Given their standing at the center of American cultural and religious life since the founding of the nation, some found the church rising in this way unsettling. Indeed, sometimes the churches found themselves in opposition to powerful corporate interests, as well as the proponents of the excesses of American foreign policy. So, these interests looked to how they could neutralize or dismember the churches as they would business or military opponents. The strategic hub of the resulting war of attrition is the Washington, DC-based agency, the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) -- which was bankrolled by the founding funders of the major institutions of rightwing politics and public policy in Washington, DC. IRD went on to organize conservative rump factions into sources of internal division, while neutralizing or countering positive media coverage -- and generating negative media coverage. (One concrete result of the efforts to marginalize the mainline churches has been, as Media Matters and the United Church of Christ have pointed out, is that none of the Sunday morning public affairs talk shows have had a mainline protestant church leader on their program in many years, turning instead to leaders of the Christian Right such as Jerry Falwell.) Writers at Talk to Action have stepped into the breech. Of the guests on State of Belief, John Dorhauer has posted weekly on the efforts of IRD affiliated or alligned cnservative "renewal" groups, bent on wreaking havoc and internal division in the United Church of Christ. Bruce Prescott (Mainstream Baptist) has reported extensively on the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. And Andrew Weaver has posted a number of investigative pieces on IRD-related attacks on the United Methodist Church, and the mainline church community in general. For general background in advance of the show, I suggest my recent article: The Battle for the Mainline Churches, which appears in the Spring issue of The Public Eye magazine. Here are some excerpts:
"Make no mistake," wrote Avery Post, the national president of the United Church of Christ in 1982, "the objectives of the Institute on Religion and Democracy are the exact opposite of what its name appears to stand for. The purpose of its leaders is to demoralize the mainline denominations and to turn them away from the pursuit of social and economic justice. For much of the 20th century, the mainline Protestant churches maintained a vigorous "social witness." That is what these Protestants call their views on such matters as peace, civil rights and environmental justice. While there was certainly conservative opposition to the development of these views, and to the activities that grew out of them, the direction of mainline Protestantism was clear. The churches became powerful proponents of social change in the United States. They stood at the moral and political center of society with historic roots in the earliest days of the nation. Indeed, they epitomize the very idea and image of "church" for many Americans. In retrospect, it seems inevitable that powerful external interests would organize and finance the conservative rump factions into strategic formations intended to divide and conquer--and diminish the capacity of churches to carry forward their idea of a just society in the United States--and the world. ...in 2002, a foundation controlled by Richard Mellon Scaife "gave $225,000 to the IRD for its "Reforming America's Churches Project"-- among whose stated goals is the elimination of the Methodists' General Board of Church and Society, the church's voice for justice and peace, as well as discrediting United Methodist Church pastors and bishops with whom they disagree by instigating as many as a dozen church trials over the next few years. You can read the entire article at the web site of The Public Eye. To those Americans who want to preserve democracy in America, State of Belief host Welton Gaddy, observes regarding the fundamentalist takeover of his church: "The Southern Baptist Convention was lost not because of those trying to take it over, but because of people arguing that it wasn't a big deal."
Talk to Action Writers to be Featured on State of Belief -- Sunday, May 21st [UPDATED!] | 7 comments (7 topical, 0 hidden)
Talk to Action Writers to be Featured on State of Belief -- Sunday, May 21st [UPDATED!] | 7 comments (7 topical, 0 hidden)
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