Second New Leader
Resigns From
the Christian
Coalition
By Alan Cooperman
wasingtonpost.com, November 29, 2006
For the second time in little more
than a year, the Christian Coalition of America named a new leader and then
removed him before he ever fully took the reins of the conservative political
advocacy group.
The Rev. Joel Hunter, pastor of a nondenominational megachurch in Longwood,
Fla., said he resigned as the coalition's incoming president because its board
of directors disagreed with his plan to broaden the organization's agenda.
In addition to opposing abortion and same-sex marriage, Hunter, 58, wanted to
take on such issues as poverty, global warming and HIV/AIDS.
"My position is, unless we are caring as much for the vulnerable outside the
womb as inside the womb, we're not carrying out the full message of Jesus," he
said in a telephone interview yesterday. "They began to think this might
threaten their base or evaporate some of their support, and they said they just
couldn't go there."
Roberta Combs, chairman of the coalition's four-member board, said that Hunter
"is still a good friend" but that they agreed during a Nov. 21 conference call
that "it would be best for everyone" if he did not become president.
The Christian Coalition announced Hunter's appointment in early October, and he
was scheduled to take over day-to-day operations from Combs on Jan. 1. In
the interim, his positions in favor of tackling global warming, increasing the
minimum wage and opposing the death penalty were reported in The Washington Post
and some other newspapers, causing unrest among the coalition's grass-roots
supporters.
Four state chapters -- in Alabama, Georgia, Iowa and Ohio -- have broken away
from the national organization in recent months, and some of the mutinous state
leaders cited Hunter's pronouncements as a factor.
"We have been wanting to broaden our agenda for some time," Combs said.
"But there's a way to do that. We wanted to survey our supporters first
and make sure they're on board on new issues. Joel saw it differently --
he just wanted to go out and do it."
Founded in 1989 by the Rev. Pat Robertson, the Christian Coalition was once a
powerhouse in domestic politics with a budget that reached $25 million a year in
the mid-1990s. But since Ralph Reed left as its president in 1997, it has
fallen on hard times, running up more than $2 million in debt, according to tax
filings.
Hunter had offered to work for the coalition with no salary while remaining
pastor of his Northland Church near Orlando. He said finances were not the
reason for his early departure.
"I got a look at who they owed money to. It's sobering," he said.
"But with the right leadership and the capability of rebuilding a grass-roots
organization, it's not insurmountable. My church budget is $15 million a
year. ... It's not too intimidating for me to think I could have raised that
kind of money."
According to some former officials of the Christian Coalition, the turmoil at
the top reflects Combs's reluctance to yield control. In September 2005,
she named Jason T. Christy as the coalition's executive director, a new
position. Three weeks later, he resigned.
Christy, 36, owns a Scottsdale, Ariz., media company that publishes a daily
Christian newsletter and a monthly magazine called the Church Report. He
said yesterday that Combs had promised to step aside and let him run the
Christian Coalition but that he quickly discovered she was "a micromanager" with
"a narcissistic leadership style."
Christy added that his political views are far different from those of Hunter,
author of a book called "Right Wing, Wrong Bird: Why the Tactics of the
Religious Right Won't Fly With Most Conservative Christians."
"In terms of Hunter, they picked the wrong captain for the wrong ship," he said.
"The title of his book alone tells me that they did not do their due diligence."
Hunter said he made clear from the moment that Combs approached him about the
job in April that he wanted to pursue a broad agenda of "compassion issues."
"I hope we can break out of 'liberal' and 'conservative.' I'm not sure
when compassion became fitted under 'liberal,' " he said. "There are many
Christians, especially in their twenties and thirties, who don't care about
liberal and conservative. They just see that if you're going to love your
neighbor, you have to address things like the environment."
Initially, Hunter added, Combs "seemed to be interested" in his approach.
"But I think it's very difficult once you have poured your life into an
organization to transfer authority to someone else," he said.
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