What is a Renewal Group? And why is the IRD investing so much in the establishment of their alliance?

To answer the first question, let us look at some of those groups and read their own language describing themselves and stating why they came into existence.

From the `American Anglican Council':
We are a "network of individuals, parishes, and specialized ministries who affirm biblical authority and Christian orthodoxy within the Anglican community."

From the Biblical Witness Fellowship (United Church of Christ):
"(We are) a confessing fellowship of ordinary people and pastors.... We welcome all who are committed to Jesus Christ as Lord and who believe that God's written word, the Bible, is true. We seek to hold fast to the historic Christian faith as it has been revealed in Holy Scripture and testified to in the great creeds and confessions of the church."

From Good News (United Methodist):
"The Good News movement is a voice for repentance, an agent for reform, and a catalyst for renewal within the United Methodist Church. By God's grace, we will proclaim and demonstrate the power and effectiveness of historic Christianity as emphasized in Wesleyan doctrine and practice."

I won't go through all 30. They all say pretty much the same thing. They each identify themselves as a renewal group destined to return the wayward, apostate, heretical church in which they function to the true teachings of Holy Scripture and the historic, orthodox doctrines of the Church. The basis of their `renewal' is an argument that maintains that the teachings of Mainline Protestant Christianity have gone so far astray of scripture and tradition that they must `renew' efforts to return to orthodoxy.

Over time, the issues which drive their passion for renewal, and which also provide the evidence of their denomination's apostasy, have changed. When the IRD initiated its first assault on the National Council of Churches in 1981, it used America's hatred of the `red threat' to enflame passions. It accused the National Council of churches and its member bodies of using money from the offering plates of our churches to fund communist rebels around the globe. Not long after that, the focus was on the ordination of women. In an article posted on the Presbyterian site The Laymen Online, Dr. R. C. Sproul cautions members not to leave an apostate church until such clear evidence can be presented that shows that said church has fully abandoned the teachings of scripture. He shares that the moment to leave came for him when his good colleague Walter Kenyon was defrocked for saying he would not participate in the ordination of women in 1981. Other such divisive issues have included a woman's right to reproductive choice and stem cell research.

But far and away their most effective tool to date is the issue de jour: homosexuality.

Just a quick glimpse of each of their websites reveals the following:
·    The first press release listed on the Anglican renewal page is an expression of `grave concern' over newly appointed Bishops who do not `adhere to the authority of Scritpure' and therefore `commit to the immediate cessation of the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals."
·    The Biblical Witness Fellowship, at the top of their site, includes a letter from the Calvin Synod asking churches to stop funding the United Church of Christ because of their support for marriage equality
·    On the opening page of the Evangelical Lutheran Confessing Fellowship is an ad for a DVD entitled "Truth in Love: The Bible and Same Sex Behavior."
·    On the front page of the Good News (United Methodist) is an invitation to read an article in "Recent News" entitled "44 Methodist Ministers in Richmond VA say they'll let Homosexuals join church"
·    The front cover of the latest IRD publication shows John Thomas (president of the UCC) sitting at his desk with SpongeBob Squarepants, and bearing the derisive title "The Church of SpongeBob."  (SpongeBob was publicly derided by Pat Robertson as gay friendly because he held the hand of a starfish).

Again, we don't need to go through all of the websites: the point is made. Today's wedge issue is homosexuality, and renewal groups have latched onto it as the most recent evidence of the church's apostasy. Their mission is to save the church from such heretical practices, and to `renew' and restore the church to its truer, more historic past.

The problem is that these groups have much more nefarious intentions. It is not the `renewal' of the church that they are interested in, but the destabilization and destruction of what has been throughout the history of the United States the most consistent, courageous, and clear voice of social reform and justice.

Their own words betray them.

In the Mission Statement found on the IRD website we read this lengthy quote:
"The IRD aims its reports and analyses at a broad audience of U.S. Christians. Its organizational work is concentrated in the Oldline Protestant churches and the National Council of Churches, where the problems are most serious. We have committees that unite reform activists in three denominations representing over 12 million persons.... The IRD trains activists, with topics ranging from issues to tactics. At national church meetings, IRD activists assist delegates in drafting legislation and framing arguments for debate. This work is done in cooperation with like-minded groups in seven major denominations (representing nearly 20 million Americans) through our Association for Church Renewal."

These are not renewal groups: they are trained activists intent on the demise, the destabilization, and the destruction of Mainline Protestant Christianity. They use cleverly chosen wedge issues to divide otherwise united congregations and denominations. They produce, print, and circulate periodicals, pamphlets, and diatribes filled with innuendo and misinformation intended to enflame the passions of otherwise content congregants.

This is not to argue that renewal groups should not exist. They should. It is simply an argument that what is sold today as a renewal group is anything but. They are well funded and well trained activists spent not on renewing, but destroying, the church.

This is not to argue that the church should be a monolith of convention and homogeneity. It should reflect the rich diversity of opinion and principle of which every human family and institution is composed, be those principles liberal or conservative, orthodox or reform. And always the church should invite the kind of dialogue and debate that honors all such voices. But that advocate for reasonable debate cannot be the creation of a `renewal group' that begins the dialogue with an accusation of heresy and apostasy; that trains activists and tacticians to destroy and destabilize the church; and that circulates material meant to defame, defraud, and defy.

It is imperative that we in Mainline Protestant churches know what we are up against. To call these organizations intent on our demise `Renewal Groups' is a gross mischaracterization of their true purpose.

That which we call a renewal group by any other word would smell as rotten. Call it what you want, it is what it is.