By Andrew J. Weaver, Nicole R. Seibert, and Fred W. Kandeler

The January/February 2004 issue of Zion's Herald published a special report on the activities of the Washington "think tank," the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD).  It documented that The United Methodist Church (UMC), other mainline Protestant denominations, as well as the National Council of Churches of Christ have been the targets of an orchestrated attack by determined right-wing ideologues since 1981 (Weaver and Seibert, 2004a).

To many people reading this, the words "Faithful and Welcoming" would serve well as apt descriptors of congregations living out their vision of the gospel. Who would not want their church to be `faithful;' would not want them to be `welcoming?'

Well, me, for one.

You can tell a great deal about an organization by it's leader. That person is, after all, the person who was hired to carry out the agenda of the board of directors. That person is normally the principal spokesperson; the person who gives the speech; the person whom the reporter asks for even when he sometimes has to settle for someone else.  And whenever an organization goes through a transition after the departure of a longtime leader, who the next leader is often signals the organization's direction. Thus, the announcement of the new president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a Washington, DC-based organization with a 20 year history of seeking to undermine mainline Christian churches deemed "too liberal" -- is a bellwether moment.

An historic battle is unfolding for the future of mainstream Protestantism in the U.S. and in the world. You might have read press reports about the battles over gay ordination and the threats of walk-outs by hard line conservatives. But that is only a small part of one of the biggest, and most underreported, religion stories in American history.  

But the see-no-evil press coverage may be about to change. While this has been building for some time, the increasingly forceful and public stands of Rev. John H. Thomas, president of the 1.3 million member United Church of Christ may be the story that can no longer go untold. Thomas is standing-up for his church. He is speaking-up. He is speaking-out. He is making it clear that he won't back-off; and he won't back-down.

Speaking recently at Gettysburg College, Thomas blasted the 20-year war of attrition aimed at the mainline churches by a key grantee of neo-conservative foundations. The Washington, DC-based Institute on Religion and Democracy is the hub of a national network of conservative factions operating inside mainline churches -- and seeking to bend them to their will or break them apart.

One of the things we have tried to do with our pastors and congregational leaders is keep them informed about the dynamics of church takeovers. And for a long time, we were all reluctant to admit that we were dealing with anything more than just a few disgruntled members raising concerns about things that mattered to them.

But as we began to work more intimately with churches that were in turmoil over various concerns, we began to notice two things that led us to believe that our naïve notions about what was going on were costing us a great deal.

...We consult with a large number of our constituency on a variety of issues including assistance with legal, strategic and communications issues. This includes some covert activity! One of the major problems we face in the AAC is that a large portion of what we do is under the radar or behind the curtain...[ quote :  David Anderson, President & CEO of the American Anglican Council   credit for finding quote : Father Jake

Talk To Action has a new site section: Shadow War: The Attack on Mainstream Faith which features posts on the ongoing covert war, orchestrated by the Institute on Religion and Democracy, to destroy, fragment, and politically neutralize the mainstream Protestant American denominations. The image, left, is a donation form from the IRD website.

Recent struggles within the Episcopal Church and the the Worldwide Anglican Communion, to which it belongs have pitted (as the IRD associated, Ahmanson funded American conservatives would frame things) the degenerate, gay-friendly American Episcopal Church against the oppressed, biblically orthodox and numerically superior provinces of the Anglican "Global South." Indeed, Anglican Archbishops (sometimes called primates) in a number of African provinces (most notable Nigeria, who's Archbishop is their de-facto leader), along with West Indies, and the numerically smaller provinces of Southeast Asia and the Southern Cone (of South America, which includes Argentina and Chile). Have been at the forefront of condemning the Episcopal Church for the actions of the their General Convention in 2003.

An excellent discussion of recent developments is provided in Saturday's Washington Post by Bishop John Chane of the Episcopal Diocese of Wahshington (D.C.)

author info

The Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), a neoconservative-led Washington "think tank," has relentlessly used unethical propaganda methods to carry out the radical political agenda of a handful of secular benefactors opposed to Christian prophetic voice and social witness.... In 2000 the IRD prepared a covert funding proposal (sent to one of the authors by a United Methodist bishop) to raise millions of dollars from radical right benefactors. In the proposal the IRD asserted, "A major priority during 2001-2004 year will be to push for the final dismantling of the National Council of Churches...."

Theologically conservative Christians who are seeking spiritual renewal in mainline churches need to look carefully at the unchristian tactics of the IRD. The church needs spiritual renewal; what it does not need is more political hardball and takeover bids. If the IRD achieves a hostile takeover of mainline Protestantism along with the dismantling of the NCCC, they will have muted an important part of America's social conscience and significantly diminished its capacity for civic discourse. The soul of the church, our faith and the nation are at risk.

In the late 1970s two men, Paige Patterson and Paul Pressler, devised a plan to takeover the Southern Baptist Convention and change its direction. Their strategy inserted an alien winner-take-all system of power politics into the life of our denomination.

Patterson and Pressler studied the SBC's constitution and bylaws and discovered that the convention was ultimately controlled by the appointment powers of the president. By electing change minded presidents for ten consecutive years and having those presidents appoint only change minded people to serve as trustees, within ten years they could replace the heads of all SBC institutions and agencies with change minded administrators. Beginning in 1979, that is what they did.

After extensive political organizing and busing messengers in to vote for convention presidents, the Pressler-Patterson coalition succeeded in winning elections by an average 55% to 45% ratio. In the late 1980's some opposition was organized, but it was too little and too late. By the early 1990s most traditional Baptists had dropped out of the SBC. This essentially gave the Patterson-Pressler coalition a free hand to change the SBC.

How has the SBC changed since 1979?

I returned 20 minutes ago from a diocesan church leadership workshop for the Episcopal Diocese of Albany.  What I heard and observed there was an Institute of Religion and "Democracy" exhortation.  The bishop used the phrase, One Church, (an IRD phrase) over and over again.  His audience moaned, cried hallalujah, and murmured Amen.  A local leader in the Cusillo movement was given 15 minutes to describe the success of the movement in the New York Capital district. We were sternly warned to pray ceaselessly to keep evil and Satan from entering our churches.

I am a member of the Episcopal Church, one of the mainline churches under attack by a radical right wing  ecumenical organization called the Institute for Religion and Democracy. I recently moved to Troy, New York. part of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany. When the priest of our new perish visited, I was corrected for use of the word, Episcopal, and was told that we are an "Anglican" diocese.  

I was aware that the Bishop of Albany signed an accord in Texas objecting to the installation of a bishop living in an openly gay relationship.  However, being new to the diocese I had no idea how it came to be a such a powerful tool of the Institute of Religion and Democracy.

Since we were birthed out of the Church of England, a brief look at our English history provides an important insight into our present situation and personality.

In the 16th century, from the reign of Henry the VIII through Mary, the Protestant Reformation exacted a bloody toll in England. The political, social and religious fabric of the nation was under enormous pressure. Early in the reign of Elizabeth I, a new direction was charted. Queen Elizabeth refused to take sides in the theological disputes and through acts of Parliament she directed that the unity of the Church of England would be based not on doctrinal conformity (as the Protestants demanded) or on magisterial authority (as the Catholics required), but on a common liturgical worship.

Now that theological broadness is being sorely tested by attempts to impose a religious orthodoxy completely foreign to our common Church of England culture by groups both inside and outside the church. The diocese of which I am currently a member has fallen under the leadership of a rogue bishop who is working diligently to take our diocese out of the Episcopal Church in American along with the money and property that are attached to it. He is one of those wishing to impose orthodoxy on Episcopalians. One way he is subverting the will of the Episcopal church is by changing the rules for selecting a bishop. Another is by forcing the self sorting of candidates for bishop through the questioning process.

A close look at some of the rosters of people who have been members of the Council for National Policy disclosed more Southern Baptists than I had previously realized.  Below is a brief description of the Council for National Policy and a list of the Southern Baptists who have been members:

In 1981 Tim LaHaye left the pastorate and founded the secretive Council for National Policy (CNP) -- an exclusive conservative Christian lobbying group that meets three times a year. It brings influential conservative Christian leaders together behind closed doors with America's most powerful conservative politicians, journalists, lawyers, and industrialists to strategize about politics and public policy. Start-up funds came from Cullen Davis and Nelson Bunker Hunt. Membership is by invitation only and annual dues are several thousand dollars (at least $5,000 annually). Guests attend meetings only with the unanimous approval of the executive committee. The membership list is a Who's Who of the Religious Right and of the politicians pushing their agenda.  Southern Baptists who are members include: