Since President Obama is the world’s most powerful church “seeker” (he still hasn’t found a church home since his split with southside Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ), The New York Times provides an interesting overview of the pastors who now advise the President on pastoral and spiritual matters.

It is an intriguing group. They would all be considered what we would broadly define as evangelicals. But they defy stereotypes. They represent a wide spectrum in political beliefs and could hardly be called politically conservative, even though their theology certainly would be.

They represent what has historically been some of the hallmarks shared between American evangelicalism and the Black church: theologically conservative, politically progressive. By “history,” I mean the same strains of evangelical faith and action that propelled the anti-slavery and women’s enfranchisement movements, not its more recent incarnation in the “religious right.”

As the Times points out, though, they would certainly represent conservative views on…