On the Run
John Dorhauer printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Mon Apr 17, 2006 at 11:16:14 PM EST
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One of the more amusing aspects of writing about the attacks of the religious right has been tracking their responses.

For a long time, groups like the IRD and the renewal groups associated with them have had the luxury of doing their most deleterious work under the radar.

This happens because they are intentional about hiding the aspects of their work that they know most folk would deem unchristian.

This happens because much of the work they do is somewhat clandestine: practiced, if you will, in the art of deception.

This happens because much of what they print - which is intended to convince others about the wayward motivations of their targeted enemies - is filled with innuendo, statements taken out of context (or worse, completely recontextualized), outright lies, and deceptions cleverly composed by those whose `mission' forgives their lack of scruples.

This happens because these deceptions are written to people predisposed to hear something incriminating about those named enemies to begin with.

This happens because some of the people fed by their hatred and vitriol turn into bullies who impose fear and silence upon their fellow congregants and pastors.

But something happens when light is shed into these dark corners; when their motivations are named; when their tactics are disclosed; and when the deception and lies inherent in their writing are exposed.

When I met in early February with Rev. Sheldon Culver and Rev. Kent Siladi as part of a task force formed by our Council of Conference Ministers to research the attacks on our churches, we first discovered the newly formed renewal group Faithful and Welcoming. We went to their website and discovered a number of things. One of the most surprising was that when you clicked on the `Links' tab and opened it up, it had a direct link to the Institute on Religion and Democracy. In our report to the Conference Ministers (who met the very next week in Cleveland) that link was mentioned, among other things.

Within a matter of days, Bob Thompson - President of the Faithful and Welcoming renewal group - fired off a letter to the Conference Ministers denying that he had ever had any contact with anyone from the IRD, and the link on their website disappeared. The letter also claims that they voted NOT to affiliate with the Association of Church Renewal - the arm of the IRD that feeds the destructive appetite of these renewal groups. The following quote can be found on their website (faithfulandwelcoming.org) in their Frequently Asked Questions page:

"There has been no communication or cooperation between the IRD and FWC. The FWC President briefly attended part of an ACR meeting, and subsequently recommended to our board that FWC not affiliate with the ACR."

This is most interesting, since their `Links' tab will still to this day ask you to go the IRD's Association for Church Renewal page.

When Brandon Woosley appeared on the campus of Eden Seminary March 16, 2006 he was asked directly about the intent of this renewal group to remain connected to the United Church of Christ. This was an important question, since the group has been claiming that their intent is not to separate churches from the denomination, but to keep them connected. One questioner wondered, if this were the case, why their annual meeting in July was not being held at a UCC church (it was arranged to take place in a Nazarene church) and why the keynoters included a Lutheran theologian, a former director of the activist group Exodus International, and the current president of the Presbyterian Layman (one of the most strident and active renewal groups affiliated with the IRD's Association for Church Renewal - with whom they have had no contact and with whom they voted NOT to affiliate) - but no one from the United Church of Christ , the denomination with whom they were intent on talking churches into staying.

This week, their website indicates that they are moving their National Gathering so that it can be held at a UCC church.

Last week, I wrote the following in my article on this web-site:
"Sometimes I forget how important is this work of exposing attacks on our churches from the right. Many people will contact me each week asking me to stop doing this for one reason or another - and I will confess there is a small part of me that wishes I didn't have to do this.
And sometimes you get to wondering if you are not just seeing things that aren't there because you have been looking for them so hard for so long. You wonder if you aren't as paranoid as your accusers say you are.
But while sitting at our Association Council Meeting last week I was reminded why this work was so important."

A piece of that quote appeared on the Front page of the Biblical Witness fellowship. Taken out of context, it ran at the very top of their page with the headline "Prophetic Words." They did not choose to mention that in the quote I talked about how important this work of exposing attacks is. They did not mention why I thought it was so important that this work continue - both essential pieces to understanding the piece they pulled out of its context.

 But it is clear that they are reading, and needing to respond in some way.

Pulling the quote out of context is indicative of the ways in which they will deceive in order to achieve an end of their choosing, but what is more fascinating is what they did with the quote: they created a link to a cartoon (http://www.biblicalwitness.org/Cartoon.htm) which shows the UCC headquarters being attacked by military helicopters, and some unknown voice inside blaming the whole scene on the BWF.

Please.

Ok, renewal groups like BWF and Faithful and Welcoming are being exposed, and they have to respond in ways they never have before. But is this their best response? Deniability about clear connections to groups they still have connections with; quotes taken out of context; and cartoons (and not very clever ones at that)?

They are clearly on the run, and we who have dedicated ourselves to exposing them for who they are have them scrambling somewhat.

This is good.

Bob Thompson says he wants nothing to do with the IRD (because he knows now what we know about the IRD and that he can't afford to be KNOWN to have any connection with them).

Faithful and Welcoming, after months of promoting their National Gathering, has to move its location in response to direct accusations about their true intent.

The IRD cannot find a president within any of the denominations represented by their active Renewal Groups, and hires Dr. James Tonkwich of the Presbyterian Church in America (a splinter group that broke from the Presbyterian Church USA in 1973 over the ordination of women - among other things). On their web-site, they mention one of the reasons they broke away: It separated from the Presbyterian Church in the United States (Southern) in opposition to the long-developing theological liberalism which denied the deity of Jesus Christ and the inerrancy and authority of Scripture. (Who other than the IRD and their minions would accuse Presbyterians of `denying the deity of Jesus' and the `authority of scripture'?)

And David Runnion-Bareford, needing to respond to what he is reading, prints some ridiculous cartoon and chooses to call me prophetic. If he finds my words so prophetic, let him print the following on his website: "Despite decades of harassment and deception by the BWF targeting the United Church of Christ for attack, the UCC's message of extravagant welcome continues to draw new members and churches to them in record numbers."




Display:
This is actually something the IRD has borrowed from the more coercive branches of dominionism, and which some particular branches have been doing for sixty-plus years.

Much of the "hiding" of un-Christian intent is based on tactics used in what is often termed "stealth evangelism" by its practitioners--and more accurately referred to as "bait and switch" evangelism.  In essence, "bait and switch evangelism" teaches that it is not only acceptable but, in many cases, desirable to lie to people and deceptively earn their trust for the ultimate purpose of recruitment.

(Of note, the Moonies--who also use very, very similar tactics--term this sort of thing "heavenly deception".)

"Stealth evangelism" originally spawned from the various dominion theology and "spiritual warfare" movements which have had life for the better part of sixty years within the Assemblies of God and other neopente groups, and have had their parallels within "fundamentalist Baptist" movements.  

In addition to being deceptive in and of themselves (as recorded on a thread regarding a particular incident in an Assemblies church on Dark Christianity) a common tactic in these groups has been to set up multiple front-groups--often trying their best to hide the links to these groups.  The Assemblies of God has approximately forty of these of national or international interest and individual Assemblies churches probably have hundreds of local fronts; there's actually been quite the thread on at least one of these groups (the "Seven Project") which targets teens.  The "Seven Project", and groups run by other dominionists linked to "spiritual warfare" movements (like Bill Gothard's "character education" curricula) tend to advertise to schools as being anti-drug and/or "character building" programs and the like--only popping the altar calls after the kids are in the (often mandatory) program.

(As an aside, dominionists also quite often use celebrity figures who are dominionists in "stealth evangelism" targeted at schools--the most common method being having sports figures appear at a school for what is ostenably a secular "anti-drug" talk, then--after kids are brought into the mandatory assembly and the school system has signed the contract--popping the altar call at the end. Several of the groups most responsible for this--Athletes in Action and Team Impact--have been banned from some public school systems as a result.)

In the 1970's, the same groups which have been using multiple front-groups to recruit people deceptively (including other, mainstream Christians) expanded their tactics to promoting the abusive "cell churches" as a method of recruitment.  It is of note that according to multiple sources, these tactics were adopted by dominionist churches in order to subvert and/or split mainstream churches--in a manner almost identical as that taken by the IRD today.  (As an aside, the "cell church" concept is also widely recognised as harmful, and the potential for longterm harm is acknowledged in most texts on spiritual abuse.)

Also, these groups tend not to expose their links to even scarier folks--most people don't know, for instance, that the Royal Rangers have marched in support of Fred Phelps or that the Royal Rangers' equivalent to the Scout Jamboree has featured paramilitary training and teaching kids how to build nuclear reactors and offers badges in dominionist "historical revisionism" of American history and culture.  (Most people would--rightfully--run screaming in the other direction if they knew this.)  One has to be involved in the group before one is aware of this.

by dogemperor on Tue Apr 18, 2006 at 09:53:41 AM EST


Biblical Witness Fellowship cannot cartoon worth a lick. Quick, boyz and girlz, can you help them be funny?

by jhutson on Tue Apr 18, 2006 at 10:42:29 AM EST



by jhutson on Tue Apr 18, 2006 at 10:50:21 AM EST
A fun approach :

"NO ONE expects the BIBLICAL WITNESS FELLOWSHIP !

WE HAVE THREE WEAPONS, AND OUR WEAPONS ARE THREE !

Our first weapon is Biblical inerrancy,

Weapon number two is opposition to abortion and reproductive rights and the stigmatization of all human sexuality not leading to reproduction.

Weapon number three is our visceral hatred of gay marriage and the promotion of hokey, bogus pseudoscientific research alleging some sort of harm to society...

Weapon number four is.....

Darn it !.....

Alright, WE HAVE FOUR WEAPONS, AND OUR WEAPONS ARE FOUR !

Our first weapon is biblical inerrancy....."



by Bruce Wilson on Tue Apr 18, 2006 at 12:56:28 PM EST
Parent
"Brave, brave sir Runion-Bareford, he bravely ran away."

"I did not."

"He led a brave retreat."

"Shut up."
Shalom, Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer "Time makes ancient good uncouth; we must onward still and upward who would keep abreast of truth." from Lowell, "The Present Crisis"
by John Dorhauer on Wed Apr 19, 2006 at 08:11:56 AM EST
Parent




Quote/ Much of the "hiding" of un-Christian intent is based on tactics used in what is often termed "stealth evangelism" by its practitioners--and more accurately referred to as "bait and switch" evangelism.  In essence, "bait and switch evangelism" teaches that it is not only acceptable but, in many cases, desirable to lie to people and deceptively earn their trust for the ultimate purpose of recruitment. /UnQuote

Interestingly, Bill Easum, in his earliest book talked about "marketing" used as a shell to get folks in the door to be discipled. Since my background is "MARKETING" and, I believe that the church could use a good dose of defined and re-fined business accredited social-service "MARKETING"  (especially mainline churches), I shut the door on his ideas right after reading that passage. Anyone who uses "marketing" as a "propaganda" tool should be looked at with a great deal of skepticism. More than likely they also have no idea of what "MARKETING" really is. William

by williambrandes on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 11:56:06 PM EST



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