Obama, evangelicals meet on religious concerns
President Obama formally extended his ear to evangelicals ahead of
the 2012 election, meeting with top leaders of the National Association
of Evangelicals in the White House for about 30 minutes in mid-October.
International
religious freedom was a top priority for the group as they thanked
Obama for condemning the charges against Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian
pastor facing execution for his conversion to Christianity. George Wood,
the general superintendent of the Assemblies of God, cited other cases
of people who have been persecuted in other parts of the world.
"Someone
commented that all these things relate to issues of religious freedom,"
NAE President Leith Anderson said in an interview after the October 12
meeting. "He [Obama] did a lot of listening."
The group also
discussed immigration reform and tricky legal questions surrounding the
issue of whether religious organizations can hire based on religious
beliefs while receiving federal funds, Anderson said. Discussions
included the concern for budget cuts, including proposed reductions in
funding for overseas development, and Obama referred to his desire for
further job creation.
Read our latest issue or browse back issues.
One issue that did not come up was abortion,
which has been a sensitive point of divergence for both sides. "Issues
that relate to the poor we would address as pro-life issues, but it was
not specifically a discussion on abortion," Anderson said. "It was not
intentionally omitted. We had a limited amount of time."
One
participant in the meeting said Obama and NAE leaders acknowledged a
"respectful disagreement" over same-sex marriage, and NAE officials
advocated for the right of military chaplains to voice their opposition
to homosexuality following the repeal of the Don't Ask/Don't Tell
policy.
The NAE, which represents 40 denominations across some
45,000 local churches, extends a request to meet with the president each
year, Anderson said. This is the first time Obama has accepted.
"Evangelicals
have had good access to the Obama White House, at least that's my
experience. He clearly knows where we disagree on issues like marriage
and abortion, and he acknowledged that we have significant differences,"
Anderson said. The NAE president also said that Obama called it "a
priority" for the White House to assist efforts to protect the lives of
Christians persecuted in other countries.
Previous presidents have
also met with the NAE. At the 1983 NAE convention in Orlando, President
Reagan delivered his famous speech referring to the Soviet communist
system as "the Evil Empire." "Did we have something of that magnitude
that happened today? It wasn't that type of setting and circumstance,"
Anderson said.
The White House meeting followed a screening the
night before for 80 religious leaders of 58, a new film on global
poverty. Leaders from several Christian agencies, such as Compassion
International, World Relief, Food for the Hungry and International
Justice Mission, met with members of the Obama administration to watch
the film and discuss ways to help the poor.
Evangelical-based
relief organizations have been adjusting to the new administration, said
Stephan Bauman, president and CEO of World Relief, the NAE's affiliated
humanitarian arm. While President George W. Bush's pet project was
global AIDS relief, Christian agencies hope to see continued funding
through President Obama's Feed the Future program, Bauman said.
"The
president is in a totally different place in Congress and the economy,
so it's hard to compare the two administrations," he said. —RNS
