Obama listens to religious leaders

Obama is the first of the two major presidential candidates to reach out to a broad spectrum of Christian leaders - and this post is 10 days late. On June 10 in Chicago, Obama spent a few hours with evangelical, mainline, Protestant and Catholic leaders. A few notables, in my opinion: Glenn Palmberg (president of the Evangelical Covenant Church) and Cameron Strang (president of the Relevant Media Group). This is a big sign for the Democratic party taking Christians seriously. And I'm so happy that it all began with listening. Obama reportedly asked the attendees what mattered most to them. I hope McCain follows suit. Even more than that, I hope that they both continue listening to religious leaders, as Obama promised if elected, with regularity in the White House.

Read more from the Chicago Tribune here.

unChristian

Have you heard of the book unChristian by David Kinnaman? He’s part of the Barna Group.

http://www.amazon.com/unChristian-Generation-Really-Christianity-Matters/dp/0801013003/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213665116&sr=8-1

I finished reading it today. It focuses on 16-29 year olds and what their perceptions of Christianity are, both as insiders (Christians) and outsiders (non-Christians). The six main points from outsiders are:

1. Hypocritical
2. Salvation focused
3. Anti homosexual
4. Sheltered
5. Too political
6. Judgmental

Our pastors recently preached a six part sermon series matching these topics. You can listen to them here, if you’re interested:

http://www.thenewcom.com/podcast/

It was a humbling read. I imagine that the older you are, the harder this is to read. The younger you are, especially under 30, the more accurate you find the results of this research.