Well, this was a surprise.
Making a prime-time appearance Thursday night will be Joel C. Hunter, a Florida megachurch pastor who will deliver the convention's closing prayer following Obama's speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination.
Hunter is a registered Republican, opposes abortion and, at one point, had been chosen to lead the Christian Coalition.
The reasoning? Well, in part it's a way for Obama to reach out to evangelical Christians. But, more importantly, it's a signal that the Evangelical Christian = Conservative equation isn't working on a religious scale.
[flip]
"I'll kind of be the elephant in the room, but it really says something about how far Senator Obama is reaching out," Hunter said in a phone interview today. "We are expanding the agenda of what's pro-life. When you consider poverty, environmentalism and war ... those are the issues that are being addressed by the Democratic Party."
Really, getting emotionally involved in politics is an exercise in frustration, and one of the most aggravating issues to me has been Christians voting for religious reasons against (IMHO) the party that embraces Christian ideals. If this is a sign that the Republican stranglehold on Christianity is weakening...well, it's about time.