Evidently the president-elect of the Christian Coalition has resigned before officially taking office. Joel Hunter, set to begin his tenure as president in the new year, resigned Tuesday. Here’s a few quotes:

The Rev. Joel Hunter, of Longwood’s Northland, A Church Distributed, said he quit as president-elect of the group founded by evangelist Pat Robertson because he realized he would be unable to broaden the organization’s agenda beyond opposing abortion and gay marriage.

He hoped to include issues such as easing poverty and saving the environment.

“These are issues that Jesus would want us to care about,” Hunter said.

“They pretty much said, ‘These issues are fine, but they’re not our issues; that’s not our base,’ ” Hunter said of his conversation with the group’s leadership.

The coalition’s rejection of Hunter’s approach means it is unwilling to part with its partisan, Republican roots, Hunter said.

I thought this was pretty sad. It’s sad that many - like the Christian Coalition, along with men like Falwell, Dobson, etc. - see these as the two most important issues (and at times it appears they believe they’re the only two issues.) It’s also sad that many likely believe that Christians in general feel the same way, and that they will only see us for what we are against instead of what we are for. Part of this lies at our own feet - we must make certain that people know more than what they see in the likes of the CC. But it’s a shame organizations and men such as these choose such a narrow agenda and often show so little of the light of Christ.

I’m also glad there are people out there like Joel Hunter who recognize that there are many more moral issues besides “the big two” and want to make a difference, even if the CC isn’t willing to go along with it. Perhaps, had he stayed with them, he could have made a difference. But it would seem the discouragement was so great initially that he could see no hope for change. I hope that won’t always be the case.

h/t Craig Borlase