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ORIGINAL RESEARCHAndrew J. Weaver, et. al. IRD/Good News: How the right wing targets United Methodist womenChurch & Scaife, Part IIby Andrew J. Weaver, JoAnn Yoon Fukumoto, Mary A. Weathers and Fred W. Kandeler For the past two years, Media Transparency and the Boston Wesleyan Association have published research on a steady stream of attacks against the United Methodist Church (UMC) and other mainline American denominations carried out by conservative philanthropy sponsored institutions and people (Weaver, and Seibert, 2004 a, b; Weaver, Seibert and Kandeler 2005). The primary actor in this unethical and mendacious attack is the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), a political "think tank" that operates more like a shark in a fish tank as it attempts to undermine mainline Protestant ministries to form an unholy alliance with far-right politics (Swecker, 2005). IRD has received millions of dollars from right-wing secular benefactors such as Richard Mellon Scaife, Adolf Coors and the Bradley and Olin foundations in an effort to muffle the prophetic voice of the church (Weaver and Seibert, 2004a, b; Weaver, Ellison, Kandeler, Binggeli and Clark, 2005; Media Transparency, 2003). IRD's constant gay bashing recently earned the endorsement and encouragement of a terrorist group, the American White Knights of the Klu Klux Klan (KKK kkk Ku Klux Klan jew Jew kkk KKK Judaism, 2005; Clark, 2005; Currie, 2005). IRD works with two conservative groups in the UMC, the Confessing Movement and most especially the Good News/RENEW organization which has doggedly persecuted gay and lesbian Christians (Swecker, 2005; Howell, 2003). This article focuses primarily on the activity of Good News/RENEW and IRD in their efforts to create dissension and schism in the church as well as undermine the work and leadership of the United Methodist Women (UMW), which raises about $20 million a year for church ministry. Options for the FutureDespite the overwhelming vote (869 to 41) for unity in the UMC at the end of the 2004 General Conference, Good News has continued to prepare the way for schism in the UMC. Rev. Scott Field (chair of the Good News board) and Rev. James Heidinger (president of Good News) were quoted in Christianity Today shortly after the unity vote at General Conference saying, "institutional separation is all but inevitable" (Rutledge, 2004). Their plan for schism, including instructions on how to defund the UMC, is in a document entitled "Options for the Future" published by Good News shortly after the 2004 General Conference (Dicken, Field, Granger, and Lambrecht, 2004). Key leaders, including the present and two past chairs of the Good News board, make extraordinary statements in this document including this one: The ideological and political agenda of some of our leaders, including bishops, clergy, board and agency officials and many delegates to the General Conference has replaced the orthodox / evangelical / apostolic gospel of Jesus Christ to such a degree that our denomination has, in some respects, become a hindrance to the redemption of the world (Dicken, Field, Granger, and Lambrecht, 2004). On March 8, 2005, Good News president James Heidinger and the executive committee of Good News responded to our critique of their call for schism (Weaver, Seibert and Kandeler, 2005). In their reply they indicated that Good News did not really mean to advocate schism, it was only embarking on an intense "study of options" and it has made no final decisions. Heidinger and associates maintain the 5,000 word "Options for the Future" was for internal use only and "not meant for public distribution" (Heidinger, 2005a). This is a surprising claim, since the "Options for the Future" was found on the Internet site of Cathy A. Bihler of Edmonds, Washington, a member of the Good News board of directors. Introducing the document to her readers she declares, "We are a house divided (the UMC) and we cannot stand, regardless of the wishful thinking expressed in the "unity resolution" passed by General Conference in 2004" (Bihler, 2004a). Ms. Bihler is also an advocate for a campaign called "Not another dime" that calls for ending financial support for the UMC with the goal of splitting the church (Bihler, 2004b). She writes: Not another dime in support of heretical Bishops, Jurisdictions, Annual Conferences, Districts, Clergy or Agencies. Those of you who are interested in what is beginning to take place... with regard to a split, please e-mail me... (Bihler, 2004b). Restraint and Christlike AttitudesThe Good News rejoinder to our research states, "What we seek to do is have a legislative and political process within the church that operates on Christian principles and Christlike attitudes" and then it calls for "laity and clergy to tone down the rhetoric, and cease the attacks" (Heidinger, 2005a). It is revealing that while Heidinger was calling for restraint and "Christlike attitudes," he was at the same time recommending in his March, 2005, monthly letter that all Sunday school teachers and pastors should have a copy of Professor Thomas Oden's new release -- The Rebirth of Orthodoxy (Heidinger, 2005b). The book Heidinger recommends may be the unkindest invective against Methodism since 1739, when Henry Stebbing, a royal chaplain, published an anti-Methodist bestseller titled A Caution against Religious Delusion: A Sermon on the New Birth occasioned by the Pretences of the Methodists (Stebbing, 1739). Franciscan brother Jeffrey Gros of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops writes that Oden's book is permeated by "disillusionment, anger and even sarcasm" (Howell, 2003). What's more, even as Good News calls for "Christlike" conduct and the need to "cease the attacks," it continues to direct and fund a relentless campaign to dis-empower UMW through its RENEW – Network for Christian Women, with help from its friends at IRD (RENEW, 2005a). According to its website, Good News/RENEW formed in 1989 as "the women's program arm of the Good News organization, coming under its board of directors and tax-exempt status." Of the 43 members of the Good News board of directors, 37 (a full 86 percent) are males (Good News, 2005). Conversely, all 50 members of the Women's Division of the General Board of Global Ministries, which directs the UMW, are UMC women and were elected from the ranks of the UMW from across the communion. They represent the full and rich diversity of the church in terms of age, ethnicity, socio-economics, and theology. Moreover, unlike Good News/RENEW, the Women's Division is directly accountable to the democratic processes of the General Conference as a part of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries. Content Analysis of PublicationsIn an attempt to better understand the workings of the group, we monitored the Good News/RENEW website from June 1 through August 31, 2005. We read and appraised 72 separate documents dated between 1999 and 2005, posted on the site over the three-month period. We discovered 60 (83 percent) of the documents commented on the staff or activities of the UMW or the leadership of UMC Women's Division. The great majority of the posted documents in the three months focused on political attacks with precious little said about spiritual renewal. In these publications we found an unswerving hostility toward and disparagement of the UMC Women's division leaders and their Christian ministries (Crouse, undated archive, a; Elias, 2001; 2002; Short, undated archive; Short and Heidinger, 2001). We also discovered a pattern of refusal to accept programs or ideas supported by UMW leaders that differ from its prescribed agenda that is in unquestioning accord with the right wing of the Republican Party (Short 2005 a, b; McKinnon, undated archive). This includes an unfettered antagonism toward the United Nations (McKinnon, undated archive, Crouse, undated archive, a), its efforts to end "all forms of discrimination toward women," as well as rejecting the widely accepted UN Kyoto Protocol on the environment and global warming (Short, 2004a). The "spiritual renewal" group gives unquestioning support for even the most draconian features of the Patriot Act including allowing the government to wiretap citizens for 30 days without a subpoena (Kiser, 2003). It supports only "strict constructionist" (legal fundamentalist) judges being appointed to Federal courts (Russell, 2005) who would likely end the right to privacy and not enforce basic constitutional rights and civil liberties (Kiser, 2003). Good News/RENEW has also opposed crucial elements of an elementary safety net for the poor, including food stamp programs and the "Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Reauthorization" bill before Congress (Kiser, 2002). That is not all. In March of 2005 Good News/RENEW objected to Response magazine publishing a story about Christian women working to ensure that African-American votes were counted in elections (Short, 2005a). Good News/RENEW labeled these efforts as "anything but non-partisan" and tried to suggest that such an effort is not required (Short, 2005), despite strong evidence to the contrary (Loo, 2005; Strumpf, 2005). The U.S. Civil Rights Commission looked into the 2000 Presidential election and found that 1.9 million Americans cast ballots that no one counted. "Spoiled votes" is the technical term. About one million of them -- half of all rejected ballots -- were cast by African-Americans, although Black voters make up only 12 percent of the electorate (Palast, 2005). The Commission found that of the 179,855 ballots invalidated by Florida officials, 53 percent were cast by Black voters. In Florida in 2000, a Black citizen was 10 times more likely to have a ballot rejected than a white voter (Palast, 2005). The Good News/RENEW websites highly recommend eight official speakers who can represent their views (RENEW, 2005c). All eight are Caucasians, as are almost all of the 43 members of the Good News/RENEW Board of Directors. Perhaps the Good News/RENEW position would be more sensitive toward ensuring that African-American votes were counted if there were a few African-Americans and other ethic minorities in its leadership. Good News/RENEW regularly labels UMW leaders with whom they disagree as "anti-American," "hardline political liberals," "politically partisan," and "radical feminists" (Short and Heidinger, 2001; Short, 2005b). In July 2005 the group used several such attributions while criticizing UMW leaders who raised questions about the widely reported "violation of the basic human rights of South Asians, Muslims and Arabs who are being detained or deported" under new highly controversial Federal laws (Short, 2005b). The article also objected to the United Methodist leaders who "expressed concerns about the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba" (Short, 2005b). The underlying thesis of this and other communiqués by Good News/RENEW is that it is unpatriotic for Christians to question American government policies. Human rights violations involving the deportation of American residents who have never had charges brought against them in a court of law as well as the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are international scandals that have been condemned by recognized human rights organizations worldwide (Amnesty International, 2005; Human Rights Watch, 2005a,b). Amnesty International recently wrote: The detention camp at the US Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay in Cuba has become a symbol of the US administration's refusal to put human rights and the rule of law at the heart of its response to the atrocities of 11 September 2001. Hundreds of people of around 35 different nationalities remain held in effect in a legal black hole, many without access to any court, legal counsel or family visits. As evidence of torture and widespread cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment mounts, it is more urgent than ever that the US Government bring the Guantánamo Bay detention camp and any other facilities it is operating outside the USA into full compliance with international law and standards (Amnesty International, 2005). To claim "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord," as the leaders of Good News/RENEW do, and then condemn Christians who are seeking to raise questions regarding injustice, cruelty and the torture of fellow human beings "stinks in the nostrils of God" (Williams, 1633). Particularly irresponsible statements by Good News/RENEW toward the United Methodist Women's Division leaders and staff occurred soon after the national tragedies of September 11, 2001. In a style regularly utilized by IRD (Tooley, 2001), leaders at Good News/RENEW questioned the national loyalty of United Methodist women working in New York City. Its press release on December 6, 2001, was entitled Good News and RENEW Network Cite Betrayal by Women's Division Policies (Short and Heidinger, 2001). Rev. Heidinger, writing from Wilmore, Kentucky, characterized "the Women's Division and its leadership in New York" as being "virulently anti-American." Ms. Carolyn Elias, Good News board member from Hot Springs, Arkansas, said she felt "betrayed" by the lack of patriotic songs and prayers for a successful war when she attended a Division meeting a few weeks after 9/11 as a RENEW press representative (Short and Heidinger, 2001). RENEW's president Short in Cornelia, Georgia, also felt "betrayed" by the Division that she alleged opposed the U.S. war on terrorism. Virtually everybody working in New York City was in deep grief at that time, including the Women's Division staff who work a few miles from Ground Zero. Living in NYC meant that one knew at least one person directly affected by the horrors of the mass murders of 9/11. To say at that time of national and personal tragedy, that these sisters in Christ were "virulently anti-American" was neither true nor charitable. IRD and Good News/RENEW Join ForcesOn the Good News/RENEW website we found that the group explained "how they are organized" (RENEW, 2005a). It states "RENEW works closely with...the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD)." It goes on to say that IRD "helps to strengthen RENEW's missional and societal witness." Moreover, when someone joins Good News/RENEW she or he is automatically sent the regular publications of IRD (RENEW, 2005c). These facts are in direct contradiction to a statement by Good News president Heidinger and the Good News board published on March 6, 2005, declaring that IRD does not "act as a coordinating influence on the various United Methodist evangelical renewal groups" (Heidinger, 2005a). The truth is that Good News/RENEW is and has been joined at the hip with IRD for many years. IRD is important to the efforts of Good News/RENEW for several reasons, not the least of which being a regular supplier of inflammatory rhetoric created by IRD employees about their mutual obsession with other folk's sexuality (Lomperis, 2005; Lomperis and Tooley, 2005). The key reason, however, for its alliance is that IRD presently claims it has the largest mailing list in the UMC (355,000) with the declared goal of obtaining a million church member addresses (Tooley, 2005). The IRD mailing list has been developed over the years by encouraging people to send in church membership lists that are produced for the private use of local congregations (Stanley and Tooley, 1999). When this tactic was used by Republican Party operatives in the 2004 Presidential campaign, it was roundly criticized as unethical by 10 leading professors of ethics, including evangelicals such as the Rev. George G. Hunter III of Asbury Theological Seminary and Richard V. Pierard of Gordon College (Cooperman, 2004). Ethical considerations do not seem to have been a barrier for IRD. The IRD mailing list has been used to raise money for Good News/RENEW. In a fundraising newsletter, dated September of 2002, sent to 315,000 United Methodists and mailed by IRD at an estimated cost of more than $60,000 (Synder, 2005), Good News/RENEW and IRD announced that they were "joining forces" (Tooley, 2002). They wrote, "Please make your check out to UM Action and RENEW. Gifts will be divided evenly by UM Action (IRD) and RENEW for the purpose of reforming the Women's Division" (Tooley, 2002). The IRD newsletter was sent under the banner "Reforming UM Women's Division" and was endorsed by key IRD leaders, including Thomas Oden and David Stanley, who are also on the Confessing Movement board, and Ira Gallaway, associate executive director of the Confessing Movement. It was also endorsed by non-United Methodist and then IRD head, Diane Knippers, and the president of RENEW, Faye Short (Tooley, 2002). After Good News/RENEW and IRD announced that they were "joining forces" in their fundraising letter, how can Heidinger and his board maintain, as they did on March 6, 2005, that "it receives no funding from IRD"? How can Good News/RENEW claim that it is not "using them [IRD] to publish ... and provide direction to these groups" (Heidinger, 2005a)? The September 2002 newsletter edited by former CIA employee Mark Tooley is in predictable IRD format (Smith, 2004). The communiqué incorrectly claims among other things that the Women's Division of the UMC "opposes the war on terrorism" (Tooley, 2002). It calls United Methodist Women serving their church "unfaithful, unrepresentative, extremist, and unaccountable." The letter opens: What United Methodist agency is the most influential and powerful, and is most harmfully undermining the Christian faith and the beliefs of The United Methodist Church? The answer is increasingly clear -- it is the Women's Division of the General Board of Global Ministries... The misuse of sacrificial offerings is a scandal. More and more, United Methodist women are recognizing a betrayal of a sacred trust (Tooley, 2002, emphasis added). After endorsing these public statements, how can RENEW's president, Faye Short, maintain, as she did on April 11, 2005, in an "open letter" that "At no time has anything we have written or shared with others called into question the Christian commitment of the staff and directors of the Women's Division"? Offering Transforming PowerIn our analysis of the Good News/RENEW official website we discovered 15 recommended links to other ministries and groups, not one of which is related to the UMC, to which it claims to be related (RENEW, 2005b). Instead we found that readers are instructed to seek out organizations outside the church that Good News/RENEW says can be trusted as "Links to ministries offering the transforming power of Christ to the world" (RENEW, 2005b). Among the links is the Un-official Confessing Movement site operated by Rev. John Warrener of Albany, Georgia. He is co-founder of the American Methodist Church (and a former probationary member of the South Georgia Annual Conference) along with Michael D. Hinton, who had his ministerial orders revoked by the North Arkansas Annual Conference in 2000. Warrener and Hinton encourage discontented United Methodists to "Leave with Your Property" and join their new denomination (Hinton and Warrener, 2005). Warrener's Un-official Confessing Movement webpages are replete with schismatic and extremist articles along with pictures of mutilated babies (Warrener, 2005a). Here are a few titles: Moral Equivalence: Osama bin Laden Murders Innocents–American Society Murders Their Unborn; Neo-paganism in the United Methodist Church, and Baby Parts for Sale. A book review titled "Is Christianity Just for Women and Sissies?" examines a volume titled The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity (Dodaro, undated). A key thesis of the book is that many of the underlying problems within the church result from women having too much influence in denominations, which has made men feel diminished and therefore less likely to attend services. Christianity Today said of the volume's author, "He mixes statistics, pseudostatistics, and unsupported assertions into an indescribable mishmash" (Wilson, 2001). This website, recommended by Good News/RENEW as "offering the transforming power of Christ to the world," also directs readers to books by Scott Lively. Lively is founder and president of Abiding Truth Ministries and former California director of Rev. Don Wildmon's American Family Association. Several of Lively's books are recommended reading on the site, including one titled The Pink Swastika, which claims in its preface that "homosexuals [are] the true inventors of Nazism and the guiding force behind many Nazi atrocities." Scholars in the Jewish community consider The Pink Swastika to be "Holocaust revisionism" which falsely alleges that gay men were in large part the motivators of the Jewish Holocaust (Moser, 2005). Wisconsin Christians United, a militant hate group located in Monroe, Wisconsin (Homo-Fascist Watch, 2005) has been active in distributing The Pink Swastika (Annotated Pink Swastika, 2004). Dr. Stephen Feinstein, Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota said that The Pink Swastika was "produced by a right-wing Christian cult and is as correct as flat earth theory is to physics" (Feinstein, 2003). Scott Lively wrote the following: Unfortunately, the modern American church, along with the majority of its leaders, has rejected masculinity in favor of an effeminate Christianity.... The church and this nation cry out for a revival of masculine Christianity, which is to say that we church leaders need to stop being such, for lack of a better word, sissies when it comes to social and political issues... We need to do less fretting, and more fighting for righteousness. For every motherly, feminine ministry of the church such as a Crisis Pregnancy Center or ex-gay support group, we need a battle-hardened, take-it-to-the-enemy masculine ministry like Operation Rescue.... For every God-hating radical in government, academia and media we need a bold, no-nonsense, truth-telling Christian counterpart: trained, equipped and endorsed by the local church (Lively, 2001). Lively, who calls for a "battle-hardened, take-it-to-the-enemy masculine ministry," was found guilty in an Oregon court in 1992 for using "unreasonable force" against a woman, Catherine Stauffer. He paid $22,000 in fines (Hogan, 2002). Is This Your Mother's Spiritual Renewal ?Good News/RENEW maintains that its central purpose is the spiritual renewal of the UMC. Spiritual Renewal should mean growing in faithfulness and building up one another to further the "transforming power of Christ" in the world. It should mean a new embrace of the biblical vision of love for God and neighbor, especially of those who are outsiders and "the least among us." What our analysis of its publications found was very different. We read articles that continually tried to diminish and discredit the ministry of fellow Christians, especially those to outsiders and "the least among us." We found an unvarying political-party line embracing the far-right of the Republican Party while continually calling those with whom they disagree partisan. We also observed a willingness in this "spiritual renewal group" to associate themselves with extremist elements in society through recommending links to these groups. Finally, despite repeated claims to the contrary, Good News/RENEW is embedded with and benefits from IRD, a secular- funded right-wing political organization unaffiliated with any church. Andrew J. Weaver is a United Methodist pastor and a clinical psychologist living in New York City. He is Associate Publisher of Zion's Herald an independent religious journal published by the Boston Wesleyan Association since 1833. He has co-authored 11 books including Counseling Troubled Teens and Their Families, Counseling Families Across the Stages of Life , Reflections on Marriage and the Spiritual Journey, Counseling Survivors of Traumatic Events, Reflections on Grief and the Spiritual Journey and Wells of Wisdom: Grandparenting and Spiritual Journeys. JoAnn Yoon Fukumoto is a member of Trinity UMC in Pearl City, Hawaii, and the Hawaii Emmaus community. She is a past officer of the United Methodist Women of the California-Pacific Annual Conference and served as a delegate to General Conference in 1996, 2000, and 2004. Mary A. Weathers is a member of First UMC in Fort Worth, Texas where she is a Stephen Minister. She was president of the Central Texas Conference UMW from 1989 through 1992 and served as secretary of the South Central Jurisdiction UMW Core Planning Group. She was a representative to the National Council of Churches of Christ, as well as the national and state boards of the Church World Service. Fred W. Kandeler is a retired United Methodist pastor affiliated with Travis Park UMC, San Antonio, Texas. His 36 years of ordained ministry included serving ten years as founding pastor of Christ UMC in Plano, Texas and as later as a District Superintendent. REFERENCESAmnesty International (2005). United States of America. Guantánamo and beyond: The continuing pursuit of unchecked executive power. May 13. Retrieved on October 30, 2005, http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR510632005. Annotated Pink Swastika. (2004). Keeping Watch on Hate Groups. Citizens Allied for Civic Action. Milwaukee: Retrieved on Sept 12, 2005. Bihler, C.A. (2004a). Options for the Future; With Some Strategic Implications, Summer 2004. Retrieved on December 24, 2004, March 8, 2005 and June 25, 2005. Bihler, C.A. (2004b). Faithful UM Laity To Lead Where Clergy Renewal Establishment Fear To Go - "NOT ANOTHER DIME" May 7, 2004. Retrieved on June 20, 2005. Clark, F.(2005). "Krusaders for Krist's Kingdom" Slacktivist (weblog), Retrieved on Sept 12, 2005. Cooperman, A. (2004).Pastors Issue Directive in Response to Reelection Tactic. Washington Post, Wednesday, August 18. Crouse, J.S. (undated archive, a). Political Propaganda Pervades April Issue of Response; An Analysis of the Images, Language, Rhetoric, Issues and Content. Retrieved on October 30, 2005. Crouse J.S. (undated archive, b). Renewed Efforts to push CEDAW Prey on Needy Women RENEW Archives. Retrieved on June 26, 2005. Currie, C. (2005). Ku Klux Klan Joins Republican Party - aligned Institute on Religion and Democracy in Protesting Church Conference, Saturday, September 03,. Retrieved on October 30, 2005. Dicken, M., Field, S., Granger, P., and Lambrecht, T. (2004). Options for the Future, With Some Strategic Implications, Summer 2004. Retrieved on December 30, 2004. Dodaro, M. (undated). Is Christianity Just for Women and Sissies? A review of The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity, by Leon J. Podles. Retrieved on July 5, 2005. Elias, C. (2001) A report by press representative Carolyn Elias from the Fall 2001 Women's Division board meeting. Retrieved on June 25, 2005. Elias, C. (2002). "Where are we," Women's Division Board of Directors Meeting October 18-21, 2002 Stamford, Connecticut; Report with commentary. Retrieved on June 25, 2005. Feinstein, S. (2003). Letters from readers. Star Tribune. Minneapolis, MN. March 20. Good News. (2005). Board of Directors. Retrieved on April 20, 2005. Heidinger, J. (2005a). A Good News Response to Recent Accusations: Adopted by the Executive Committee of the Good News board, March 8, 2005. Retrieved on June 25, 2005. Heidinger, J. (2005b). President's Letter. Retrieved on March 27, 2005. Hinton, M.D. and Warrener, J. (2005). American Methodist Church. Retrieved on June 25, 2005. Hogan, D. ( 2002). Court of Appeals Rules Moban Can Remain Free. Oregonian, April 8. Homo-Fascist Watch. (2005). A weekly update tracking the advance of sodomite tyranny and brutality in the United States and around the world; Wisconsin Christians United. Retrieved on July 5, 2005. Howell, L. (2003). United Methodism @ risk: A wake up call. Kingston, NY: Information Project for United Methodists. Human Rights Watch (2005a). Scores of Muslim Men Jailed Without Charge; Justice Department Misused Material Witness Law in Counterterrorism Efforts. New York, June 25. Retrieved on October 30, 2005. Human Rights Watch (2005b). Guantanamo: Three Years of Lawlessness; Detainees Still Held Indefinitely Without Basic Rights. Washington D.C., January 11. Retrieved on October 30, 2005. Kiser, K. (2002). Sing a New Song or "Same ole Song" UMW Assembly Report. Retrieved on June 25, 2005. Kiser, K. (2003). Women's Division Fall 2003 Board of Directors Meeting Report & Analysis. Retrieved on June 25, 2005. KKK kkk Ku Klux Klan jew Jew kkk KKK Judaism. (2005). Queers on Fire. Retrieved on August 30, 2005. Lively, S. (2001). Masculine Christianity. Retrieved on June 25, 2005. Lomperis, J. (2005). Mainline-Endorsed Coalition Holds Sexuality Summit. Retrieved on October 30, 2005 from Good News Web Site. Lomperis, J. and Tooley, M. (2005). Lake Junaluska Hosts Pro-Homosexuality Event. Retrieved on October 30, 2005 from Good News Web Site. Loo, D. (2005). No Paper Trail Left Behind: The Theft of the 2004 Presidential Election. Retrieved on October 30, 2005. Project Censored. McKinnon, M. (undated archive). The Worst Treaty with The Best Name. Independent Women's Forum, Arlington, Virginia. Retrieved on October 30, 2005. (Independent Women's Forum -- is an anti-feminist women's organization founded to counter the influence of "radical feminists" on society. It was organized in defense of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas during his controversial nomination hearings. Top funders are Scaife, Olin and Bradley Foundations. Media Transparency. (2003). The money behind conservative media. Institute on Religion and Democracy, Inc. Retrieved May 20, 2005. Moser, D. (2005). Making Myths; Anti-gay religious crusaders claim homosexuals helped mastermind the Holocaust. They're not telling the truth. Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved on August 30, 2005. Palast, G. (2005). 1 million black votes didn't count in the 2000 presidential election Sunday, June 20, San Francisco Chronicle. RENEW (2005a). Network for Christian Women. Retrieved on June 25, 2005. RENEW (2005b). Links to ministries offering the transforming power of Christ to the world. Retrieved on June 25, 2005. RENEW (2005c). Membership. Retrieved on June 25, 2005. Russell, R. (2005). Harriet Miers' withdrawal stirs sense of regret, relief. United Methodist Reporter. Friday, October 28. Retrieved on October 30, 2005. Rutledge, K.K. (2004). Pondering a Divorce: Some United Methodists think their differences are irreconcilable, Christianity Today, July, 48(7), 50. Smith, M. (2004). Institute of Hate, San Francisco Weekly, February 25, 2004. Short, F.L. (undated archive). Good News Magazine. United Methodist Women - It's Not Your Mother's Organization. Retrieved on June 25, 2005. Short, F.L. (2005a). March Letter from Faye Short, President of RENEW. Retrieved on October 25, 2005. Short, F.L. (2005b). July Letter from Faye Short, President of RENEW. Retrieved on October 25, 2005. Short, F.L. (2004). August Letter from Faye Short, President of RENEW. Retrieved on October 25, 2005. Short, F.L. and Heidinger, J. (2001). Press Release: Good News and RENEW Network Cite Betrayal by Women's Division Policies, December 6 (published in Good News magazine in the Jan/Feb Issue of 2002 under the title "Women's Division in New York Called Upon to Reform"). Stanley, D., & Tooley, M. (1999). Letter to United Methodists. United Methodist Action. Retrieved on September 30, 2003. Stebbing, H. (1739). A Caution against Religious Delusion: A Sermon on the New Birth occasioned by the Pretences of the Methodists. London: Fletcher Gyles. Strumpf, D. (2005). Something is wrong in America' An interview with investigative journalist Greg Palast. San Diego City Beat, Sunday, January 16. Swecker, S. (2005). Hard Ball on Holy Ground. Boston: Boston Wesleyan Association. Tooley, M. (2001) Institute on Religion and Democracy. Retrieved on June 25, 2005. Tooley, M. (2002). Reforming UM Women's Division. Retrieved on June 20, 2005. Tooley, M. (2005). UMAction Briefing - Spring 2005 . Retrieved on July 30, 2005. Synder, D. (2005). United Methodist. Com. Answers To Blunt Questions -- An E-Interview With The IRD's Mark Tooley. Retrieved on October 25, 2005. Mark Tooley at IRD reported he sent a gay-bashing fundraising letter to 100,000 people at the cost of over $20,000 in August 2005. At that rate 315,000 letters would cost IRD more than $60,000. Warrener, J. (2005a). Un-official Confessing Movement. Retrieved on June 25, 2005. Warrener, J. (2005b). ServantWeb.com. The Domain Hosting Service That Comes With A Free Webmaster. Website Design and Internet Business Cards. Retrieved on June 25, 2005. Weaver, A.J., Ellison, C.G., Kandeler, F.W. Binggeli, R.L. and Clark, F. (2005). The Radical Right Assault on Mainline Protestantism and the National Council of Churches of Christ, ZH World. Retrieved on June 24, 2004. Weaver, A.J., Seibert, N. and Kandeler, F.W. (2005). When Good News Is Bad News Or Working On A Coup D'etat. Retrieved on June 24, 2005. Weaver, A.J., and Seibert, N. (2004a) "Follow the Money: The well heeled attack on The United Methodist Church" Zion's Herald (Jan/Feb.). Weaver, A.J. and Seibert, N. (2004b) "Church and Scaife, Secular conservative philanthropies waging unethical campaign to take over United Methodist Church." Mediatransparency.org, August 2, 2004. Retrieved on December 30, 2004. William, R. (1633). The Prophet of Religious Freedom. Retrieved on November 1, 2005. Wilson, J. (2001). Beware the Women! A conspiracy theorist claims the church is becoming too "feminized." Christianity Today. February 19. Appendix 1 Who Speaks for IRD and Good News/RENEW?One Example -- Dr. Janice Crouse Janice Crouse is a member of the Good News Board, the RENEW Steering Committee as well as IRD's UMAction steering committee. She is a regular contributor to Good News/RENEW publications (Crouse, undated archive; a,b). She is also Senior Fellow at the Beverly LaHaye Institute and has been a staff writer for Ms. LaHaye. Beverly LaHaye's organization, Concerned Women for America (CWA), identifies feminism as "anti-god, anti-family" and is anti-choice (Right Wing Organizations, 2005). In an April, 2005, article posted on the RENEW/Good News web site titled What Evangelicals Can Learn from the Pope, Crouse expressed these stereotypical views of masculinity, "The pope made holiness manly. Many of today's generation have never seen holiness manifested in manly demeanor. They think of believers as weak wimps in contrast to the proud, swaggering behavior of worldly non-religious men" (Crouse, 2005). One theme that runs through the statements from Good News/RENEW is that the Women's Division is politically partisan. Crouse was a spokesperson for CWA at the Republican National Convention in 2004 and complained that it was not conservative enough for her on several issues (Alberts, 2004). After Senator Zell Miller of Georgia spoke at the convention, David Gergen adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Regan and Clinton said, "I was reminded that Zell Miller began his career by working for Lester Maddox, a man of hate." Crouse, by contrast, called his speech "a return to statesmanship" and said that it "was a turning point in the nation's history" (Kemper, 2004). After the convention speech, the Senator exploded in a national TV interview on MSNBC, "I don't have to stand here and listen to that kind of stuff... I wish we lived in the day where you could challenge a person to a duel" (Kemper, 2004). REFERENCESAlberts, S. (2004). Evangelical pushed out of big tent: Social, religious conservatives forced to operate in shadows. The Ottawa Citizen, September 2. Crouse, J.S. (2005). What Evangelicals Can Learn From the Pope. April 8. Retrieved on June 26, 2005. Crouse, J.S. (undated archive, a). Political Propaganda Pervades April Issue of Response: An Analysis of the Images, Language, Rhetoric, Issues and Content RENEW Archives. Retrieved on June 26, 2005. Crouse J.S. (undated archive, b). Renewed Efforts to push CEDAW Prey on Needy Women, RENEW Archives. Retrieved on June 26, 2005. Kemper, B. ( 2004). Miller steals show to stir friend and foe. The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, September 3. Right Wing Organizations. (2005). Concerned Women for America. Retrieved on June 21, 2005. Appendix 2 The Un-official and the Official Confessing Movement in the UMCAlthough the Un-official Confessing Movement website operated by Rev. John Warrener makes a statement that it does not represent the Official Confessing Movement in the UMC (Warrener, 2005a), Warrener does indicate that the Official Confessing Movement is a business client of his (Warrener, 2005b). His enterprise, ServantWeb.Com is, according to his business website, the webmaster for "The Confessing Movement within the United Methodist Church" as well as several of its affiliates: the Florida Confessing Association, Northern Illinois Conference Confessing Association, The New Jersey Association of Confessing, The Oklahoma Association of Confessing Methodists, and The South Georgia Confessing Association. Warrener says he charges $25 to $50 per month to serve each non-profit site (Warrener, 2005b). In addition Warrener states in his advertisements that he has a business relationship with several other so-called Renewal factions. These groups include the Northern Illinois Conference Evangelical Association; Northern Illinois Conference Voice; The Faithful Christian Laity (headed by Good News Board Member, Cathy Bihler); Concerned Methodist Inc.; LifeWatch, Inc.; UMAction (IRD); and the Mississippi Fellowship of United Methodist Evangelicals, headed by the "Official" Confessing Movement Board Member, Rev. Jeff Switzer (Warrener, 2005b). Why are these groups financially supporting and lending credibility to a business operated by an individual who runs an extremist web site and who openly calls for UMC churches to leave their communion and join his new American Methodist Church? REFERENCESWarrener, J. (2005a). Un-official Confessing Movement. Retrieved on June 25, 2005. Warrener, J. (2005b). ServantWeb.com. The Domain Hosting Service That Comes With A Free Webmaster. Website Design and Internet Business Cards. Retrieved on June 25, 2005. sign in, or register to email stories or comment on them.
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MORE ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz PERC receives Templeton Freedom Award for promoting 'enviropreneurs'Right Wing foundation-funded anti-environmental think tank grabbing a wider audience for 'free market environmentalism' On the 15th anniversary of Terry Anderson and Donald Leal's book "Free Market Environmentalism" -- the seminal book on the subject -- Anderson, the Executive Director of the Bozeman, Montana-based Property and Environment Research Center (PERC - formerly known as the Political Economy Research Center) spoke in late-January at an event sponsored by Squaw Valley Institute at the Resort at Squaw Creek in California. While it may have been just another opportunity to speak on "free market environmentalism" and not the kickoff of a "victory tour," nevertheless it comes at a time when PERC's ideas are taking root.
Bill Berkowitz Neil Bush of Saudi ArabiaDuring recent visit, President’s brother describes the country as a 'kind of tribal democracy' In late February, only a few days after Saudi Arabia beheaded four Sri Lankan robbers and then left their headless bodies on public display in the capital of Riyadh, Neil Bush, for the fourth time in the past six years, showed up for the country's Jeddah Economic Forum. The Guardian reported that Human Rights Watch "said the four men had no lawyers during their trial and sentencing, and were denied other basic legal rights." In an interview with Arab News, the Saudi English language paper, Bush described the country as "a kind of tribal democracy."
Bill Berkowitz Newt Gingrich's back door to the White HouseAmerican Enterprise Institute "Scholar" and former House Speaker blames media for poll showing 64 percent of the American people wouldn't vote for him under any circumstances Whatever it is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has come to represent in American politics, the guy is nothing less than fascinating. One day he's espousing populist rhetoric about the need to cut the costs of college tuition and the next day he's talking World War III. One day he's claiming that the "war on terror" may force the abridgement of fundamental first amendment rights and the next he's advancing a twenty-first century version of his Contract with America. At the same time he's publicly proclaiming how "stupid" it is that the race for the presidency has already started you know that he's trying to figure out how to out finesse Rudy, McCain and Romney for the nomination. And last week, when Fox News' Chris Wallace cited a poll showing that 64 percent of the public would never vote for him, he was quick to blame those results on how unfairly he was treated by the mainstream media back in the day.
Bill Berkowitz American Enterprise Institute takes lead in agitating against IranDespite wrongheaded predictions about the war on Iraq, neocons are on the frontlines advocating military conflict with Iran After doing such a bang up job with their advice and predictions about the outcome of the war on Iraq, would it surprise you to learn that America's neoconservatives are still in business? While at this time we are not yet seeing the same intense neocon invasion of our living rooms -- via cable television's news networks -- that we saw during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, nevertheless, a host of policy analysts at conservative think tanks -- most notably the American Enterprise Institute -- are being heeded on Iran by those who count - folks inside the Bush Administration.
Bill Berkowitz After six years, opposition gaining on George W. Bush's Faith Based InitiativeUnmentioned in the president's State of the Union speech, the program nevertheless continues to recruit religious participants and hand out taxpayer money to religious groups With several domestic policy proposals unceremoniously folded into President Bush's recent State of the Union address, two pretty significant items failed to make the cut. Despite the president's egregiously tardy response to the event itself, it was nevertheless surprising that he didn't even mention Hurricane Katrina: He didn't offer up a progress report, words of hope to the victims, or come up with a proposal for moving the sluggish rebuilding effort forward. There were no "armies of compassion" ready to be unleashed, although it should be said that many in the religious community responded to the disaster much quicker than the Bush Administration. In the State of the Union address, however, there was no "compassionate conservatism" for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Bill Berkowitz Frank Luntz calls Republican leadership in Washington 'One giant whining windbag'On the outs with the GOP, legendary degrader of discourse is moving to California He doesn't make great art; nothing he does elevates the human spirit; he doesn't illuminate, he bamboozles. He has become expert in subterfuge, hidden meanings, word play and manipulation. Frank Luntz has been so good at what he does that those paying close attention gave it its own name: "Luntzspeak."
Bill Berkowitz Spooked by MoveOn.org, conservative movement seeks to emulate liberal powerhouseFueled with Silicon Valley money, TheVanguard.org will have Richard Poe, former editor of David Horowitz's FrontPage magazine as its editorial and creative director As Paul Weyrich, a founding father of the modern conservative movement and still a prominent actor in it, likes to say, he learned a great deal about movement building by closely observing what liberals were up to in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Bill Berkowitz Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action jihadFounder and Chair of the American Civil Rights Institute scouting five to nine states for new anti-affirmative action initiatives Fresh from his most recent victory -- in Michigan this past November -- Ward Connerly, the Black California-based maven of anti-affirmative action initiatives, appears to be preparing to take his jihad on the road. According to a mid-December report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Connerly said that he was "exploring moves into nine other states."
Bill Berkowitz Tom Tancredo's missionThe Republican congressman from Colorado will try to woo GOP voters with anti-immigration rhetoric and a boatload of Christian right politics These days, probably the most recognizable name in anti-immigration politics is Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo. Over the past year, Tancredo has gone from a little known congressman to a highly visible anti-immigration spokesperson. "Tancredo has thoroughly enmeshed himself in the anti-immigration movement and with the help of CNN talk show host Lou Dobbs, he has been given a national megaphone," Devin Burghart, the program director of the Building Democracy Initiative at the Center for New Community, a Chicago-based civil rights group, told Media Transparency.
Bill Berkowitz Institute on Religion and Democracy slams 'Leftist' National Council of ChurchesNew report from conservative foundation-funded IRD charges the NCC with being a political surrogate for MoveOn.org, People for the American Way and other liberal organizations If you prefer your religious battles sprinkled with demagoguery, sanctimoniousness, and simplistic attacks, the Institute on Religion and Democracy's (IRD) latest broadside against the National Council of Churches (NCC) certainly fits the bill.
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