The headline on the Biblical Witness Fellowship (BFW) web site blares out:
JOHN THOMAS ADMITS COVERT COLLUSION WITH DEMOCRATIC PARTY
He did? When?
Well, BFW (which is affiliated with the Republican Party aligned-Institute on Religion and Democracy) says that Thomas, general minister and president of the United Church of Christ, made the admission in a speech attended by IRD staff (who then transcribed the speech and distributed it to anti-UCC groups):
In a March 7th speech to Gettysburg College in which he resumed his attacks on diversity and renewal in the UCC and other mainline denominations, UCC President John Thomas made a startling admission. Speaking to the ways in which the church has historically influenced politics and society in the United States, he said, "But I'm sensing that the pattern is now beginning to shift, at least over the last 20 years, and politicians and politics have begun to find ways to use, manipulate, control religion for their own particular interest." Then he went on to admit, "And recently, well-connected Democratic operatives have begun quiet conversations with a few progressive religious leaders, including me, asking how their candidates might be able to use religious language and imagery more effectively to connect with churchgoing voters."
Biblical Witness Fellowship has consistently asserted that attempts to discredit evangelical renewal in the mainline denominations with grossly inaccurate misinformation about their supposed political connections was an exercise in projection. The UCC and other mainline denominational leaders have long drawn their issues and positions directly from the playbook of leftist political groups. Synod resolutions are often drafted by labor unions and political activists from the left. President Thomas has now confirmed our analysis.
Either the BFW folks simply cannot discern the clear meaning from Thomas' speech or they have become so disassociated from the truth that they cannot bear to speak it. Here is what Thomas said in full context:
...the red state blue state paradigm falls apart for the church just as it does for politics, and in the end I believe that's a good thing. Americans, either as political beings or as religious beings, are far too complex to be neatly slotted into such encompassing categories. And churches, even relatively progressive churches like the United Church of Christ, are both red and blue in their membership, their theological positions, and their moral views. Bush voters and Kerrey voters sit side by side in our church's pews. Increasingly mainline church leaders and evangelical church leaders - leaders who differ radically in many ways, including their political loyalties - are allying themselves together around a common commitment to the care of the creation and on behalf of the needs of the poor. Last May, for example, I sat with a Southern Baptist leader and with the vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals in a meeting with the Administration demanding that the federal food stamp program funding in the new federal budget be restored. Red and blue politicians may vary considerably in their attentiveness to the poor, but at least in this instance red and blue church leaders hear the hunger pangs of poor children in a common cry.
In the end, this failure of the red state blue state model for the church may be the best news our red state blue state political landscape can receive. In a society marked by deep political and ideological alienation, where the fabric of the commonwealth is frayed to the point of tearing, communities that find ways to tolerate difference and live creatively with diversity may be their own form of redemption not simply for themselves, but for all of us. But in order to be this redemptive community, we will need to resist the political interests who would use us for sectarian, partisan, and ultimately deeply dividing interests. Here the challenge is the same for progressive and conservative churches and their leaders. It is terribly seductive to have political leaders and interests approaching you for your blessing. But do pastors and church leaders really want to have politicians lining up at their door come election time? Do they really want to be welcomed into a world where support and influence are traded like futures on the commodity market? The Old Testament is clear in its distinction between the prophets of Yahweh and those court prophets who offered their blessing to the king in return for a comfortable place in the court.
You'll note that BWF did not link to Thomas' speech on their website. It is better, afterall, that their followers not know what Thomas really said.
Sadly, IRD and their allies are so blinded by partisan loyalty that they cannot see the truth Thomas has to offer. So they resort to lies and disinformation as their only hope for attracting supporters. Their methods are shameful - and unchristian.
Related Post: Republican Party-aligned Institute on Religion And Democracy Attacks United Church of Christ
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