Portland, Oregon — Oregon religious leaders recently announced the
formation of a state chapter of the Interfaith Alliance (TIA), an
organization that provides people of faith with a mainstream
alternative to the divisiveness and intolerance of the extreme
Religious Right. Reverend Rodney Page, executive director of
Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, stated, "We pledge to promote the
positive role of religion as a healing and constructive force in
public life, and to challenge those who manipulate religion for
partisan political gain."
Mainstream religious leaders from across the country organized the
Interfaith Alliance in 1994 to speak out against the divisive use of
religion in the public sphere, including political campaigns. TIA's
goal is to ensure that an alternative faith-based voice is heard in
the public debate. The national grass roots movement now encompasses
16 state chapters and over 20,000 members.
Albany, New York — Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of the diocese of Albany,
assailed the Christian Coalition's new Catholic Alliance. Bishop
Hubbard, writing in The Evangelist, said that he found
many aspects of the Catholic Alliance literature disturbing. He
specifically mentioned "the clearly partisan tone of the documents;
the blatant untruths contained in the voter scorecards; and the
inference that the Alliance speaks for the Holy Father and thus is
officially 'Catholic,' and the organization's stated purpose of giving
'America's 50,000,000 Catholics a voice in government.'"
"I am particularly concerned about the organization's stated purpose
of representing the Catholic community before Congress, state
legislatures and other governmental bodies." Bishop Hubbard continued,
"I believe that this Alliance will create massive confusion, not only
among lawmakers in local, state and federal government, but also among
the Catholic faithful, as to who it is that speaks legitimately on
matters of public policy for the Church in the United States."
Hubbard said the organizational structure of the Roman Catholic Church
communicates official church positions in the name of the bishops, not
through Pat Robertson's Catholic Alliance. He said that there are
issues on the Christian Coalition's agenda with which the Catholic
Bishops agree, such as abortion, and there are issues with which they
disagree, such as welfare reform and the death penalty. He also
implied that Robertson's group holds a "Christian position" on the
balanced budget amendment and term limits, issues on which the
Conference of Bishops holds no position.
"What is interesting, too," Bishop Hubbard said, "what is not on the
agenda of the Coalition; for example, legislation to protect poor
children or immigrants."
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma — LifeLine, a division of AmeriVision
Communications, Inc., an alternative long-distance telephone company,
gives 10% of its income to a number of Radical Religious Right
organizations. The top 13 groups supported and funded by LifeLine are
American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, Christian
Coalition, Rutherford Institute, Moore Foundation, Advancing Church
Ministries, World Magazine, Reap, Oregon Citizens Alliance, Illinois
Family Institute (Focus on the Family), Indiana Family Institute
(Focus on the Family), American Center for Law & Justice, and "Jay
Sekulow Live." Each month AmeriVision gives these groups over
$274,000, and will distribute $3,300,000 to them in 1996.
Another group, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, has
dropped LifeLine, and is urging other Catholics to do the same.
LifeLine denied Catholic Answers, the largest apologetic and
evangelization organization in North America, an account because they
"spread and defend the Roman Catholic Faith."
Rogue River, Oregon — After opposing a Christian film that was to be
shown at a January PTA meeting in this southeastern Oregon town, James
and Ann Gold have experienced frightening acts of anti-Semitism and a
possible attempt on their lives. The film they opposed declared that
the founding fathers intended America to be a Christian nation. The
Golds objected to the film and threatened to "get the entire Jewish
community up in arms about it."
Since then, the Golds' home has been burglarized, and vandalized
inside and outside four times with anti-Semitic graffiti and other
acts of vandalism. Someone called several times, yelled "Fuck you!"
and hung up.
Then, on January 15, Ann Gold — a Mormon — suffered minor injuries
after hitting a tree when brand-new brakes failed on her car.
Authorities are investigating to see if someone tampered with the
brakes.
Members of the community have come forward offering the Golds support.
Mayor Jerry Lausmann of Medford offered to let the family stay in an
apartment he owns. On February 11, the social action committee of
Temple Emek Shalom, in Ashland, held a rally in support of the Golds.
Twelve conservative churches in the area signed a statement declaring
"no more hate."
Also, the FBI is reportedly investigating the incidents; and Mayor
Lausmann set up a fund totaling almost $6,000 for anyone furnishing
information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those
responsible for the criminal acts.
Tupelo, Mississippi — After apologizing on the air for a comment made
by Andrei Codrescu, National Public Radio (NPR) is still taking heat
from the Religious Right. In one of his popular commentaries, heard on
some 300 public radio stations, Codrescu belittled the fundamentalist
Christian doctrine of the Rapture, the belief that any day now
millions of Christians will fly into the air to meet Jesus. "The
evaporation of 4 million who believe in this crap would leave the
world a better place," Codrescu said.
His comment drew immediate fire from the Rev. Donald Wildmon of the
American Family Association. Codrescu apologized "for the language but
not for what I said." Nevertheless, Wildmon is demanding that NPR fire
Codrescu for his comment.
Wildmon said that relatively few people listen to NPR and most who do
make above average incomes. "This is a case of the poor being taxed to
provide entertainment for the rich," Wildmon said.
The Christian Coalition's Ralph Reed asked for two minutes of air time
on "All Things Considered" to offer an opposing view. NPR turned down
his request. The Christian Coalition said it will step up lobbying
efforts to defund NPR, which receives some federal support.
Topeka, Kansas — A guest chaplain's prayer caused an uproar in the
Kansas House in January. The Rev. Joe Wright of Wichita's 2,500-member
Central Christian Church, offended many of the legislators with a
stinging prayer.
"We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values,"
Wright prayed. "We have endorsed perversion and called it an
alternative lifestyle. We have exploited the poor and called it the
lottery. We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have worshipped
other gods and called it multiculturalism. We have killed the unborn
and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it
justifiable."
One legislator walked out; others sat down in protest. "I have never
heard, in 10 years, as divisive, sanctimonious, self-serving,
overbearing a prayer as I heard this morning," said Delbert Gross, a
Republican legislator.
House minority leader Tom Sawyer, a Wichita Democrat, issued a written
statement. The prayer, he wrote, "reflects the extreme, radical views
that continue to dominate the House Republican agenda since right-wing
extremists seized control of the House Republican caucus last
year."
The controversy once again brings up the question of whether public
prayers by chaplains are necessary, or even appropriate, at the
opening of legislative meetings.
Washington, DC — Gary Bauer, head of the Family Research Council, a
group affiliated with Focus on the Family, lashed out at the
Republican Party because he thinks the party places economical issues
over moral issues. He said the GOP has to decide whether moral issues
or economic issues should be primary.
"It is a major, major battle, not just this year, but over the next
few years," he said. He warned that conservatives will leave the party
if it abandons "prolife and profamily" issues and go form a new
political party. Bauer joins a growing list of third-party advocates,
including Dr. James Dobson and Howard Phillips.
Virginia Beach, Virginia — The Rev. Mel White, Pat Robertson's former
ghostwriter who fell out of favor after saying he is gay, recently
held a press conference in Virginia Beach to confront Robertson for
his ongoing anti-gay rhetoric to raise funds. Among a film crew, White
recognized a Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) producer. Although
welcomed at the event, the man denied he was with CBN. But the truth
came out when someone spotted "Property of CBN" on a
videocamtripod.
And Pat Robertson continues to tell tall tales in his fundraising
letters. In a recent letter to Christian Coalition members, Robertson
said, "the U.S. government still spends tens of millions of dollars on
the National Endowment for the Arts which makes a point of funding
anti-Christian and pornographic 'art' projects...projects designed
specifically to offend and outrage Christians and religious people."
Robertson also claimed that prayer has been "outlawed from our
schools."
Pittsfield, Massachusetts — Radical Religious Right leaders, such as
the Rev. Jay Grimstead, of the Coalition on Revival, want to bring
America back to some imaginary "Golden Age," often referred to as the
50s.
What were the 50s like, anyway? Editor David Scribner recently
discovered a revealing article from a 1958 issue of the Berkshire
Eagle. The 38-year-old story was based on a press release from the
Pittsfield Federation of Teachers explaining the problems teachers
faced in public schools. The list included:
Boise, Idaho — Samuel L. Blumenfeld, a Christian Reconstructionist
writer, outlined the educational goals of the influential
Reconstructionist movement. His rhetoric is clearly aimed at promoting
homeschooling.
"The reconstructionist goal," he wrote, "is to restore God's
sovereignty over family, church, and civil governments, and to restore
the family's moral and religious responsibility for the education of
its children. In other words, parents have the right to delegate to
other godly persons the educating of their children, and they retain
the right to educate their children at home — which is now much easier
to do than it was in colonial days.
"It is clearly sinful for Christian parents to put their children in
public schools where the knowledge of God is not taught, and where
ungodly attitudes are inculcated. When Christian parents put their
children in schools that do not consider themselves to be under God's
law, they are disobeying a Biblical commandment. There is no escaping
that judgment. In the Reconstructionist view, Christian parents who
place their child in a public school are committing a sin, not because
there are no Christian teachers in that school, but because that
school is not under God's law. As Dr. Rushdoony writes: 'To control
the future requires control of education and of the child. Hence, for
Christians to tolerate statist education, or to allow their children
to be trained thereby, means to renounce power in society, to renounce
their children, and to deny Christ's lordship over all of life.'"Interfaith Alliance forms in
Oregon
Bishop assails Catholic Alliance
Long-distance discrimination
Persecuted for objecting to
Christian film
NPR under fire from Wildmon
Chaplain's prayer causes
dissension
Bauer suggests third party
More Christian Coalition lies
Back to the golden age?
Reconstructionist goal for
education