The President Should Have Called The Pastors First

Jim Daly Jim Daly is president and chief executive officer of Focus on the Family, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping families thrive.
Published May 15, 2012

Posted by Jim_Daly May 14, 2012

There's a curious article in this morning's New York Times detailing the evangelical fallout from President Obama's decision last week affirming his support of same-sex marriage.

The headline reads:

After Obama's Decision on Marriage, A Call to Pastors

The article described a presidential conference call two hours after Mr. Obama's announcement with approximately eight African-American ministers, followed by additional phone conversations with several of his spiritual advisors. In each of the calls the president attempted to explain his rationale for the decision.

That the president has now endorsed same-sex marriage doesn't surprise me given the trajectory of his comments and the administration’s policies these past few years. But it's unfortunate that Mr. Obama wouldn't have allowed his select group of pastors to speak into his decision-making process. The Reverend Joel Hunter, one of the pastors he spoke with and a friend of President Obama, was refreshingly blunt when asked about his involvement:

“I’m not at all surprised he didn’t call me before because I would have tried to talk him out of it. My interpretation of Scriptures, I can’t arrive at the same conclusion. He totally understood that."

In other words, the president was making a historic and historically radical decision about the government's perspective on a fundamentally essential civil institution as well as a deeply sacred religious institution, but he wasn't interested in a spiritual perspective. This should sadden all of us.

There is wisdom, of course, in many counselors. Whether you're the president of the United States or a father or mother, Solomon's words ring true:

For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers (Proverbs 11:14).