Ku Klux Klan Joins Republican Party-aligned Institute on Religion and Democracy In Protesting Church Conference

The Reconciling Ministries Network – a group of United Methodists that advocate the full inclusion of gays and lesbians into the life of the church – will hold a conference in the mountains of North Carolina this week. The Republican Party-aligned Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), a group opposed to basic civil rights for gays and lesbians, has been critical of the conference. It was announced this week that the Ku Klux Klan would be at the conference site to protest over the weekend. IRD is trying to distance their group from the KKK. Why bother? They share a similar agenda of opposing basic civil rights for gays and lesbians (though they use different tactics). The IRD and KKK were made for each other – at least on this issue.

IRD staffer John Lomperis will be "reporting on the event" on the IRD web site.  Lomperis was a volunteer on the Bush re-election campaign last year (a fact he concealed when he was writing articles critical of progressive Christian groups and their involvement in voter registration campaigns).

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