» NY Times: Without a Pastor of His Own, Obama Turns to Five

Interesting read in this prematurely post-Billy Graham era, giving an overview of the five pastors that President Obama calls upon for prayer and support.

For state pride, there's two Texans on the list: Dallas' T.D. Jakes and Houston's Kirbyjon Caldwell. Otis Moss, I'm not overly familiar with, outside the extent to which his name has been mentioned with President Obama's.

The other two, I'm a bit more familiar with. Jim Wallis, I've read and listened to the occasional guest sermon. I can't claim to be entirely down with the guy's style, but I at least respect that he offers a much-needed voice from a part of the spectrum that hasn't gotten a lot of coverage in the past several decades. His book, "God's Politics" should probably be listed as required reading for anyone interested in the "Religion & Politics" genre. As suggested above, I found myself in agreement about as often as I did disagreement. If fancy book-learning is too much of a tax on the time, the blog over at Soujourners is a good glimpse of his thinking and work.

Joel Hunter, I'm far more fond of. And even I'll find myself yelling at my MP3 player from time to time while listening to him. Check out a sermon or two if so inclined. For me, Hunter's strength is in his storytelling, so I tend to think that's a better medium than his books.