What I find fascinating is the growing awareness of, dispute with, and open condemnation of the IRD by long established, reputable, and faithful institutions that have been the backbone of the church in America for a long time.

What is also interesting is the number of renewal movements active in those established religious institutions who fail to see the damage being done to their denominations by the IRD. Many of those renewal movements are functioning in full cooperation with the IRD, and are doing so without any apparent ability to offer critical analysis of the manner in which the language, the tactics, and the teachings of the IRD are destroying the very institutions they claim to want to renew. (Go here for a list of those renewal groups alligned with the IRD).

These actions by now two Annual Conferences of the United Methodist Church are unprecedented. They are the first we know of to openly condemn the IRD, and it will be important to watch whether or not this becomes more of a movement; and to see just how the IRD chooses to respond (the article by John Lomperis - is more of the same: a condemnation that repeats the mantra that "they" are doing all of this with no evidence).

Let's all keep watching. I am sure there will be more of this in the days and months to come.