The Rev. John Thomas, general minister and president of the United Church of Christ, spoke this past week at Gettysburg College.
His topic: The IRS, the IRD, and Red State / Blue State Religion.
The speech was first posted online by an anti-UCC web. The writer of that site later admitted in an e-mail distributed to his yahoo group that he received it from the Republican Party aligned - Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD).
IRD, for those not familiar, is an organization funded by right-wing political extremists. Their aim is to silence Christian voices opposed to war and economic policies that abandon the "least of these." IRD has been circulating the speech with the apparent hope that the content would foster division within the denomination.
I suspect, however, that Thomas' comments will in fact help in the campaign some of us are waging to expose the political interests and ties of IRD and their allies. Exposing IRD for what and who they are will only help unify our mainline churches.
Some highlights of Thomas' speech:
The IRD supports and encourages campaigns of disruption and attack in Mainline churches through its Alliance of Church Renewal. IRD has committees specifically focused on the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church, and the Presbyterian Church (USA), committees which provide support for so-called renewal groups within each of these denominations - the Presbyterian Lay Committee, Good News, and Anglicans United. More recently the United Church of Christ, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the American Baptist Churches, and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) have increasingly come into their sights as well. The IRD pursues its political agenda in the churches through three strategies: campaigns of disinformation that seek to discredit church leadership, advocacy efforts at church assemblies seeking to influence church policy, and grass roots organizing which, in some cases, encourages schismatic movements encouraging members and congregations either to redirect mission funding or even to leave their denominations. Indeed, the Mainline churches are facing hardball tactics....
....the IRD, through related organizations in its Association of Church Renewal, encourages grass roots dissenting movements within denominations using classic political organizing around "wedge issues," issues such as gay marriage or ordination, or Middle East policy. These movements do far more than encourage vigorous theological and moral debate within denominations; in reality they seek to disrupt, ultimately to control, and failing that to dismantle mainline denominations. In the United Church of Christ the IRD's desginated related organization is the Biblical Witness Fellowship which publishes The Witness, a newspaper filled with articles attacking UCC leaders. BWF encourages participation in and support for global mission outside the denomination's network of missionaries, partnerships, and projects. And BWF also provides a "placement" service for so-called "orthodox" pastors and churches that refuse to use the denomination's search and call process, thereby setting themselves outside the processes of oversight in the denomination. More recently, BWF has found common cause with two other groups: the Evangelical Association of Congregational Christian and Reformed Churches and with the "Welcoming and Faithful Movement." The Evangelical Association regularly provides strategic advice to congregations upset with denominational resolutions, showing them steps whereby they may leave the denomination with their buildings and other financial assets. Leaders of a new "Welcoming and Faithful" movement claim that is its being organized to provide a place in the denomination for more "orthodox" members of the United Church of Christ who might otherwise leave the church. It is allegedly organized simply as an alternative to the Open and Affirming Church movement which expresses the denomination's welcome of gay and lesbian Christians.
But the agenda is far more ambitious. Regular mailings are sent to local church leaders, often deliberately by-passing the pastors. One such mailing, sent by a judicatory leader associated with Welcoming and Faithful, encouraged churches to stop sending mission support to the denomination. The leader of Welcoming and Faithful is now traveling the country seeking out disaffected members with the claim stated in their literature that leaders of the United Church of Christ "declared independence from Jesus and the historic faith of the church" with our marriage equality vote on July 4, 2005. A national conference is being organized for this summer which apparently is to culminate in a pilgrimage to the Cleveland headquarters of the United Church of Christ in order to present a "manifesto" demanding a reversal of last summer's support for marriage equality for all regardless of sexual orientation. These same stories are being repeated in every mainline denomination. In the latest and perhaps most shocking maneuver, it is being reported that members of some of these groups are joining congregations, ultimately getting themselves elected to positions of authority, and then dropping the veil of innocence to press for congregational disaffiliation.
What is important to note here is that IRD's interests are not primarily fostering church renewal or encouraging lively theological and ethical debate in church councils and assemblies. The ultimate goal is to reshape the Protestant mainline into a powerful force advancing the neo-conservative political agenda with its goal of promoting its own version of "Western representative democracy" around the world. Just as politicians are now forging alliances with churches to promote their electoral agenda, and, in the process disregarding IRS laws and regulations, IRD is using church members, and even outside groups, to disrupt and ultimately control the mainline to promote its own political agenda.
Click here to read the full text of his remarks.
And also make sure you stop by and read the post today by Pastor Dan on Street Prophets concerning this relatively new anti-gay group called Faithful and Welcoming.
