Contact: Johnny Hunter, 757-572-6349, [email protected]

MEDIA ADVISORY, July 11 /Christian Newswire/ -- The following is Rev. Johnny Hunter's response to the editorial/opinion column "Politicians need not abandon religion" by Barack Obama for USA Today:

When Senator Barack Obama says "My faith shapes my values, but...", you can be assured that he has no intentions of applying works to what he wants you to believe is his faith. Only a person who has no core value in his faith would use the conjunction "but" to describe the role of religion in his life.

A person who truly believes that politicians need not abandon religion would boldly state, "My faith shapes my values, and that is why I will vote in accordance to my core value beliefs."

Of course, there is always the possibility that when Senator Obama votes in favor of abortion and the right of two men to have anal sex, he is voting his core value belief. For many pastors and congregations who follow scriptural teaching, that is cause for alarm. That would explain why he and his staff refused to meet his own constituents from Chicago, an African American pastor and his wife, the day before he voted against the marriage amendment. Plus, it would also explain why, like a drill sergeant, he pressed into my face, showing no respect for me as an ordained minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to make a point that he would not support a marriage amendment with the definition of one man and one woman only.

No matter how reasonable he may appear to be when the TV cameras are rolling, without the news media's presence, the only opinion Senator Obama cares to hear is his own.

Rev. Dr. Johnny M. Hunter, DD

Fayetteville, NC

Johnny Hunter is an ordained minister with the National Clergy Council and a pro-life advocate