DENVER — The Democrats have got religion.

The Democratic National Convention week kicked off with an interfaith worship service and it will end tonight with a prayer by the former president-elect of the Christian Coalition.

Technically, Florida pastor Joel Hunter’s benediction will be the second-to-last item on the agenda. But once he finishes, all that remains on the agenda is for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to slam down the gavel and declare the convention adjourned.

Hunter is an interesting pick to wrap things up. He’s pastor of a non-denominational evangelical megachurch in the Orlando suburbs. And he was chosen in October 2006 to lead the Christian Coalition. Hunter resigned before he’d even really begun after clashing with the Christian Coalition’s board of directors. (Click here for an article on the dispute.)

The Floridian wanted to move the Coalition beyond single (or double) issue politics. Instead of focusing exclusively on fighting abortion and gay marriage, he wanted the group to also work against poverty, injustice and environmental destruction. Hunter’s broader agenda proved controversial, so Hunter stepped aside.

Hunter, who pastors Northland Church, is the author of A New Kind of Conservative. (Click here to read excerpts.)

Will Hunter say his prayer “In Jesus’ name?” My guess is no. Will he use gender-neutral pronouns to refer to the Almighty? Who knows. We’ll find out tonight.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 3:39 pm and is filed under Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.