President-elect prepares to leave over differences

He said he thinks conservative Christians should think outside the box.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
The president-elect of the Christian Coalition announced Tuesday that he was stepping down, saying the religious group appeared to balk at his proposals to focus on environmental and anti-poverty issues rather than on purely "moralistic" issues such as abortion.
The Rev. Joel C. Hunter, who was scheduled to become president of the coalition Jan. 1, said his departure was sparked by "just a basic philosophical difference. ... I saw an opportunity to really broaden the conversation and broaden the constituency. I'm really over this whole polarization thing."
"I think the board just got scared," added Hunter, senior pastor of a mega-church in central Florida and the author of "Right Wing, Wrong Bird, Why the Tactics of the Religious Right Won't Fly With Most Conservative Christians."
Roberta Combs, the incumbent president of the coalition and the chairwoman of its board, said that the board of directors is willing to branch out from the coalition's signature issues of abortion and gay marriage, and that the coalition has weighed in on issues ranging from Internet access to the tax burden on the poor.
But she said that Hunter was acting too fast without consulting his superiors.
Hunter said he volunteered his resignation during a Nov. 21 board meeting; Combs said the board invited him to resign.
Combs said Hunter failed to notify the board before announcing an initiative to combat global warming in October. The board favored the idea but wanted "to survey our donors and see where they stand," Combs said. "We want them to come with us and not leave us."
Recent struggles
Founded by televangelist Pat Robertson in 1989, the coalition has struggled in recent years as some members have complained it has ignored its core mission of supporting conservative Christian values.
Chapters in Iowa, Alabama and Ohio have left the organization this year.
Hunter, 58, had accepted the post in July. As senior pastor at Northland, A Church Distributed, which uses teleconferencing to allow its 7,000 central Florida members to worship together, he had called for a new approach to religious politics.
"Conservative Christians need to be more ambidextrous than just 'right' or 'left' oriented," Hunter wrote in his book. "The Bible is more holistic, more fulfilling to all of life's needs rather than heavy-handed on what is morally right or compassionately left."
Cold feet
In an interview Tuesday, Hunter said that the coalition's board had initially signed off on this approach, but appeared to get cold feet.
He said they also backtracked on supporting his vision for the group to focus more on grass roots organizing rather than on Washington-based advocacy.
"They have just been Washington-focused since their inception," Hunter said.
Combs said that the coalition, which claims more than 2 million members, believes it can serve its grass-roots base through activity in Washington.
"We come from a political background," Combs said. "That's our job."