in our church. Because if a group says we will only accept you if you agree with us, it sounds like any other worldly group. What people are looking for is a group that accepts them regardless of whether they conform.

-----------------

End of excerpt.

This sounds like something that my Christian husband or one of my own Christian children would say.

If Christianity is going to be re-written (and I believe it must if it is going to survive), this is exactly the kind of re-write that I think is needed.

Judging from this excerpt alone, I'll keep my fingers crossed for Brian as well. ;)

Darcy Grant of NY 4:43PM March 27, 2009

God & Country

Dan Gilgoff covers religion for U.S. News & World Report. He is the author of The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America are Winning the Culture War, and is a former politics editor at beliefnet. E-mail Dan at godandcountry@usnews.com.

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